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 j.freeman@hepi.ac.uk.
On the website of nearly every university, you will find an explanation that the institution is a charity. But what does this mean, apart from generous tax advantages? And why are universities not generally talked about as charities, in the same way as, say, Oxfam or Macmillan Cancer Support? One…
This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Nyika Suttie, Culture and Inclusion Training Officer at the University of Bath. Much has been made of the Free Speech Act gaining Royal Assent. Meanwhile, institutions such as King’s College London (KCL) and organisations such as HEPI and WonkHE have been asking the…
This book review of Paper Belt On Fire by Michael Gibson was authored by Lucy Haire, HEPI’s Director of Partnerships. If you work in or with universities and colleges, it’s easy to take for granted their raison d’etre. When books and articles are published that are critical of higher education institutions,…
I welcome the recent paper by Edward Venning Size is Everything: What Small, Specialist and Practice Based Providers tell us about the Higher Education Sector (HEPI Report 160). It helpfully reignites a debate about what the shape and nature of the UK’s higher education sector looks like, and – perhaps somewhat worryingly – suggests what it…
There is a long history of people getting their predictions about the future of technology, including the future of technology in education, wrong. Famously, after the Second World War IBM’s President said, ‘I think there is a world market for about five computers.’ Just ten years ago, in the words…
A Utility Equation is a mathematical construct, a formula doubtless known to Rishi Sunak and all who followed the discipline to Level 3 at 18. The construct is grounded in microeconomics, an abstract value you gain from a preference, the satisfaction you gain from a selection. But the author can find…
I was recently back in China. My last trip to Wuhan in January 2020, where Dundee has a joint programme in Architecture, was against the backdrop of the pandemic taking hold. Three years on there was much to repair for a generation of transnational education (TNE) students whose education had been…
Nick Hillman recently posted a blog which quoted a book written by Matthew Goodwin in which he (Goodwin) criticises universities for what he perceives are their excessively liberal values, claiming that they have been out of step with the population at large. I need to make it clear at the…
This HEPI blog is the second of a two-part series, kindly authored by Dr Paul Greatrix, Registrar at the University of Nottingham. This article represents the personal view of the author. You can read Part 1 of this series here. The first part of this blog explored the background to…
This HEPI blog is the first of a two-part series, kindly authored by Dr Paul Greatrix, Registrar at the University of Nottingham. This article represents the personal view of the author. A New Framework The higher education regulatory burden is already too great and yet is still growing. At a…