The summer showed that vice-chancellors’ pay is a matter of public interest. Counter-intuitively, and in contrast to almost every other issue affecting universities, the best way to address the concerns might be for institutions to become a little more inward-looking. In other words, or so I have argued elsewhere (‘On v-c…
The UK’s pipeline of creative talent is fracturing because Art, Media and Design are being downgraded in schools, according to a new report – A crisis in the creative arts in the UK? – from the Higher Education Policy Institute by Professor John Last, Vice-Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts (NUA). Research…
Recent debates have focused on the direct economic returns of obtaining a degree – and certain degrees in particular. Taking one county as an example, this report by the Vice-Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts, Professor John Last, reveals the knock-on effect for the options available in schools. In…
University changed my life, just as it will change the lives of those school leavers who enrol for the first time this autumn. But I didn’t particularly enjoy my first term or my first year. I was in one of the oldest and most traditional halls of residence, but my…
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the social mobility charity Brightside are jointly publishing a collection of essays by senior higher education figures entitled Where next for widening participation and fair access? New insights from leading thinkers. Contributors include: Kirsty Williams AM, the Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Welsh…
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the social mobility charity Brightside are jointly publishing a collection of essays by senior higher education figures entitled Where next for widening participation and fair access? New insights from leading thinkers. Contributors include: Kirsty Williams AM, the Cabinet Secretary for Education in the…
This guest blog has been written for HEPI by Gervas Huxley and Mike Peacey, the authors of a new academic article that has received considerable media coverage for shining a spotlight on teaching intensity, which is increasingly an interest of the Government too. In research just published in the journal Fiscal Studies, we…
A new study by the Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) reveals the UK’s higher education sector has educated more of the world’s leaders than any other. Among 377 serving heads of state and heads of government, 58 attended universities and colleges in the UK. This places the UK just ahead…
HEPI is today publishing The Comprehensive University (Occasional Paper 17) by Professor Tim Blackman, the Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University. The report argues the comprehensive ideal is the best way to fix how the UK’s class-based university system is holding back social mobility. The paper’s recommendations include: measures to ‘desegregate’ and diversify…
In this hard-hitting paper, Tim Blackman, a serving Vice-Chancellor, calls for a much less hierarchical higher education sector. He shows how this will benefit students, the quality of learning and social mobility and, most importantly, he shows how to get there.