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

HEPI Election Resources

  • 11 December 2019
  • By Michael Natzler

With the polls opening in just over 24 hours, we saw it fit to draw together all our content from the last six weeks related to the race for No. 10.

For a comprehensive run down of the key issues affecting UK higher education in this election, look to our main document, the election briefing, which focuses on five central areas:

  1. Student voters;
  2. Undergraduate fees and funding;
  3. Participation and access;
  4. Research and development; and
  5. Internationalisation.

Expanding and building on the first area, student voters, we have a pair of blogs. The first addresses the question of if, how and where students might affect the election result. The second blog on student voters, questions and dispels the myths and the chatter around the oft exaggerated impact students have on elections.

One issue not covered in the election briefing, but tackled in our blogs, is Brexit: will older leave voters get replaced by younger Remain voters and will students vote tactically over Brexit?

In twin blogs we have drawn out what each party is proposing for UK higher education, covering fees and research among other areas. We split them in two, with the first one covering the largest three parties across the UK and the second featuring both the smaller UK wide parties and the major parties from the devolved administrations too.

If you already know what each party’s manifesto says about higher education, take a look at the blog on what election manifestos don’t say about higher education, which takes a comparative view of what parties promised before forming government and how their higher education policies actually played out.

Whilst the results of the election are far from certain, we can be sure that there will be a result on the 13th December which the sector will have to respond to. Look no further than Diana Beech’s piece, forward-looking and decisive in offering practical actionable advice on what to do come the morning of the 13th as UK universities are left with a new host of parliamentarians to befriend.

Should it be helpful, we have attached a tool so that you can find your local polling station for Thursday.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *