There’s one certainty about higher education funding in Wales: whatever you say about it, someone will shoot you down in flames. (And there will be more heat than light.) Five years ago, we published a paper, Is ‘progressive universalism’ the answer? The new student funding arrangements in Wales, which pointed…
In a new paper from the Higher Education Policy Institute, Student Accommodation: The State of the Nation in 2024, Martin Blakey, the former Chief Executive of the Leeds-based student housing charity Unipol, explains the changes in the student accommodation market that have led to higher rents. Following the recent announcement that…
While Margaret Thatcher was the Secretary of State for Education and Science in the 1970s, she instructed people working in independent educational institutions to: ‘never apologise for independence. It is worth stimulating and nurturing for its own sake. You do not have to justify it. It is those who wish to…
The logic of fees Whether we like it or not, there is one higher education issue that tends to bestride all the others at general elections, and that is tuition fees. In many ways, that is an odd fact. Undergraduate fees have existed in some form or other in most…
On Christmas Day, my family gave me a lovely new fountain pen (made out of recycled plectrums by this master craftsman since you ask). There was one other thing at the top of my Christmas wish list too, although – unlike the pen – it has only just arrived. I am referring…
This short and timely book is aimed at ‘anybody seeking to understand how to get ahead’, which is presumably most people – although, in reality, I suspect it is more likely to be read by careers advisers, human resources staff and policy wonks (like me) than it is to be…
This week is the last week of term at many universities. So we will be marking the start of the Christmas period with three detailed pieces on the state of higher education at the end of 2023. These will feature on our News page (and are in addition to the…
In a new HEPI Policy Note, REF2028: Outputs Matter, Professor Sir Nigel Thrift, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, argues the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is becoming overloaded – thereby diluting its core purpose. A response to this paper, which outlines a different perspective from Professor Stephen Curry, is…
These 10 points summarise the comments made by Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, at the launch of the interim Student Accommodation Costs survey in central London this morning. Other recent HEPI output on this topic includes:
In the last three years there have been big changes in rent levels and the supply of student accommodation, driven and shaped by global and national economic turbulence. High inflation, high energy costs, high building costs and high interest rates have combined to produce unprecedented rises in rent. Because of…