Mansfield parked

We talk to a former government higher education adviser about funding, Brexit and visas

If there is one thing that Iain Mansfield, director of research and head of education at Policy Exchange, seems to want to get across when we meet at the think tank’s Westminster office, it is that England’s higher education funding system is irreparably broken and the silver bullet is to reintroduce student number controls.

Playbook met up with Mansfield—the serial special adviser who has, in his time, advised Michelle Donelan, Gavin Williamson, Jo Johnson and Kwasi Kwarteng—just before the spring break. Fixing what Policy Exchange has termed a “funding impasse” in higher education was top of the agenda.