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The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Nick Hillman

  • Why the new student number cap is unworkable, by Bahram Bekhradnia

    5 May 2020

    Bahram Bekhradnia founded HEPI in 2002 and was its Director until January 2014, since when he has been HEPI’s President. Before establishing HEPI, he was the Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This is his first HEPI blog. The Government’s introduction of controls over the…

  • New report suggests further falls in the wellbeing of university staff

    30 April 2020

    The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) is publishing a new report on the mental health and wellbeing of academic and professional services staff in universities. Pressure Vessels II: An update on mental health among higher education staff in the UK (HEPI Policy Note 23) by Dr Liz Morrish, a Visiting…

  • Pressure Vessels II: An update on mental health among higher education staff in the UK

    30 April 2020 by Liz Morrish and Nicky Priaulx

    Summary Analysis of 17 universities reveals a continued rise in staff access to counselling and occupational health referrals since Pressure Vessels was published in 2019. From 2016 to 2018, there was an increase of 16% in counselling at the 14 universities for which comparable time series data were obtained. Over the same…

  • Don’t panic … yet.

    23 April 2020

    Surprise has been expressed that Universities UK’s (UUK) package of proposals for helping universities in the current crisis has not already been accepted by Ministers in Whitehall and by the devolved administrations. Today’s Financial Times front-page lead, for example, is headlined, ‘Universities’ plea for £2bn bailout falls on deaf ears…

  • New report asks whether the UK still has a single higher education sector

    16 April 2020

    The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has used evidence from nearly 60,000 full-time undergraduate students across the UK to answer the question of whether there is still a single UK higher education sector. One for all or all four one? Does the UK still have a single higher education sector? by…

  • One for all or all four one? Does the UK still have a single higher education sector?

    16 April 2020 by Nick Hillman

    Using almost 60,000 responses to the HEPI / Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey collected between 2015 and 2019, this report considers if the UK still has a single higher education sector – from the perspective of students. Some important differences are revealed among locally-domiciled students studying in England, Scotland, Wales and…

  • The academic fraudster who proved why good regulation is necessary

    20 March 2020 by Nick Hillman

    If you find yourself with a little more time to read over the next few weeks while social distancing or self-isolating, then – after you have read and re-read HEPI’s recent output – may I recommend The Professor and the Parson by Adam Sisman? It is a biography of Robert Peters, who spent…