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.
Tomorrow, Jo Johnson (the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation) is delivering a speech to the Reform think tank on ‘Securing VFM for students in HE’. In plain English, VFM means ‘value-for-money’. So the speech could be ten times more interesting than it may sound. There are a number…
When politicians associated with one particular policy or another change their mind, it is often a reason to cheer. This is because it tends to happen when they recognise some old evidence is correct after all or some new evidence comes to light and they respond to it. In general, our…
Since 2006, HEPI has run the Student Academic Experience Survey, generally in conjunction with the Higher Education Academy. This shows a big gap between students’ prior expectations and their time in higher education. It also shows the degree to which prior expectations are met explains students’ perceptions of value for money and…