Jul 13, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
In the first episode of this new series, Conor Nakkan explores the issue of student finance and higher education with Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at WonkHE. Jim says: "One of the things I…
Jim DickinsonGuest
Conor NakkanHost
So as I said, you've spent years writing about universities and how higher education policy works in practice.
So I thought to start us off, it'd be good to ask you how you first came to the issue and what interests you about it.
So, I mean, when I go home at Christmas, my mum says, have you got a proper job yet? And the answer is always no.
And then I worked for NUS in various roles and went on to be chief exec of a student union.
And now I work for a higher education policy organisation called Wonky, as you say.
where our job is to obsess about bands and then be that mate of yours that is really obsessed with a particular band and can't understand why you're not quite as obsessed with the band.
So I've always been interested in adjacent to the student finance question and now sort of my job is to really get close to what's going on and why it's going on and trying to get underneath the skin of the kind of headlines that you will see in the media.
So as I said, you've spent years writing about universities and how higher education policy works in practice.
So I thought to start us off, it'd be good to ask you how you first came to the issue and what interests you about it.
So, I mean, when I go home at Christmas, my mum says, have you got a proper job yet? And the answer is always no.
And then I worked for NUS in various roles and went on to be chief exec of a student union.
And now I work for a higher education policy organisation called Wonky, as you say.
where our job is to obsess about bands and then be that mate of yours that is really obsessed with a particular band and can't understand why you're not quite as obsessed with the band.
So I've always been interested in adjacent to the student finance question and now sort of my job is to really get close to what's going on and why it's going on and trying to get underneath the skin of the kind of headlines that you will see in the media.
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