Responding to the new data on unconditional offers published by UCAS, Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: Our universities are among the best in the world because they enjoy such high levels of autonomy, including over admissions. But we are in the midst of a battle…
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that there will be a general election before the year is out – perhaps as early as September. I once thought a second referendum was more likely than a general election but, at this moment, it seems I was almost certainly wrong.…
My response to last week’s National Student Survey results focused on question 26, which is generally ignored by everyone but is actually the question which always seems to score the lowest results of all. It is about the utility of student unions. It is, admittedly, an odd question that implies…
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking at Wonkhe’s conference on Augar, in the final session of the day, alongside Rachel Wolf, on the politics of the report. Here are my remarks. On the day the Augar report appeared, I said on the radio that it felt like…
Responding to the new National Student Survey results from the Office for Students, Nick Hillman, the Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: It is good that student satisfaction is rising, if only slightly and not everywhere. But as our own surveys show, you need to get underneath the student satisfaction data…
When higher education policy conversations turn to research, they tend to dwell upon the UK Government’s commitment to increase the share of GDP spent on research and development (R&D) by public and private sources to 2.4% by 2027. This is a huge amount of money – more than three times…
There are few issues in higher education as controversial as free speech. In this report, Corey Stoughton, the Advocacy Director of the human rights organisation Liberty, looks at the issue through history, international experience and recent legal changes. She notes that asking disempowered people to accept a total right to…
The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a robust defence of free speech in universities, Free Speech and Censorship on Campus (HEPI Occasional Paper 21) by Corey Stoughton. The author is the Advocacy Director and previous Acting Director of the Human Rights organisation Liberty and served as senior counsel to the Assistant…
It is easy to be pessimistic about future student demand, given the current environment in which higher education institutions are operating. We often write about the challenges facing the sector. But the slides below are designed to show there are broad grounds for optimism too. (With apologies to Ian Dury…
Today’s new Student Academic Experience Survey 2019 from HEPI and Advance HE includes a new question on disclosing mental health challenges to students’ parents and guardians. Here is a summary of the issue. What do your results show? The HEPI / Advance HE 2019 Student Academic Survey Survey shows nearly all…