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The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Blog

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].

  • Were student loans designed by the rich to soak the poor?

    27 October 2017 by Nick Hillman

    The wonderful human geographer Danny Dorling has expounded on his long-held view that our student finance system was designed by the rich to hammer the poor in a new essay for Wonkhe entitled ‘Why student loans are a confidence trick for the 85%‘. This claims student loans have been implemented…

  • HEPI response to ‘Everyone In: Insights from a diverse student population’

    16 October 2017

    On Monday, 16th October 2017, Unite Students are publishing a new report on the non-academic parts of the student experience entitled ‘Everyone In: Insights from a diverse student population‘. The following blog is HEPI’s response to the important findings, which also appears in the document itself.  It is sometimes said higher education is the only…

  • Challenges facing good governance

    13 October 2017 by David Williams

    This guest blog comes from the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. It was first published on 12 October 2017 on the Leadership Foundation’s own blog and has been reproduced here for the HEPI readership. We, at the Leadership Foundation, are delighted to have launched our 2017-18 governance year with a joint…

  • The decline of sub-bachelor higher education qualifications

    12 October 2017 by Paul Hazell

    This guest blog has been written by Paul Hazell, Evaluation and Analytics Manager at the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). It outlines findings from a report released today into sub-bachelor higher education qualifications. In just over 50 years the proportion of students studying for sub-bachelor qualifications – such as Higher National…

  • Going forwards after World Mental Health Day

    11 October 2017 by Diana Beech

    Yesterday, World Mental Health Day, prompted universities and colleges across the UK to reflect on their duty of care to students and staff suffering from mental health issues. In a sector dominated by data, it is all too easy to lose sight of the human stories behind the numbers. Improving…

  • The Seven-Year Itch

    3 October 2017 by Nick Hillman

    This blog about the Conservative party Conference by HEPI’s Director, Nick Hillman, first appeared at the weekend on the website of Research Fortnight (at http://www.researchresearch.com/news/article/?articleId=1370475). See @HE_Analyst on Twitter for further information. The number seven has many special properties. There are seven days of the week, seven colours of the rainbow, seven notes in a musical scale, seven ages of…

  • A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education

    25 September 2017 by Dilly Fung

    This guest blog has been written by Dilly Fung, Professor of Higher Education Development and Academic Director at University College London’s Arena Centre for Research-based Education (formerly CALT). A recent international conference at University College London (UCL) explored international perspectives on creating a more ‘connected’ higher education sector. More than 300…

  • HEPI at the Party Conferences 2017

    20 September 2017 by Diana Beech

    Party Conference season is upon us once again. And judging by the mounting debates about tuition fees over the summer, higher education policy is bound to feature prominently in the Conference programmes over the next few weeks. To ensure the key issues are being addressed, HEPI is pleased to announce…