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

Publications

In recent years, HEPI has produced over 20 reports a year. They are all available free of charge here on our website and all our longer reports are also available in hard copy from the HEPI office.

The version on the website should be regarded as the version of record.

  • Boys to Men: The underachievement of young men in higher education – and how to start tackling it

    12 May 2016 by Nick Hillman and Nicholas Robinson, with a Foreword by Mary Curnock Cook

    Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree. There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is…

  • Making a Success of Employer Sponsored Education

    21 April 2016 by Dave Phoenix

    What are Employer Sponsored Degrees? What benefits do they offer students, employers, universities and taxpayers? How do they differ from Degree Apprenticeships? What does the Apprenticeship Levy mean for Employer Sponsored Degrees? All these questions and more are answered in this paper by the Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University. He also…

  • Designing a Teaching Excellence Framework: Lessons from other sectors

    25 February 2016 by Louisa Darian

    The Government is committed to introducing a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to assess the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Designing the right solution is challenging. There is no off-the-shelf solution from other countries that we can lift. But we can learn lessons from other sectors. This pamphlet…

  • Response to the higher education green paper

    7 January 2016 by Graham Gibbs, Bahram Bekhradnia, Roger King, Gary Attle, Roxanne Stockwell and Emma Sims (edited by Nick Hillman)

    The echoes of the past in the higher education green paper appear accidental and do not reflect much institutional memory. So HEPI has chosen to respond to the proposals by asking experienced people with deep roots in the higher education sector to reflect on them. The authors are: Graham Gibbs on teaching; Bahram Bekhradnia…

  • Employability: Degrees of value

    10 December 2015 by Johnny Rich

    Enhancing the employability of graduates is a key aim of the new green paper on higher education. Yet it contains no proposals aimed directly at achieving it. This pamphlet starts by explaining why employability is not the same as employment. Employability is about securing a rewarding and fulfilling career, not…

  • Students and the 2015 general election: Did they make a difference?

    15 October 2015 by Nick Hillman

    Before the 2015 election, it was believed students would play an important part in the result. They were the target of Labour’s commitment to reduce fees, and the NUS’s ‘Liar Liar’ campaign was aimed at politicians who had broken promises made at the previous election. Meanwhile, a new electoral registration…

  • Keeping up with the Germans?: A comparison of student funding, internationalisation and research in UK and German universities

    3 September 2015 by Nick Hillman

    This pamphlet compares the UK and German higher education systems and find some stark differences. Funding: While fees were being tripled in England, German states were abolishing them.  Internationalisation: While the UK has been sending mixed messages to potential international students, Germany has looked outwards as a way to strengthen its…