“You can’t just assume someone’s a Traitor because they had a better premiership than you”

What gets taught is the outcome of tens of thousands of decisions, by school leaders, heads of depts and teachers — tossing out everything and starting again is inherently chaotic and its results highly variable and slow. Education reform is (and shld be) a patient & evidence-informed person’s game.

It is simply wrong to say that “revolution” in the curriculum would achieve this: partly because some of the measures proposed just don’t work (and we know that cos they’ve been tried), others are nice to haves not essentials, but most of all: what’s written in the curriculum isn’t what gets taught.

I believe in a curriculum rich in humanities, sciences and arts, but you can’t just build a practical, deliverable in the real world curriculum model off the back of saying that — as the recent CAR has done, you have to go further and balance breadth, depth, experiences and qualifications.

Those who thrived in school suffer the “curse of knowledge”. They don’t remember ever not knowing all the basics, so they often undervalue how essential they are, how dispiriting and alienating it is not to have them, and how much time and effort they take to acquire for many children.

“I wish I’d do more X at school” they’ll say, or “I did Y and it was great” or “now I’m an adult, I wish I’d done Z”. All of these MAY be valid, but if they come at the expense of the coherence of the curriculum over time as an induction into knowledge built for all students, they are a bad idea.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported, engaged with, and challenged me in this role. It is your passion and commitment to changing lives and enriching society through open and outstanding higher education that has made this job such a joy.

A recently-published OfS evaluation showed we have seen a definite increase in scale & nature of evaluation work by higher education providers, which will continue to drive a positive culture of learning and improvement in the sector. I am delighted to see that evidence of the impact of our reforms.

Over the past four years, I have been both privileged and proud to have worked alongside colleagues and students on a range of projects, reforming OfS’s regulation of equality of opportunity; delivering the prevalence survey of sexual misconduct in HE; founding a new Student Interest Board.

I actually think it works better without the individual money motive because it demonstrates that the game structure is so powerful that people desperately want to win simply for the pride of getting it right.

FWIW, I think Klein's piece is unnecessarily complimentary about Kirk's achievements. Just as it undesirable to speak ill of of the recently dead, it is not obligatory to be nice about them. But the fundamental truth in that final line is what matters.

HOW STEPHEN. HOW HAVE YOU MADE THIS ABOUT HARRY POTTER