This blog has been kindly contributed by Sharon Witherspoon, Head of Policy at the Academy of Social Sciences and the Campaign for Social Science. Prior to this Sharon was the Director at the Nuffield Foundation. Universities are currently focussed on managing the challenges arising from COVID-19: reorganising how they teach,…
This blog was kindly contributed by Darren Ellis, Higher Education Engagement Director at Unite Students. Student accommodation has been on a real journey. When I first started with Unite Students in 2003, accommodation was valued in universities but not especially visible in national policy. Indeed, this was reflected in the…
***UPDATE**** A recording of the webinar can now be viewed by clicking on the video below: On Wednesday 30 September 2020, HEPI is hosting a webinar on access and participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Chris Millward, the Director of Fair Access and Participation, providing some opening remarks, the webinar…
The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new report on student voters at the last four UK general elections (2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019). Student voters: Did they make a difference? (HEPI Report 133) by Nick Hillman focuses on the results in the 25 parliamentary constituencies in England, Scotland and…
This short report looks more deeply into the question of whether student voters make a difference to UK election results by: taking the 25 constituencies with the highest proportion of full-time students – those where they are thought to make up more than 17.5 per cent of the electorate; considering…
This blog was kindly contributed by John Rushforth, the executive secretary at the Committee of University Chairs. Today sees the publication of the new the Higher Education Code of Governance, published by the Committee for University Chairs. It comes at a time of unprecedented challenge for the higher education…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dennis Sherwood. Dennis has reporting for HEPI on this years A-level exams since March and the A-level system long before that! It’s not all over yet This summer’s exam fiasco is rapidly fading from the headlines, and the deadline, 17 September 2020, for appeals…
This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Jane Turner OBE DL, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Engagement at Teesside University. Employability metrics judging the success of universities based on graduate earnings fundamentally fail to take into account regional, economic and social differences. This is both hugely detrimental and also rather…
I have been concerned what plans to reduce bureaucracy will entail, since the restructuring regime was published in July, accompanied by a sentence ‘For our part, we are actively considering how to reduce the burden of bureaucracy imposed by Government and regulators’. I appreciate many in the sector may not…
This blog was kindly contributed by David Tymms, Chair of the British Property Federation Student Accommodation Committee ,Commercial Director at iQ Student Accommodation and formerly, Director of Residential Services, LSE. This article has been written in a personal capacity. As the Department for Education’s (DfE) and Ofqual’s A-Level omni-shambles continues…