1/10. Now that UK is outside the EU, here's a thread about which rules DFE and Treasury could change. I think this is lower priority than managing the pandemic, supporting this generation of students and adjusting education to the post-Covid economy but shopping lists are useful

2/10. I've been thinking about which rules UK govt could change ever since spring 2016 when a Conservative (ERG) MP told a group of principals that leaving would be good for colleges. I did reply that most of UK education regulation was home-grown but have mulled over it since

3/10. Top of my list for post-Brexit rules to change would be the immigration rules. These changed yesterday to make movement harder for some EU nationals and easier for other non EU ones ("single system") but there are unhelpful obstacles for students wanting to study in UK

4/10. Education's a service and English is an asset in attracting short-stay students from anywhere. Home Office should work constructively with DFE to support education exports. Now that UK has more control of its immigration rules, this would be good first place to start.

5/10. Next there's VAT - introduced in UK in 1973 when UK joined EU. VAT has distorting effects on efficient distribution of resources in education. The 16-18 rules are particularly unjust. Also I'm not sure why private school fees are VAT-free for all services charged

6/10. The risk in highlighting VAT anomalies is that HM Treasury's need for income would drive reform. Far better to think through fiscally neutral VAT education reforms that focus tax reliefs in most effective way. Brexit means HMT can, if it wants, adjust niggling tax rules

7/10. The next area would be state aid and procurement law. These are complicated but generate extra work in education (esp. colleges) to little obvious benefit. Reforms here may need care about what parts of education are public sector / non-economic activity and what aren't

8/10. There will be other areas (employment, environmental, data laws) where UK post-Brexit decisions to take a new approach would have an impact in education but it's difficult to come up with plausible deregulation suggestions.

9/10. It's largely in the interests of UK education to have rules in areas like staff qualifications, transfer of criminal record data etc in alignment between UK and EU so scope for beneficial reform limited but always worth having an open mind

10/10. If you've reached the end and are disappointed not to see imaginative proposals for 2021 post-Brexit reforms to transform education in England, I can only apologise. EU membership made a difference but UK education problems & solutions have always been in our own hands