Nick Hillman

HEPI Director, Nick Hillman, recalls the contribution to higher education policy made by Shirley Williams, whose death was reported yesterday. The Rt Hon. the Baroness Williams of Crosby, more commonly known as Shirley Williams, has sadly died after a long and full life. She was perhaps best known for her…

This is an extract from a speech delivered yesterday by Nick Hillman, HEPI’s Director, to an event in the Mills & Reeve Higher Education Week. Students as consumers Five years ago, our host, Gary Attle, told in a HEPI paper how students had gradually come to be treated more like consumers.…

Free speech and academic freedom in higher education institutions came back with a vengeance this week, as the Government announced their long-awaited proposals. It is one area where the main players have a tendency to imply their positions are more black-and-white than they really are. For example: the Government may…

This is the third in a series of three blogs that HEPI is running this week on the state of university pensions and particularly the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). The previous two blogs are available here and here. However tough the predicament faced by any pension scheme, as the title…

This is the second in a series of three blogs that HEPI is running yesterday, today and tomorrow on the state of university pensions and particularly the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Salary costs already make up 59% of the higher education sector’s operating expenditure. If USS contributions were to rise…

This is the first in a series of three blogs that HEPI is running today, tomorrow and the next day on the state of university pensions and particularly the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). In one of their recent excellent morning emails, the HE team at Research Professional declared: ‘The hole…

Spending reviews and déjà vu After the recent rash of documents from the Department for Education, we must raise our eyes to the next spending review, when the Government decides how much is to be spent on different priorities over the next few years. I have a serious case of déjà…

Slow thinking A few years ago, there was a vogue for ‘slow thinking’, ‘slow food’ and even for a whole ‘slow movement’, all of which were aimed at reducing the pace of life down. In recent years, people watching UK higher education policy might well have felt the idea was…