by Peter Kahl, 2025-07-30
This paper examines systemic failures in governance, fiduciary accountability, and transparency within the UK higher education sector. Drawing upon formal legal notices and correspondence with major sectoral bodies—including Universities UK, Advance HE, GuildHE, Skilled Education Ltd, and Times Higher Education—as well as the Education Select Committee of the UK Parliament, it exposes how structural opacity, conflicts of interest, and administrative exclusion undermine democratic oversight. The analysis situates these issues within a broader jurisprudential framework of fiduciary ethics, epistemic justice, and public law principles, arguing that the absence of direct accountability mechanisms has enabled a culture of institutional impunity. By documenting an ongoing process of legal challenge and reform, the paper calls for a renewed public commitment to lawful governance, equality, and epistemic openness in higher education.
higher education governance, fiduciary duties, epistemic justice, administrative law, public sector equality duty, transparency, universities uk, advance he, guildhe, skilled education, times higher education, education select committee, public accountability, conflicts of interest, legal reform, uk governance
Kahl, P. (2025). Finding the smoking gun in UK higher education: Exposing fiduciary breaches, governance failures, and the fight for transparency. Lex et Ratio Ltd. GitHub: https://github.com/Peter-Kahl/Finding-the-Smoking-Gun-in-UK-Higher-Education DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17380423
First published in London by Peter Kahl, 2025-07-30.
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