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

Nick Hillman

  • Keeping Schtum?: What students think of free speech (Wave 2 of the HEPI / YouthSight Monitor)

    22 May 2016 by Nick Hillman

    Wave 2 of the HEPI / YouthSight Monitor focuses on freedom and the limits of freedom at UK higher education institutions, including: free speech; freedom from discrimination; No Platform policies; gender segregation; academic freedom; safe spaces; trigger warnings; library resources; and even whether it is appropriate for student unions to…

  • When ten into two doesn’t go?

    18 May 2016

    In many ways, the biggest shift from the recent past in the new higher education green paper is the redrawing of the research landscape (as I originally noted in a Times Higher blog). The white paper says: ‘There are currently ten arms’-length Government bodies operating in the higher education and…

  • Boys to Men: The underachievement of young men in higher education – and how to start tackling it

    12 May 2016 by Nick Hillman and Nicholas Robinson, with a Foreword by Mary Curnock Cook

    Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree. There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is…

  • How students could most influence the referendum

    9 May 2016

    Universities are fighting a lively campaign collectively and individually in favour of the UK remaining part of the European Union. They have come in for a little criticism as a result from some, but many Vice Chancellors – as Michael Arthur of UCL has pointed out – regard it as…

  • New report shows employer-sponsored degrees are around six times cheaper for taxpayers

    21 April 2016

    On Thursday, 21st April 2016, the Higher Education Policy Institute will be publishing a new report entitled Making a Success of Employer Sponsored Education by Professor Dave Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University and Chair of million+. Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘One-in-ten students is currently…

  • Making a Success of Employer Sponsored Education

    21 April 2016 by Dave Phoenix

    What are Employer Sponsored Degrees? What benefits do they offer students, employers, universities and taxpayers? How do they differ from Degree Apprenticeships? What does the Apprenticeship Levy mean for Employer Sponsored Degrees? All these questions and more are answered in this paper by the Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University. He also…