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

Nick Hillman

  • What do home students think of studying with international students?

    25 June 2015 by Nick Hillman

    The results of a survey commissioned by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) shows students believe they benefit in many ways from studying alongside people from other countries – however, benefits are clearer to international students.

  • Come and join the HEPI team (Oxford based)

    9 June 2015

    As regular readers of this website know, HEPI is the UK’s only specialist think tank on higher education. We have a lively programme of events and publications, which are masterminded from our office in north Oxford. We have a small central team and are now looking to recruit a new…

  • Three-quarters of students want more information about where their tuition fees go

    4 June 2015

    On Thursday, 4th June, the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy launch the results of the 2015 Student Academic Experience Survey (Full report and Summary report) Nick Hillman, Director, HEPI, said: ‘The survey reveals more about what students at UK universities are up to than any other source. They are…

  • 2015 HEPI-HEA Student Academic Experience Survey

    4 June 2015 by Alex Buckley, Ioannis Soilemetzidis and Nick Hillman

    The Higher Education Policy Institute / Higher Education Academy 2015 Student Academic Experience Survey includes questions on class size, attendance, the qualifications of lecturers, contact hours and total workload, written assignments, student wellbeing, information and policy options. It was published at an exclusive Policy Briefing day for organisations that support…

  • Should doctors and engineers pay higher fees than arts students?

    29 May 2015 by Nicholas Robinson

    This is the third in a series of pieces by HEPI visiting researcher Nicholas Robinson comparing the UK and Australian higher education systems. The first two on maintenance support and part-time students can be found here and here. The dust has finally settled on the debate over the tuition fee…

  • Part-time students deserve more than part-time policy

    26 May 2015 by Nicholas Robinson

    This piece by Nicholas Robinson, a researcher at HEPI who grew up and went to university in Australia, is the second in a series comparing the UK and Australian higher education systems. The first covered student maintenance and was published in Times Higher Education on May 7 2015. The number…

  • Student loans: How Government accounting is binding the hands of policymakers

    21 May 2015

    In a new HEPI pamphlet, The accounting and budgeting of student loans, Andrew McGettigan reveals how the treatment of student loans in the national and departmental accounts is driving policy. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has been wrestling with the multi-billion pound impact of student loans. It…

  • The accounting and budgeting of student loans

    21 May 2015 by Andrew McGettigan

    Understanding of how student loans appear in the national and departmental accounts is poor. Yet the issue is crucial to the future of student finance, to any sale of the student loan book and even to the size of the UK’s debt. This paper seeks to explain the accounting and…

  • How will BIS tackle the HE funding challenge?

    14 May 2015

    Below is a short extract from a speech that Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, made earlier today to a Higher Education Academy meeting of Pro-Vice Chancellors for teaching and learning. No political party promised to protect the budget of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in the lengthy general…