In 2015, HEPI and YouthSight polled students on their views about the UK’s place in the EU and the forthcoming referendum. We published the results in a paper originally issued last November. We found overwhelming support among students for the UK to remain within the EU, although some of this…
This guest blog has been kindly contributed by John Rushforth ( [email protected]), who is part-time Secretary to the Committee of University Chairs and formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of the West of England. We live in uncertain times, but universities are complex global enterprises and change is inevitable. One theme of recent years is increasing expectations…
The new UCAS figures on applications to higher education are ‘the first reliable indicator of demand for UK higher education this cycle.’ The main headline is one of broad stability: UK applicant numbers (495,940) have decreased slightly (-0.3%), due to fewer English applicants (-1%) mostly aged between 20 and 34. The number of applicants from…
The single most frustrating thing about working in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which looks after higher education policy, is the lack of institutional memory. The surest way for a BIS official to be promoted is to change jobs as frequently as possible. This matters for good policymaking. For example,…
The quality of teaching and learning in higher education is under enormous scrutiny. For example, in England there is to be a new Teaching Excellence Framework. In this revised version of the 12th HEPI Annual Lecture, which was originally delivered in December 2015, Andreas Schleicher of the OECD makes a…
On Thursday, 28th January 2016, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) will publish a revised version of the most recent HEPI annual lecture, Value-Added: How do you measure whether universities are delivering for their students? It was originally delivered by Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education at the OECD, in December…
The biggest joy I experienced on becoming the Director of an independent think tank two years ago, after a decade working for a political party, was the freedom to follow the evidence. People condemn politicians for not listening ‘to the experts’, but the job of our elected representatives is to…
This week’s guest blog comes from Conor King, Executive Director of Innovative Research Universities, which is an Australian ‘network of six comprehensive universities conducting research of national and international standing.’ Conor looks at one long-standing commitment of the UK Government, which was repeated in the recent higher education green paper: to introduce Sharia-compliant student loans. He builds…
Our latest guest blog comes from Professor John Vinney, Vice-Chancellor of Bournemouth University, in the form of a constructive response to the TEF proposals. With the green paper response deadline looming, most readers will have settled their responses and, according to recent press reports, many believe that the proposals are bad…
The controversies stoked by the higher education green paper continue to be in the news, not least because of our own response to the green paper (which was published yesterday). That is as it should be, because the volume of proposals on higher education emanating from the Government since they…