On 2 March 2011, Sir Martin Harris, Director of the Office for Fair Access and Professor Susan Price, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University and a member of HEFCE's Widening Participation and Fair Access Strategic Advisory Committee gave presentations at the third in a series of four HEPI seminars at the House of Commons.

While more students from poorer families are getting into university, a recent OFFA report reveals that they are failing to get into the most selective universities and there has been no significant improvement since the mid-1990s. With the coalition government challenging the usefulness of government targets on student numbers, should the terms of debate around widening participation and fair access be re-framed, with the focus on developing alternative routes to HE (for example, through apprenticeships and vocational training)?  Or is that a distraction from the continuing moral and economic imperative - to increase the numbers of students entering higher education and ensure that all, regardless of their backgrounds, are able to exploit their abilities to the full?

Second seminar in a series of four in the House of Commons, supported by i-graduate and Wiley.

The issues around student financing have dominated debate from the moment student fees were introduced in 1998.  The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, chaired by Lord Browne, has made its recommendations to the government on the future of fees policy and financial support for full and part time undergraduate students, and the government has produced its reply – in effect accepting the essential aspects of the Browne proposals.  How effective will these recommendations be in terms of helping to establish a sustainable funding model for universities and in ensuring an equitable balance between public funding and private benefit?

In his report produced for HEPI, Professor Roger Brown considers recent developments in higher education in the USA.  He concludes that recent developments mirror those in healthcare, and that if the government does not take action to hold down spiralling costs, the US higher education system will come to resemble the US healthcare system in being both unduly expensive and inefficient as well as grossly unfair.

This paper formed the basis for a seminar held on 24th February 2011 in the British Academy, sponsored by Elsevier and the Times Higher Education, at which Professor Brown presented his paper, and Dr Jamil Salmi, Tertiary Education co-ordinator at the World Bank responded.

First seminar in a series of four in the House of Commons, supported by i-graduate and Wiley.

The past ten years have been years of plenty for the HE sector - that much is clear with hindsight - but with the public finances now strictly controlled and universities challenged to develop new sources of funding, what does the future hold for the sector in this new age of austerity? The Government has warned that the sector must be prepared now for a period of consolidation and possibly contraction, but what actions can higher education leaders take to ensure that the sector remains healthy, robust and competitive?

On 27 April 2010, HEPI held a joint seminar with Mills & Reeve LLP, one of our partner companies, in the House of Commons.  The topic was "Fairness, Funding and Access", with particular regard to admissions to university and the impact of the new Equality Act 2010.

The speakers' slides and handouts are available for download.

Final seminar in a series of four in the House of Commons, hosted jointly by HEPI and JISC.

As the financial situation that universities face looks increasingly likely to be difficult, it is all the more important that the money that is available is spent well and effectively. This is important for the good functioning of universities themselves, but it is also politically important, as politicians seek to justify the contributions made by taxpayers – and students. This seminar took a wide-ranging view of these questions, considering among other things how universities could do things differently to increase the effectiveness of what they do in straitened circumstances.

A transcript of the main speeches is available, along with Carl Lygo's slides.

Third seminar in a series of four in the House of Commons, hosted jointly by HEPI and JISC.

There is increasing acknowledgment that business and industry have an important role to play in higher education – a recognition that is shared by government, employers and universities themselves. The discourse about this has changed radically in the last decade or so. Each party has different motivations, but the dialogue is real, and this seminar explored its different dimensions, and what it is reasonable – and what it is wise – for each to expect of the other.

Speakers Sam Laidlaw (Chief Executive of Centrica plc and leader of the CBI's Higher Education Task Force) and Professor Tim Wilson (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire) discussed the interaction between the university sector and business, and how each can engage more (and in the most productive ways) with the other.

A transcript of the main speeches is available, along with Professor Wilson's slides.  In addition, JISC recorded podcast interviews with the speakers, which are available on JISC's own site.

HEPI and JISC held a joint seminar on The Financing of Higher Education in the House of Commons on 24 February 2010, the second in a series of four.

Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, and Professor Nick Barr of the London School of Economics debated the future funding of the UK's higher education sector, with particular focus on the best system for student support.

A transcript of the main speeches is available, as is a PDF of Professor Barr's slides.

Transcript of the main speeches from a HEPI-JISC seminar on Quality and Standards, held in the House of Commons on 27 January 2010.

Peter Williams, the ex-Chief Executive Officer from the Quality Assurance and Standards Agency, shared a platform with Professor Roger Brown from Liverpool Hope University to discuss the challenges facing universities, government, business and students in whether quality and standards of different degrees and qualifications should be comparable.

Chaired by Bahram Bekhradnia, director of HEPI, the subject generated discussion and debate including the need to re-examine the current classifications of degrees, the desire to meet students’ expectations of the currency of their degree, what employers are looking for graduates and how universities can measure success within with the current system.

This series of seminars was held in collaboration with JISC, who have made available a podcast interview with the two speakers.

Transcript of the main speeches from a HEPI seminar on higher education and the student experience, held in the House of Commons on 21 April 2009.

Transcript of the main speeches from a HEPI seminar on re-engineering universities, held in the House of Commons on 17 March 2009.

Transcript of the main speeches from a HEPI seminar on fair access, held in the House of Commons on 24 February 2009.

Transcript of the main speeches from a HEPI seminar on globalisation and higher education, held in the House of Commons on 27 January 2009.

PDF summary of the slides from Professor Nicholas Barr's presentation to a HEPI seminar on The Operation of the Market in Higher Education: Opportunities and Constraints, Experience and Ideology, held at the British Academy on 14 January 2009.

Professor Roger Brown's presentation to a HEPI seminar on The Operation of the Market in Higher Education: Opportunities and Constraints, Experience and Ideology, held at the British Academy on 14 January 2009. Full version and summary version available.

Video of the HEPI seminar on The Operation of the Market in Higher Education: Opportunities and Constraints, Experience and Ideology held at the British Academy on 14 January 2009.

A paper by Professor Roger Brown of Liverpool Hope University looking at the current state of higher education in the United States, prospects for the future, and the lessons the UK might learn.

A paper which looks at the role which information about quality might play in the higher education market for undergraduates that is being created by variable fees and bursaries; by Professor Roger Brown, Vice-Chancellor, Southampton Solent University.

Paper presented by Richard Lambert at the HEPI "Governance of Higher Education in a Market Environment" seminar held on 13 December 2005 at the House of Commons.

Higher Education and the Market: protecting quality and diversity in a market driven system. Paper presented by Roger Brown at the HEPI "Governance of Higher Education in a Market Environment" seminar held on 13 December 2005 at the House of Commons.