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Nick Hillman

  • It’s good to talk: bursaries, fees and everything else?

    26 April 2017 by Nick Hillman

    This morning, Labour have announced a commitment to bring back bursaries and abolish tuition fees for some NHS staff. This is smart campaigning because it is part of a wider strategy to focus on the NHS, and it simultaneously shines a spotlight on the current big fall in the number…

  • Why we must protect university autonomy

    3 April 2017

    HEPI Director, Nick Hillman, will today deliver a major speech on university autonomy at the inaugural meeting of the G20 – a group of Presidents from independent (or independent-minded) colleges and universities around the world – taking place at the University of Buckingham. In his speech, he will: note the benefits that institutional autonomy provides UK universities in…

  • Working with the media…

    30 March 2017 by Nick Hillman

    Our new paper by Richard Garner, available on the Publications page, is chock full of anecdotes illustrating his arguments about the best ways for higher education institutions to engage with the media. Here are three of the best. Social media Gone, hopefully, are the days I encountered while working as Education…

  • Getting bang-for-buck from university communications

    30 March 2017

    On Thursday, 30th March, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) publishes a new report by Richard Garner, the UK’s longest-serving education correspondent, entitled Return on investment? How universities communicate with the outside world (Occasional Paper 16). Drawing on over 35 years’ experience at the Independent, the Mirror and the Times Educational Supplement, the author: recounts initiatives that…

  • Return on investment? How universities communicate with the outside world

    30 March 2017 by Richard Garner

    Richard Garner is the UK’s longest-serving education correspondent and has worked at the Times Educational Supplement, the Mirror and the Independent. In this HEPI Occasional Paper, he questions whether universities are making the most of their opportunities to work with the media. Through a series of colourful anecdotes, he reveals…

  • Should students be free to register with different doctors for home and away?

    27 March 2017 by Dr Dominique Thompson

    Last year, HEPI recommended letting students register at two GP surgeries – one for where they are during term and the other for the rest of the year. Many people welcomed the idea but, Dr Dominique Thompson, Honorary Secretary of the Student Health Association, argues in this guest blog that…

  • Why does the Office for National Statistics fail to measure the UK’s educational exports?

    10 March 2017 by James Pitman, Managing Director Higher Education UK & Europe, Study Group

    This guest blog has been kindly written for HEPI by James Pitman, Managing Director Higher Education UK & Europe, Study Group Education is one of our most successful export sectors. It is our fifth largest services sector and the second biggest contributor to our net balance of payments. So why…

  • The TEF: an idiot’s guide to the arguments for and against

    6 March 2017

    HEPI has probably published more critiques of the new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) than any other organisation. Four of these are shown in the slide below, and there have been other pieces – such as blogs – alongside. While it is easy to criticise elements of the TEF (not least the metrics),…

  • HEPI announces a senior new team member to expand our policy analysis

    1 March 2017

    HEPI is delighted to announce a senior new member of staff, Dr Diana Beech, who joins the think tank from the Department for Education (DfE) in a new role as the Director of Policy and Advocacy. Previously a Programme Manager at the DfE with responsibility for establishing the Office for Students, Diana holds…

  • Education spending across the age range

    28 February 2017

    This post is an extract of a speech by Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, to the Institute for Fiscal Studies at the launch of their paper on education spending across the age range. This important new piece of work from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on education spending fills a hole…