Labour urged to push for ‘cooperative’ governance

Universities should scrap entry requirements and become lifelong learning institutions with “radical” governance structures, according to a Durham University academic.

Sol Gamsu, assistant professor of sociology at Durham University, told the Labour Party conference on 24 September that universities should set up “cooperative structures of management” with “radical forms of governance”.

Gamsu was speaking at a fringe event run by the University and College Union and left-wing think tank the Centre for Labour and Social Studies. It was held the day after Labour’s shadow education, secretary Angela Rayner, outlined the party’s plans for cooperative universities under its national education service, which Rayner said would put academic and vocational education on an equal footing.