The HEPI Blog aims to make brief, incisive contributions to the higher education policy landscape. It is circulated to our subscribers and published online. We welcome guest submissions, which should follow our Instructions for Blog Authors. Submissions should be sent to our Blog Editor, Josh Freeman, at [email protected].
A guest blog kindly contributed by Professor Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth With the Office for National Statistics soon to rule on the accounting treatment of student loans and speculation that fees for non-science subjects will be reduced, Ryan Craig’s 2015 book College Disrupted on the ‘great unbundling…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Daniel Barrass, Marketing Business Partner for Higher Education, Tribal. Technology, by its very nature, has always sought to make processes simpler than before – and new advances have made the impossible, possible. Today, the juggernaut that is ‘technological change’ is moving at speeds incomprehensible…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dr Hollie Chandler, Senior Policy Analyst for the Russell Group. HEPI’s decision to theme its upcoming annual lecture on African higher education is welcome. From a UK perspective, there has been far less discussion on research and education in Africa than other continents, including across the Atlantic and…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dennis Sherwood, who runs the Silver Bullet Machine consultancy. Twelve pairs of eyes looked intently at the small, dapper, moustachioed figure at the head of the table. “Your case is very like another I solved only recently,” he said. “Whilst a train was snowbound, a savage…
Jonathan Simons, formerly Director of Policy and Research for the Varkey Foundation, writes a review of the new book Life Lessons: The Case for a National Education Service by Melissa Benn. In the afterword of her short book, Melissa Benn recounts a speech she gave at a political meeting, in which…
Student mental health is rightly on the agenda, including from HEPI’s own publications such as The invisible problem? Improving students’ mental health by Poppy Brown and The Positive and Mindful University by Anthony Seldon and Alan Martin. However, it is vital that the mental health and wellbeing of staff working…
As we wait for Philip Augar’s review of post-18 education, it is worth reminding ourselves how the UK compares to other high income countries on tertiary education. World Bank data on the gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education provides one useful comparison metric of what is happening on the macro scale. To be clear, this is not just measuring Higher Education, which the…
This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Paul Humphreys, Founder and CEO at StudentCrowd and Member of the Higher Education Commission. To find out more about what StudentCrowd do, see Student Reviews, Recruitment and Retention published by HEPI in July 2018. In higher education, the “Acceptance Rate” is…
To my surprise, our recent paper on the new Welsh student funding system has proved more controversial than anything HEPI has published since our 2016 paper on male underachievement. People seemed to find it helpful when we responded to the critique we received for Boys to Men. So I shall…
We at HEPI are delighted that Vicky Olive’s report How much is too much? Cross-subsidies from teaching to research in British Universities has put her on the ‘Wonk to watch’ list at Wonkhe’s awards this year. It’s a piece well-armed with ‘killer facts’ with continuing relevance to policy debates. The report highlights the extent of the…