Who we are
In this section
HEPI’s work is guided by Trustees and an Advisory Board; the members are distinguished and influential people who work in higher education or have a strong and informed interest in it and policies related to it.
The HEPI Team
Nick Hillman OBE has been the Director of HEPI since January 2014. He previously worked in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Special Adviser to the Rt Hon…
Rose is the Director of Policy and Strategy at the Higher Education Policy Institute. Rose directs HEPI’s work on policy, including research, policy analysis and the development of policy recommendations. Rose…
Emma is Director of Business Operations at HEPI. Emma has worked at HEPI since September 2015. Previously Emma worked at Oxford University Press (2006 to 2015) as a Senior Assistant…
Carole is HEPI’s Events and Communications Administrator. Carole has been working in UK higher education for over 18 years. She works part-time at the University of Bath as Student Casework…
Trustees
HEPI is a registered charity and generally has five Trustees, who also act as Members of the HEPI Company. The Director of HEPI is accountable to the Trustees, and they have final authority for decisions about the future direction of HEPI as an organisation.
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone has been Chair of HEPI’s Trustees since late 2021.
The HEPI Trustees
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, a position she took up in 2016. During Dame Sally’s tenure, the…
Mary Curnock Cook is an independent education expert serving in a non-executive capacity on a number of Boards. From 2010 to 2017, Mary was Chief Executive of UCAS. Earlier in…
Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent from 2007 to 2017 and President of UUK from 2015 to 2017. She is currently President of The…
Professor Sir Chris Husbands undertook senior roles in universities for more than two decades, most recently serving as Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University from 2016 to 2023. Sir Chris was…
Professor Nick Pearce joined the HEPI Advisory Board in June 2021 and became a Trustee in September 2024. He is currently Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute…
Advisory Board
HEPI’s work is guided by an Advisory Board, which meets three times a year to discuss HEPI’s programme of work and administrative matters. Their role is not to take executive decisions but to give advice to the Director, the HEPI staff and the Trustees. The Board typically includes distinguished academics, current and former vice-chancellors and other accomplished experts in higher education.
In July 2020, the Trustees agreed to ‘regularise Advisory Board membership to 3+3’ and to ‘allow a second extension of up to 2 years, in exceptional circumstances’.
The HEPI Advisory Board
Alison Allden was Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from 2009 to 2015. Since then she has developed a non-executive portfolio and undertakes consultancy in the…
Professor Nishan Canagarajah is President & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, ranked as a top 25 UK university in the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Born and…
Anne-Marie is the Chief Executive Officer of The Brilliant Club, a UK-wide university access charity focused on increasing the number of less advantaged students accessing the most competitive universities…
Andy is the Executive Director of the Lifelong Education Institute. He began his career as a secondary school English teacher, before moving into further education by joining Manchester College. He…
Julie Sanders is Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Royal Holloway University of London and was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost and before that Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Social Sciences at Newcastle…
Professor Iyiola Solanke is Jacques Delors Chair of EU Law at the University of Oxford. Previously she was Chair in EU Law and Social Justice in the School of Law…
David Sweeney is Professor of Research Policy at the University of Birmingham. Previously he was founding Executive Chair of Research England within UKRI, the agency responsible for creating and sustaining…
President
Bahram Bekhradnia established the Higher Education Policy Institute in 2002, and was its Director until December 2013 following which he became HEPI’s first President. Before establishing HEPI he had been the Director of Policy of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) since its formation in 1992, and prior to that was a senior civil servant in the Department of Education and Science.
Vacancies
Any current vacancies are generally advertised via www.jobs.ac.uk.
