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

Nick Hillman

  • BTEC: why it’s important to Universities, Employers, Students…and Pearson too

    18 November 2016 by Rod Bristow

    This guest blog has been kindly provided by Rod Bristow, President, Core Markets for Pearson. A College to Career Pathway for Students in Britain and the World  This week, we are publishing the annual data for nearly three-quarters of a million BTEC qualifications taken in the past academic year. The…

  • Who are Jo Johnson’s Numskulls?*

    16 November 2016

    Source: http://ukcomics.wikia.com/wiki/The_Numskulls The recent WonkHE Power List 2016 was a bit of fun with a serious purpose. Asking who wields influence over any policy area is a really good question – even though, as with all the other higher education league tables, we can argue over the results. (I declare an…

  • How Philip Hammond could turn £1 of spending into £22 of savings

    12 November 2016

    In New Zealand, the third arrest of a student loan defaulter has recently taken place and a new data matching arrangement to identify defaulters resident in Australia has begun. The UK could learn from these successful initiatives. Like the UK, New Zealand faces severe challenges in recouping student debt, particularly when…

  • Speech to the HMC / GSA University Admissions Conference

    9 November 2016

    Earlier today, I delivered the speech below to the Headmasters and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) / Girls’ School Association (GSA) annual University Admissions Conference at the University of Leicester. The speech: argues that independent schools often pick the wrong battles and could instead focus on the strengths they have in common with…

  • How long do vice-chancellors stay in post?

    3 November 2016

    HEPI has undertaken a small piece of desk research on the tenure of university leaders over the past half a century. For a full explanation of the chart below, see the new blog outlining the research on the Times Higher website. Postscript (added 4th November, 2016): We generally aim to make…

  • Stop wasting time and money by making outreach work

    26 October 2016

    This guest blog has been kindly provided by David Woolley, Head of Schools, Colleges and Community Outreach at Nottingham Trent University. If you are lucky, there may be a few times in your career when you are given the opportunity to really make an impact. For those of us working…

  • Protecting the Public Interest in Higher Education

    13 October 2016 by Bill Rammell

    This new pamphlet by Bill Rammell, Vice Chancellor for the University of Bedfordshire and a former Higher Education Minister, argues the Government’s obsession with market competition ignores the fundamental purpose of universities to serve the public interest. He argues that the public interest should be reflected in legislation and calls…

  • A considered view of the Diamond review of university funding in Wales

    12 October 2016 by Lucy Hunter Blackburn

    This guest blog on Ian Diamond’s review of university funding in Wales has been kindly provided by Lucy Hunter Blackburn, who is a Freelance researcher and postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh as well as the author of the 2015 HEPI paper Whose to Lose?: Citizens, institutions and the ownership of…