Goodbye 2025

With 2025 coming to a close, let’s take a look at what HEPI has been discussing over the past year.

2025 was a busy year for HEPI (although which year isn’t…), both in terms of events, publications and blogs.

In January, we were forward-focused, looking at sector financial sustainability, digital transformation, and presenting a vision for the future of higher education.

In February, lots of people were writing about curriculum design: from credit transfer and lifelong learning, to specialist higher education institutions and assessing the benefits of the Health Education Consortium. We also published our Student Generative AI Survey 2025, which shows an unprecedented increase in the use of genAI among undergraduate students. This is now the most-read policy paper in HEPI’s history.

In March and April, skills and employability took the forefront of our focus as we published blogs on apprenticeships and considered how to bridge the gap between further and higher education. We also published reports on Skills England and increasing employer support for the tertiary skills system in England.

In May, prior to the start of his tenure as Chair of the OfS, Professor Edward Peck wrote for HEPI about his thoughts for the future of higher education, and the announcement that the government was ‘exploring’ a levy on the income universities receive from international tuition fees got the sector talking.

In June, the undergraduate academic year wrapped up with HEPI’s Annual Conference, which focused on the student journey, as well as the publication of our 2025 Student Academic Experience Survey. This year’s survey found that 68% of undergraduates are now undertaking paid work during term time. This is a dramatic rise from just 42% in 2020. Also, this month, we were thrilled that the work of our Director, Nick Hillman, was recognised with an OBE.

July saw the publication of a report highlighting the catastrophic state of language provision within the UK’s schools and universities and the big drop in formal language learning that has accompanied this.

In August, we thought that the Post-16 Education and Skills white paper might be about to arrive, and even ran a blog asking what might be in it. But it was not to be. Despite that, there were still exciting developments in HEPI as we launched our new website and published the 2025 Minimum Income Standard for Students.

September saw the start of the party conference season, with HEPI holding events at both the Labour and later the Conservative Party conferences. There was a particularly memorable moment during a HEPI panel event on Student Support at the Labour Party conference, when the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, announced in the main conference hall that targeted maintenance grants were returning. Alex Stanley of the NUS announced this to the room mid-panel, to much celebration. (We did not know the small print at this point.)

In October, that long-awaited White Paper finally arrived (although a little closer to the evening than many of us would have liked) on 20 October. This then kicked off our 10-part blog series, platforming a range of voices and reactions in response to the paper. You can find our first response here, and our final one here.

The government papers continued to roll in as the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report arrived on 5 November. Don’t worry, we covered this as well with a range of responses. A number of HEPI colleagues attended the inaugural Smart Thinking Think Tank awards, picking up the award for ‘Most Niche Report of the Year’ for our work on The hidden impact of menstruation on higher education. (In case you missed our Director of Policy, Rose Stephenson, shouting from the rooftops about this – research into menstruation is not niche, it is taboo!) However, the recognition from other think tankers and the ginormous jar of Smarties were both gratefully received.

Then, in December, the big news was the announcement that Susan Lapworth will be leaving the OfS in Easter 2026. A remarkably prescient blog from HEPI President Bahram Bekhradnia on the OfS leadership had arrived a while before the announcement but these days the HEPI blog is so popular with authors that it sadly ended up being published after the event.

So, as we arrive now in 2026, HEPI looks ahead to another packed year of events, topical blogs, and continued debate. We’re beginning our events schedule with a webinar with Advance HE at 11am on 13^th January entitled ‘What can higher education leadership learn from other sectors?’. Do sign up here to join us!

Thank you to everyone who has written for us, attended our events, supported our research, kept up with our blogs, and engaged with us in any way over the past year – HEPI couldn’t be here without you.

The blog is back in full force for the new year, so do keep an eye out for our arrival in your inbox. If you fancy writing one for us, then take a look at the guidelines here, and send a draft to [email protected]

We will see you for lots more debate throughout 2026!