The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new analysis of the biggest university pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). The USS: How did it come to this? (HEPI Report 115) by Nick Hillman considers the history of the Scheme, from before it began in 1975 to the recent lengthy…
The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) was founded in 1975, when it replaced an outdated set of pension arrangements for university staff. The USS was stable for nearly four decades but, in recent years, it has undergone considerable turbulence. The causes include tighter pension regulations, growing life expectancy and lower financial…
Before Christmas, I tweeted that anyone who wants to write for HEPI should get in touch. >Have you got strong views on higher education?>Can you write in plain English?>Do you want to have an impact on policymakers? By the end of 2018, we will have published more papers than in…
Over the past week, HEPI has been at the centre of a social media storm about academic selection. Last week, we published a report in our Occasional Paper series which looked at the question of how different school types fare in access to higher education, especially selective higher education, including…
Like many people, I feel conflicted about grammar schools. I live in a part of the country where they are a mainstream part of the school system. The minority of local children who pass the 11+ have high chances of thriving at one of our three local(ish) grammar schools, but…
A new paper published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) looks at the impact of selective schools in ensuring progress to higher education. The Impact of Selective Secondary Education on Progression to Higher Education, HEPI Occasional Paper 19, by Iain Mansfield shows grammar schools increase the likelihood of progression…
HEPI had its busiest ever year in 2018 with, for example, a record number of hits on this website – double the number we received just a couple of years ago. So it seems a good moment to take stock of some of our output over the past year. The…
In response to the Home Office’s new migration white paper, Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: The migration white paper puts new obstacles in the way of international students as well as researchers and other staff. Ministers have made great play of their commitment to exclude…
This guest blog has been kindly written for HEPI by Mary Curnock Cook – follow her on Twitter at @MaryCurnockCook. It was in the Browne Report in 2010. The Browne team recognised that the government would need some kind of mechanism for controlling its exposure on student finance and proposed that a UCAS-tariff…
In response to the announcement on the treatment of student loans in the national accounts by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘The 180-degree flip by the Office for National Statistics may seem embarrassing for policymakers but it is more…