The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) today publishes an important new report, Cracks in our foundations: Evaluating foundation years as a tool for access and success (HEPI Report 170), by HEPI Policy Manager Josh Freeman. Foundation years are an additional year of study at the beginning of a higher education…
Short, preparatory ‘foundation year’ courses have exploded in popularity in recent years, but they have drawn criticism from policymakers. Like Access diplomas, they serve to support people from all backgrounds to enter higher education. This HEPI Report asks whether foundation years are effective tools for widening access – or whether,…
In a new HEPI Policy Note, Provide or punish? Students’ views on generative AI in higher education (HEPI Policy Note 51 – see it also on the Kortext website) by Josh Freeman, HEPI and Kortext explore students’ attitudes to new generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard. Since ChatGPT…
This new Policy Note by HEPI and Kortext explores students’ attitudes to AI. Based on a poll of 1,250 students through UCAS, we build a picture of the way students use and view generative AI technologies like ChatGPT and Google Bard. We find that the use of generative AI has…
We are almost at the end of 2023, and you know what that means – we are due a round-up of the year’s most popular HEPI blogs. The year, we celebrated our 20th birthday and it has arguably been HEPI’s biggest yet, with more website views than any other year…
There were only 22,060 degree apprentice starts in 2022/23 (of 560,000 students accepted through UCAS overall) – but if the 2023 Conservative Party Conference was your first foray into higher education, you wouldn’t know it. This was #CPC23, my first Tory Conference and a wonderfully hectic tour in search of…
HEPI research into the cost-of-living crisis, to be discussed today on Radio 4 Money Box, shows that a significant proportion of universities are open to the possibility of students working part-time during their studies or even encouraging them to do so. The finding is part of HEPI’s recent research into…
This HEPI Report considers the strategies adopted by higher education institutions to support students affected by the cost-of-living crisis. It finds they are adopting a range of measures, such as supporting students with the costs of food and drink, providing means-tested and unconditional funding, subsidising student activities, and opening food…
A new report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (http://www.hepi.ac.uk) explores how universities are responding to the severe effects of the cost-of-living crisis on students. The new research by Josh Freeman, Policy Manager at HEPI, How to Beat a Cost-of-Learning Crisis: Universities’ Support for Students (HEPI Report 163), is based…
On Thursday, university offer holders from England, Wales and Northern Ireland will wake up from their summer slumbers and head to their school or college to collect their exam results. They might expect three things: falling grades, high competition, and to be attending university with more international students than before.…