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

Nick Hillman

  • HEPI publishes the OECD’s thoughts on teaching excellence, the TEF and learning gain

    28 January 2016

    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 role of a think tank on the TEF

    27 January 2016

    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…

  • Sharia-compliant student loans: the perspective from Australia

    25 January 2016 by Conor King

    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…

  • Laissez-faire it is not.

    8 January 2016

    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…

  • HEPI publishes its response to the higher education green paper

    7 January 2016

    The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) publishes its Response to the higher education green paper on 7 January 2016. It is a collection of contributions from experts in each of the main areas covered by the green paper. Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, said: ‘The higher education green paper has lots of positive…

  • Response to the higher education green paper

    7 January 2016 by Graham Gibbs, Bahram Bekhradnia, Roger King, Gary Attle, Roxanne Stockwell and Emma Sims (edited by Nick Hillman)

    The echoes of the past in the higher education green paper appear accidental and do not reflect much institutional memory. So HEPI has chosen to respond to the proposals by asking experienced people with deep roots in the higher education sector to reflect on them. The authors are: Graham Gibbs on teaching; Bahram Bekhradnia…

  • Remembering Professor Sir David Watson

    4 January 2016

    This guest blog has been contributed by Mrs Sam Davies, Director of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement, at the University of Brighton. David was a long-standing and faithful friend of HEPI’s and we are pleased to be able to publicise this welcome initiative. David’s last two publications for HEPI can be found here and…

  • Taking issue with the ESRC-funded ‘Alternative Politics of Debt’

    29 December 2015 by Nick Hillman

    The Political Economy Research Centre (PERC) at Goldsmiths, University of London, recently put up a post entitled ‘Debt Briefing 01: Student Debt in the United Kingdom‘. This was part of an ESRC-funded project on ‘Crafting an Alternative Politics of Debt’. The piece is a useful summary of some of the debates around…