About HEPI

HEPI selects issues that are important and timely for the future development of our universities, and undertakes substantial objective and unbiased analyses.  We publish these – without restrictions - here on our website.

Our reports usually include recommendations and do not merely report our findings: they represent the primary way in which we influence policy. We produce and distribute concise summary reports to a growing readership of about 1500 people connected with higher education. It is these summaries that often have the greatest impact.

While we support the UK’s universities, we are not a cheerleader for them, or for any of the bodies involved in higher education policy or funding.  Our constituencies do not always find our reports comfortable, but we believe this is a small price to pay for greater understanding, better policies and an improved system.

Several policies have been modified in the UK, in ways that we have recommended: for example, some of the amendments to student fee arrangements and recently, the revised proposals for the assessment of research quality.  We also claim some responsibility for the growing awareness in universities of the importance of the student experience, following our widely-quoted surveys of the amounts of study undertaken by students.