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].
As the student body in most universities becomes ever more heterogeneous, one of the greatest challenges has been to see and understand students beyond a single administrative demographic label or identity. As universities begin acknowledging students’ complex, intersecting social identities, staff approaches to engaging and supporting students become much more…
The HE sector is in danger of letting a major opportunity pass by due to its tendency to focus on what it does do, not what it could do. Whatever colour of Government we have over the next five years, surely the Levelling Up agenda is here to stay. This…
Higher education has come a long way in recognising and being aware of mental health issues that students enter their studies with. This includes better data collected through UCAS, work undertaken via AdvanceHE with their Education for Mental Health Toolkit, TASO’s Student Mental Health Evidence Hub and the development of…
Over the past few years there has been veritable blizzard of articles and reports about the rise in wellbeing and mental health issues, especially among young people in higher education. Mental health and wellbeing challenges are not new phenomena, yet Generation Z is being labelled as less resilient than previous…
Researchers from University College London and the University of Oxford have recently launched an ambitious new project aiming to provide an empirical portrait of current teaching and learning around the interconnected themes of the British Empire, migration and belonging in England’s secondary schools. On the 13th June 2020, a letter was…
Since its inception in 2017, the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) has become an integral part of assessing and recognising the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in the English higher education system. Institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can participate on a voluntary basis. Managed by the Office for…
When I wrote London Higher’s Living and Learning in London report a year ago, we were the first organisation to use HEPI/AdvanceHE’s Student Academic Experience Survey data to investigate how student experience differs in a particular UK region. We looked at London students’ answers to the survey questions, and we…
Degree apprenticeships. They’re Skills Minister Robert Halfon’s “two favourite words in the English language” and we’re at the beginning of a whole week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating the many benefits of apprenticeships at all levels (yes this year’s National Apprenticeships Week does clash with World Nutella Day, but…
UK higher education has had a strong international reputation for many years. However, increasing competition for international students and recent reputational challenges may hinder UK institutions’ ability to support global higher education growth, and the growing need for upskilling and reskilling. Whilst there are challenges, UK higher education remains in…
The logic of fees Whether we like it or not, there is one higher education issue that tends to bestride all the others at general elections, and that is tuition fees. In many ways, that is an odd fact. Undergraduate fees have existed in some form or other in most…