Yet Reform UK has no education spokesperson and apart from Nigel Farage claiming that universities are “poisoning the minds” of students, higher education received little direct attention at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham last week. But by speaking to the delegates mingling in the cavernous National Exhibition Centre, Times Higher Education was able to gather some insight into what a Reform UK government could mean for universities. Andrea Jenkyns, the Reform UK mayor of Greater Lincolnshire and former Conservative minister for skills, said she wanted to end the “snobbery” of universities and push for higher education to “get back to basics”. But, according to Menon, that might, in reality, mean more, rather than less, political heat on universities under a Reform government. “My fear is that because of the way the electorate splits – which basically means that people with a degree don’t support Reform – universities start to look like soft targets for [Reform] in the same way that they do for Trump,” he said.

Source: The Times September 11, 2025 13:58 UTC