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

Month: March 2021

  • New HEPI report demonstrates that moving away from the use of predicted grades in university admissions could harm, rather than benefit, fair admissions

    18 March 2021

    The Higher Education Policy Institute have published a new collection of essays on the future of undergraduate university admissions. Where next for university admissions? (HEPI Report 136), edited by Rachel Hewitt covers topics including: the arguments for and against post-qualification admissions; the role of contextual admissions; comparisons to international systems; and the…

  • Where next for university admissions?

    18 March 2021 by Rachel Hewitt

    In early 2021 the Government announced a review of the current admissions system. This edited collection explores the opportunities and challenges surrounding any move to post-qualification admissions. Among the topics considered are: Should the UK admissions system move to a model of post-qualification admissions and if so which: post-qualification applications,…

  • Bahram Bekhradnia: The White Paper on free speech is intellectually flimsy

    17 March 2021 by Bahram Bekhradnia

    Bahram Bekhradnia founded HEPI in 2002 and was its Director until the end of 2013, since when he has been HEPI’s President. Before establishing HEPI, he was the Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Last month the Government produced a White Paper on free speech…

  • Lee Elliot Major: A way forward for the Social Mobility Index

    16 March 2021 by Lee Elliot Major

    This blog was kindly contributed by Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter and co-author of HEPI Policy Note Social Mobility and Elite Universities. You can find Lee on Twitter @Lem_Exeter. We are defined by how we are measured. Statistics that measure the performance of…

  • Goals-based R&D policy: high popularity, low effectiveness – What is the likelihood of the UK reaching its target of spending 2.4% of GDP on R&D by 2027?

    15 March 2021 by Adão Carvalho

    A few days ago, the head of UK Research and Investment, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said the Government’s target of having 2.4% of GDP spent on research and development (R&D) by 2027 was ‘very challenging‘. Here, Adão Carvalho of the Department of Economics at the Universidade de Évora in Portugal considers the…

  • Reflections on Learning and Teaching during COVID

    12 March 2021 by Brett Koenig

    This blog was kindly contributed by Brett Koenig, Senior Lecturer in Law at De Montfort University. The use of learning technology as an attempt to supplement traditional teaching methods has been on the rise in higher education for the last decade and has been in existence for centuries. Technological developments…

  • Dear Mr Williamson and Mr Zahawi…

    11 March 2021 by Giles Carden & Lawrence Young

    Today’s blog is an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, and the Minister for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment, Nadhim Zahawi, written by Giles Carden, the Chief of Staff at Lancaster University, and Lawrence Young, a Virologist and Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Warwick. Dear…

  • 2021 HEPI University Partners’ Policy Briefing Day, Thursday 6 May

    10 March 2021

    Each year, HEPI organises a day on higher education policy developments exclusively for our HEPI Partner organisations, to provide colleagues in the sector with expert policy advice and guidance from both the HEPI team and a range of guest speakers and an opportunity to discuss the key issues that dominate…