Discussions on vice-chancellors’ pay are not something I particularly enjoy. They tend to generate lots of emotion, be relatively short of facts and often turn unpleasant So, when the HEPI report on VC pay landed on my desk, my reaction was not unalloyed joy. However, what I read was an…
To suggest that widespread condemnation of spiralling vice-chancellor pay is a product of confected outrage by unions is to seriously underestimate the level of anger this glaring injustice demands. It also diminishes the reality of a significant and growing pay gap ratio between those who lead universities, and those who…
In this HEPI Debate Paper, Lucy Haire probes the issue of how to set the rate of vice-chancellors’ pay fairly. Vice-chancellors bear huge responsibility as leaders of high-revenue organisations, and they are paid less than their colleagues at universities in both the USA and Australia. The report argues that rather…
The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) has published a new report, Because you’re worth it: are vice-chancellors worth the pay they get? (HEPI Debate Paper 33), written by Lucy Haire, Director of Partnerships at HEPI. The paper argues the following: The report makes the following seven recommendations to universities: Lucy…
Educating the ‘COVID generation’ On Thursday 7 September HEPI and Unite Students will hold a breakout session at the UUK Annual Conference in Manchester. The majority of this year’s new intake experienced the pandemic in their mid-teens. They missed out on social and educational experiences and early opportunities for independence,…
Speak to someone working in a UK university and they will tell you there is a problem with financial resilience. Either because they already see it impacting the condition of the buildings they work in, what they can offer students or the type or amount of research they can perform,…
Demand trends The summer recruitment round is volatile in 2023, and intake levels hard to predict. Even now, after exam results have been announced, many institutions do not have a completely clear view of the shape of their incoming cohort for the approaching academic year. This is perhaps the most…
In his book, The Living Company, Arie de Gues observes that most companies either go bust or are acquired within their first 50 years of existence and that it is a rarity for companies to survive for over a century let alone 200 or 300 years.1 He wanted to understand…
Proposition The first part of this blog set out the proposition for a national student record system to be selected, procured and deployed in every UK HEI resulting in substantial financial savings and major reductions in organisational pain. Following the example of Sweden’s national student record system, called Ladok, the…
Summary It is proposed that a national student record system be selected, procured and deployed in every higher education institution in the UK thereby delivering significant benefit to all institutions, students and staff and resulting in substantial financial savings and major reductions in organisational pain. The Case for a New…