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

Nick Hillman

  • Targeted Tuition Fees: Is means-testing the answer?

    20 September 2018

    The UK’s Higher Education Policy Institute and Canada’s Higher Education Strategy Associates are jointly publishing a new research paper on charging people from poorer backgrounds less for higher education. Targeted Tuition Fees: Is means-testing the answer? by Alex Usher and Robert Burroughs is being simultaneously published in the UK and Canada.…

  • Targeted Tuition Fees: Is means-testing the answer?

    20 September 2018 by Alex Usher and Robert Burroughs

    This HEPI report focuses on international higher education financing, discussing the concept of ‘targeted free tuition’ – the idea that, while tuition fees backed by income-contingent loans can improve access, they still do not do enough to help people from the very poorest households, who are typically the most debt…

  • What have people been reading about higher education in 2017/18?

    10 September 2018

    The HEPI year runs from the start of August to the end of July and so, recently, we have been taking stock of our 2017/18 year. It was (by far) the busiest one ever on our website. The top 20 most-read entries were, unsurprisingly, headed by our ground-breaking research with Kaplan…

  • David versus Goliath: The past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK

    6 September 2018

    The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) is publishing a report on the past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK. Released just before the new academic year begins, the report traces the history of student representation in higher education to show its role in higher education debates. David…

  • David versus Goliath: The past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK

    6 September 2018 by Jim Dickinson and Mike Day

    In this report, Mike Day and Jim Dickinson look at the past, present and future of student unions. Although almost every university has a students’ union, there is little research or reliable data on their form, role or successes. They are often seen and judged through a ‘student politics’ lens…

  • Universities and Integration – An Opportunity

    5 September 2018

    This guest blog has been Kindly provided by Fitzroy Morrissey of All Souls College, Oxford. In March 2018, the Government published its Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper, which set out some ideas about how to respond to the challenges highlighted by the 2016 Casey Review into opportunity and integration in Britain. Such…

  • The Post-18 Review in England: A Story of Two Loans?

    4 September 2018

    This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Mark Corney, a post-16 education and labour market consultant.  Income contingent loans are viewed as either a tax liability or personal debt. Viewed as debt, the inclination of stakeholders across post-18 education is to turn fee loans and maintenance loans into teaching…

  • Mind the gap

    31 August 2018

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Helen Howard, Academic Project Lead for the Student Attainment Project at the University of Derby, and Professor Malcolm Todd, Provost (Academic) at the University of Derby. W we aim to achieve an excellent pedagogical experience for all of our learners,…

  • New funding package means less cash and higher debts for Welsh students

    30 August 2018

    A study by the Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk), published on Thursday, 30 August 2018, looks at the new student finance regime being introduced by Labour and the Liberal Democrats in Wales, which remains poorly understood across most of the UK. From this autumn, undergraduates from Wales will no longer get…