I've wanted to do a series about Higher Education for some time. I taught part time at a university for ten years and always thought it was an area ripe for satire. The expansion of tertiary education in the Blair years meant our newer universities were unprepared for the overload of bureaucracy, ideology and sheer student numbers.

And let's be frank - with the government's desire to get fifty percent of young people into higher education - thing's were never going to be the same again.

So when Joyce Bryant's brilliant script landed on my desk in 2008 I was well chuffed. Since then we've recorded six episodes of Higher, the marvellous misadventures of Hayborough University ranked 132nd in the University league table.

What makes it work?

It has the pace and vigour of farce but the texture of real detail. Joyce works in a university and knows whereof she speaks. The endless meetings, the backstabbings and the sheer panic has an authenticity which many university professionals acknowledge. And with the raising of fees and the cutbacks the satire has become all the more acute. Buzz words such as 'scoping of synergies' (i.e cuts) have now become current.

It also helps that we have two wonderfully comic central performances from Sophie Thompson as the hapless head of geography and Jonathan Keeble as the venal Dean.

This is not the gentle comedy of the cloister and high table, this is the high energy farce of the breeze block and grotty cafeteria. The world of the pile 'em high universities - and there are many more hilarious tales to tell. So keep tuned.

Gary Brown is the producer of Higher

• You can hear today's episode of Higher on Radio 4 at 2.15pm and for seven days afterwards on the Radio 4 website. Details here.
• There is another episode of Higher broadcast next Tuesday, 23 August also at 2.15pm. More details here.

Editor's note: Riazat Butt is The Guardian's religious affairs correspondent. Listen to her programme on Radio 4 at 2000 tonight - SB.

Oxford University's admissions system is one of those subjects that really winds people up - and that's why I wanted to look at it. It enrages those who think the institution is predisposed towards fee-paying white toffs, creating a breed of graduates that go on to dominate public life (Exhibit A, Andrew Neil's Posh and Posher on BBC 2 last week). Or it puts people (usually those who have studied there) on the defensive, saying the university is elite rather than elitist and that bright students, whatever their background, have as much a stab at getting a place as any public school pupil.

There are also those who think there is too much emphasis/attention on Oxford and Cambridge and there are plenty of other universities providing a first-class excellent education and a much better social life to boot. The rows have been rumbling on for years and look unlikely to be resolved any time soon unless, you suspect, there are radical changes to Oxford's admissions policy. But rather than assemble a collection of well-meaning, well-informed talking heads referring to events that occurred 20 years ago (or more) I thought it would be more interesting, and human, to follow pupils through the application process and talk to the people deciding their fate.

Few teenagers will have had to big themselves up or experience such a competitive environment - more than 17,200 people chasing 3,200 places for 2011 entry - at their age and I wanted to know what they thought of the procedure. Is it fair? Does it work? So we follow four students from my hometown of Southampton - they don't fit an Oxford stereotype, sorry to disappoint - as they try to grab a slice of academic glory.

I expect people will disagree with the content - and the conclusion - of the programme. I will probably be accused of not going hard enough on the contentious issues of educational or racial diversity. But I started making this programme thinking people could get to Oxford on merit alone. Do I still think that? Yes, but there are caveats. Doing your homework - not just for your A-Levels - really helps. Know what you want to study, why and where otherwise there is little to distinguish you from everyone else who is applying. Did our Southampton students manage this? You'll have to listen tonight to find out.

Riazat Butt is religious affairs correspondent for the Guardian and presenter of How to get into Oxford

• Listen to How to get into Oxford at 2000 tonight and for seven days after that on the Radio 4 web site and read an article about the programme on the BBC news magazine web site.
• Picture by Ross Parker. Some rights reserved.

A small corner of Radio 4 has decamped to Derby for two days - to record some big programmes (inlcuding a fantastcially exciting live Woman's Hour this morning, with lots of audience participation), to run some workshops with students and to generally spread the good word with the students and faculty of Derby University.

I've been busy recording short vox pops - I've been asking students to tell me four things they know about Radio 4. Many photographs have been taken, both by me and by Stan Was, a Radio 4 producer. And I've been covering events on Twitter (the hash tag is #R4UniTour). Over the next few weeks we'll be visiting two more universities - at the University of Bedfordshire and in Cardiff - and I'll be covering events here on the blog. Watch this space.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog