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HEPI Guest Post

  • Policymakers must not forget refugees’ higher education

    13 October 2020 by Phoebe Campbell

    This blog was kindly contributed by Phoebe Campbell, a final year Classics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. On August 13 2020, many students in England were left devastated after opening a set of A-Level results calculated by Ofqual’s controversial algorithm. Although implemented to push back on grade inflation, this…

  • The importance of student friendships

    12 October 2020 by Jenny Shaw

    This blog was kindly contributed by Jenny Shaw, Student Experience Director at Unite Students. Yesterday, Saturday 10th October, was World Mental Health Day. Unite Students worked with Student Minds on a #uniteagainstloneliness student-led campaign to mark the day. As the new academic year begins under the long shadow of COVID,…

  • Dennis Sherwood: The broken school exam system needs an upgrade

    10 October 2020

    The consequences from this year’s Great Grading Disaster continue to rumble on. Many students still feel damaged as a result of the ‘internal moderation’ exercised by their schools before their ‘centre assessment grades’ were submitted, hence the petition that, although rejected by the Department for Education (DfE), will be debated…

  • Learning at home during COVID: challenges and opportunities for students with children

    8 October 2020 by Patrick Mulrenan, Helen Redd, Jane Lewis, Kelly Cooper & Heather Allison

    This blog was kindly contributed by Patrick Mulrenan, Helen Redd, Jane Lewis, Kelly Cooper and Heather Allison at London Metropolitan University and reflects emerging themes in research on student parents.  As university students return to their studies, the focus of the news has been on the threat of students spreading…

  • Isolation Generation – looking ahead to the sector’s unique recruitment challenge.

    23 September 2020 by Sarah Barr Miller & Josephine Hansom

    This blog was kindly contributed by Sarah Barr Miller, Head of Insight and Consultancy at UCAS Media and Josephine Hansom, Managing Director of Insight at YouthSight. Supporting undergraduate applicants who were due to sit exams in the summer and then start university this autumn has been top of the agenda…

  • For employers, the Social Sciences stand up to the STEM obsession

    21 September 2020 by Sharon Witherspoon

    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,…