The Government is, rightly in my view, committed to raising the salience of good teaching in higher education. Its preferred means for doing so is a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). No one yet knows exactly what that will look like. Only two things are certain: one, that the TEF will be hard…
In mid-July, I blogged on the seemingly ever-changing forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (or OBR) on future student numbers, which can be read here. The OBR has treated that blog as a formal ‘request for further detail’. I wholeheartedly welcome their willingness to respond to my comments and their response can be…
The University Alliance hosted a stimulating event to discuss the threats and opportunities of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) earlier today. Not only were there platform speeches from senior people from HEFCE, BIS, Coventry University and the University of South Wales, there was even an interview with a real live student (often notable by…
On Monday, UniversitiesUK launch their pro-EU and anti-Brexit campaign. It is notable for the sector’s desire to be out-of-the-blocks quickly and for its unrelentingly positive focus. It seems likely to get lots of media coverage. The difference between the last major referendum in the UK – the referendum on Scottish…
Note: This seminar is invite-only and requires a guest registration password to book. For further details please contact Sarah Isles at [email protected] Improving productivity through better higher technical education Launch of a new HEPI/Pearson paper on higher technical education entitled Raising productivity by improving higher technical education: Tackling the Level 4…
England and Wales lag behind competitor nations in the proportion of people with higher technical skills. In this pamphlet, Scott Kelly proposes three overarching reforms to ensure employers have access to the skills they need. There should be a well-defined set of institutions where the core mission is to deliver technical…
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) in partnership with Pearson is launching a report on improving higher-level skills at an event in Parliament hosted by Shadow Skills Minister, John Woodcock MP. Raising productivity by improving higher technical education: Tackling the Level 4 and Level 5 conundrum is written by Dr…
It is said that replacing maintenance grants with bigger loans could lead to fewer undergraduates. That may prove a rash assumption. Against consensus opinion, the tripling of tuition fee loans to £3,000 in 2006 and again to £9,000 in 2012 made little difference to the behaviour of young full-time applicants.…
Today’s Productivity paper from HM Treasury provides yet more evidence, if any were needed, that the Conservative-majority Government is doing things differently to the Conservative-led Coalition. The 2010 to 2015 Government made one early decision that transformed the finances of some alternative higher education providers (known as APs) when allowing their…
On the morning of 2nd July, 2015, the Leadership Foundation held an event to launch a personal perspective on international students by Leszek Borysiewicz, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. The Director of HEPI made the following remarks at the event. Thank you very much for inviting me to speak. It is a…