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HEPI Guest Post

  • Keep calm, and carry on … using Chat GPT

    16 June 2023 by Ninian Wilson

    It’s been a busy time for QAA responding to the rise of generative AI. After three webinars attended by over 2,000 people, discussions with providers across the UK, a brief trip to Tbilisi to share best practice with European quality agency colleagues, one piece of guidance out and another to…

  • The future for international students in the UK by Jo Johnson

    14 June 2023 by Jo Johnson

    The future for international students in the UK should be bright, provided the sector reforms and deals with issues that have surfaced during the last couple of years of growth.  The political consensus that was so supportive of growth in international student numbers in 2019 has weakened.  It would be…

  • Essential skills for 2035

    13 June 2023 by Mary Curnock Cook CBE

    A new report from the NFER-led Skills Imperative 2035, An analysis of the demand for skills in the labour market in 2035 is a must-read for the higher education sector.  Part of a five-year research programme funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the latest publication from a University of Sheffield team…

  • If A-level grades are unreliable, what should admissions officers do?

    8 June 2023 by Rob Cuthbert

    Let us assume that higher education institutions want to have the best students they can get, admitted in the fairest way possible: not a very controversial assumption, even if sometimes people look to satisfice, by settling for something good enough, but perhaps not best. The assessment of ability and potential…

  • Lessons from Australia for the regulation of English higher education – by Anthony McClaran

    8 June 2023 by Anthony McClaran

    The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new paper on the regulation of English higher education by Anthony McClaran, the Vice-Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and a former Chief Executive of both the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency and Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). Good Regulation:…

  • Most universities are charities: so what?

    7 June 2023 by Mary Synge

    On the website of nearly every university, you will find an explanation that the institution is a charity. But what does this mean, apart from generous tax advantages? And why are universities not generally talked about as charities, in the same way as, say, Oxfam or Macmillan Cancer Support? One…

  • Cultivating controversy … with civility

    6 June 2023 by Nyika Suttie

    This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Nyika Suttie, Culture and Inclusion Training Officer at the University of Bath. Much has been made of the Free Speech Act gaining Royal Assent. Meanwhile, institutions such as King’s College London (KCL) and organisations such as HEPI and WonkHE have been asking the…

  • So, you think diversity matters? Do something about it!

    2 June 2023 by Professor Ken Sloan

    I welcome the recent paper by Edward Venning Size is Everything: What Small, Specialist and Practice Based Providers tell us about the Higher Education Sector (HEPI Report 160). It helpfully reignites a debate about what the shape and nature of the UK’s higher education sector looks like, and – perhaps somewhat worryingly – suggests what it…