Research leadership is not a common topic of discussion. It should be. Research leadership matters. It drives, sustains, supports, protects and inspires people. It is connective and catalysing. This matters because without it, increasing public investment in research and development is unlikely to fulfil its potential in terms of both…
This speech was delivered this morning by Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, to the GSA / HMC University Admissions Conference. Recovering from COVID Thank you for inviting me to speak at this annual conference on university admissions once more. I first did so back in November 2014, exactly eight years ago.…
As some of the first cohort of T-Level students recently started higher education, HEPI Director, Nick Hillman, takes a look at how universities have responded to the new qualification. Universities are often accused of dragging their feet on T-Levels. One recent headline reads: ‘Confused and frustrated: Most universities reject first…
The European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe, will soon start its third year but UK participation remains uncertain. This uncertainty, arising originally from the outcome of the Brexit referendum and now prolonged by the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, has led to less participation in EU-funded…
In Horizon Europe and Plan B research funding: Turning adversity into opportunity (HEPI Policy Note 38), Marco Cavallaro of the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Switzerland argues full association with Horizon Europe remains preferable but provides a checklist for making Plan B work, including: incentivising the participation of less well-resourced UK universities in European research…
HEPI has generally paused its output during the period of official mourning for Her Majesty the Queen, but we are running this one piece by HEPI Director Nick Hillman that looks partly at the changes to higher education during her long reign between 1952 and 2022. It is based on…
Thanks to the Conservative leadership contest, which comes to the end of its tortuous journey later today when the new Prime Minister is announced, there has been high interest in the next Prime Minister’s attitudes towards higher education. That’s generally welcome, but it has unhelpfully taken the spotlight off what the…
TD;LR What is the best answer to this question: why can’t institutions move from the highly regulated Approved (fee cap) category at the Office for Students to the also tightly regulated Approved category and still receive ‘Quality Related’ research funding? For many years, I’ve been screaming into the void (or so…
On the back of REF 2021, this collection brings together a wide range of authors to consider what has worked well in evaluation of UK research, what could have worked better and where we should go from here. The collection has been edited by Dr Laura Brassington and the chapters…