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].
Hundreds of people (472 at 10.15am) have already responded to my new piece in the Guardian arguing against Owen Smith’s support for a graduate tax. It is not meant to be controversial but I didn’t expect everyone to agree with it, and it has definitely got some people’s goat. A small…
We recently made available on this site an important but hard-to-find historical text: Tony Crosland’s famous speech cementing the binary division between polytechnics and universities, which was delivered in 1965. Another speech that is incredibly important in British higher education policymaking but similarly hard to obtain is Ken Baker’s speech at Lancaster University…
August seems as good a time as any to put up something we have been meaning to post for a while: the text of Anthony Crosland’s Woolwich Polytechnic speech of 27th April 1965. It is incredibly important in higher education policymaking, as it announced the binary system of polytechnics and universities…
The perennial row over grammar schools flared up again last weekend. Possibly, just possibly, the new Prime Minister is not as opposed to new grammar schools, which select pupils on academic ability, as her recent predecessors. The debate over grammar schools feels endless and circular but is perhaps best articulated…
This guest blog has been contributed by Sam Cannicott, who has been the Education Policy Adviser for the Liberal Democrats (2007-2010) and a Policy and Strategy Adviser at Regent’s University London (2012-15) and who now lives and works in New Zealand. New Zealand has a population of under 4.5 million and only eight universities. …
Martin Lewis, the founder of the MoneySavingExpert, is on the warpath. He is furious that the student loan repayment threshold is being fixed at £21,000. This means the terms on which student loans were taken out by today’s students have been retrospectively changed: previously it was said the threshold would…
Guest blog by Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham What does the future hold for universities? The University of Buckingham is hosting the UK’s first Higher Education Festival covering all issues facing the sector. The Universities Minister Jo Johnson, the Shadow Higher Education Minister Gordon Marsden, the…
This blog is an extract from a speech the HEPI Director, Nick Hillman, delivered at the University of Buckingham on 25th July 2016. New entrants In the UK, it has been phenomenally difficult to get good quality independent higher education institutions off the ground but simultaneously too easy to run ones of questionable quality.…
This article by Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, was originally published last Saturday on by HE from Research Professional. The head of steam has finally blown the gasket. The pressure that had been mounting for several years to plonk higher education policy back alongside other education matters within Whitehall has triumphed. The…
Back in 2014, aeons ago in political terms, I wrote a piece for Insight, the magazine of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, on whether or not responsibility for higher education policymaking should be plonked back in the Department for Education. Given the strong rumours of the demise of the current…