The Brilliant Club will be hosting two panels at this year’s Labour Party Conference, taking place from 8 – 11 October at Liverpool ACC. Both panels will be delivered with support from the Tony Blair Institute and will focus on the future of university access and what parents and carers want to see in the world of education.
Our first panel University Access 2.0: We’ve hit Labour’s 50% access target – what next? will be held on Monday 9th October, 8:30 – 9:30am. In this session, panellists will consider what the future holds for higher education, now that the 1999 manifesto target of 50% of young people going to university has been met. You can sign up to attend this panel here.
Nowadays, most families expect their children to access university and forecasts show a million applicants by 2030 (UCAS). Panellists will be discussing how we meet the aspirations and appetites for higher education in Britain. They will ask: how does the sector ready itself in a way that doesn’t make education less accessible? And how do we, as a sector, ensure that universities are a place where students can succeed and flourish throughout the student lifecycle, especially those from less advantaged and underrepresented backgrounds?
Panellists include:
This panel will be chaired by Anne-Marie Canning, our CEO at The Brilliant Club.
The Brilliant Club will also be partnering with Public First to share new polling data on parental attitudes to higher education access.
Our second panel taking place on Tuesday 10th October, 8 – 9am, invites attendees to come and have breakfast with The Brilliant Club and hear from parents and carers on what they want for education policy. You can sign up to attend this panel here.
Parent Power: What do parents and carers want to see in education? puts parent voice at the centre of the education debate and explores what parents and carers see as the main barriers to equal and fair access to higher education, and the success of their children once they arrive on campus.
Our panel will be discussing what the next government should promise to parents, and what parental engagement should look like in the next government. From education policy to local issues, our speakers will consider how, if successful at general election, The Labour Party can make a long-term, cross-sector commitment to understand and address parent and carer voices.
Our speakers include parents from The Brilliant Club’s community who are keen to drive change in their own lives:
This panel will be chaired by Susie Whigham, Chief Programmes and Communities Officer at The Brilliant Club.
Admission to both panels is free, but attendees must register their attendance online. For more information and to register your attendance for University Access 2.0 please click here, and for Parent Power please click here.
If you have any questions about the events, please get in touch with our Senior Policy Officer Charlotte Hallahan at charlotte.hallahan@thebrilliantclub.org.
Please note that both events will take place in the conference secure zone, and to access the secure zone attendees will need to obtain a pass directly from the Labour Party.
Our team will be sharing updates throughout the conference and after via our website and social media channels, follow us on Twitter (X) to stay updated on The Brilliant Club at the Labour Party Conference 2023.