There are some universities that are excellent at research and others that are excellent at teaching. There are some that are excellent at both, where insights from new research brighten the lectures and vice versa. But the incentives for universities have been out of balance, with good research favoured over…
A new paper by the Higher Education Policy Institute considers the most controversial aspects of the new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and proposes substantial changes to make sure it works. Tackling Wicked Issues: Prestige and Employment Outcomes in the Teaching Excellence Framework (Occasional Paper 14) includes two essays, written by…
Successive governments have tried to improve teaching quality in universities. The proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is the latest attempt. This new pamphlet explores two of the most difficult issues that need more attention and offers some solutions. In the first chapter Paul Blackmore considers why research has a higher…
Hundreds of people (472 at 10.15am) have already responded to my new piece in the Guardian arguing against Owen Smith’s support for a graduate tax. It is not meant to be controversial but I didn’t expect everyone to agree with it, and it has definitely got some people’s goat. A small…
We recently made available on this site an important but hard-to-find historical text: Tony Crosland’s famous speech cementing the binary division between polytechnics and universities, which was delivered in 1965. Another speech that is incredibly important in British higher education policymaking but similarly hard to obtain is Ken Baker’s speech at Lancaster University…
August seems as good a time as any to put up something we have been meaning to post for a while: the text of Anthony Crosland’s Woolwich Polytechnic speech of 27th April 1965. It is incredibly important in higher education policymaking, as it announced the binary system of polytechnics and universities…
The perennial row over grammar schools flared up again last weekend. Possibly, just possibly, the new Prime Minister is not as opposed to new grammar schools, which select pupils on academic ability, as her recent predecessors. The debate over grammar schools feels endless and circular but is perhaps best articulated…
This guest blog has been contributed by Sam Cannicott, who has been the Education Policy Adviser for the Liberal Democrats (2007-2010) and a Policy and Strategy Adviser at Regent’s University London (2012-15) and who now lives and works in New Zealand. New Zealand has a population of under 4.5 million and only eight universities. …
Martin Lewis, the founder of the MoneySavingExpert, is on the warpath. He is furious that the student loan repayment threshold is being fixed at £21,000. This means the terms on which student loans were taken out by today’s students have been retrospectively changed: previously it was said the threshold would…
Since 2014, HEPI has undertaken major comparative studies of higher education in Australia and Germany. Now, we turn our attention to New Zealand. Although the New Zealand higher education sector is small compared to the UK’s, it performs very well in international league tables. Moreover, policymakers in Wellington have given…