Offices of state

One more sleep until autumn statement day, but universities have longer-term worries

Playbook is old enough to remember Rishi Sunak telling the Conservative Party conference that he was the change candidate, kicking against the “old consensus” of the past 30 years. Today, the prime minister has Jeremy Hunt sitting on one side of him as chancellor, and on the other? The unelected David Cameron in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office—it doesn’t feel very changey.

What happens in these two ‘great offices of state’ in the next 12 months may define not only Sunak’s premiership but also the medium-term future for universities. The more pressing concern for higher education is Hunt’s autumn statement tomorrow.