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

Nick Hillman

  • How to read the new BIS Select Committee report on student loans

    22 July 2014

    The cross-party Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee has today published a report on Student Loans. It is the output of an enquiry which HEPI’s former Director, Bahram Bekhradnia gave oral evidence to last year. It is as useful and thorough as you would expect. The key points are: acceptance of the official figure…

  • HEPI wins ‘One to Watch’ at the Think Tank of the Year Awards

    17 July 2014

    At last night’s Prospect Think Tank of the Year Awards, sponsored by Shell and the Institute of Directors, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) triumphed in the ‘One to Watch’ category. The judges particularly recognised the strength of HEPI’s work on the cost of student loans and on the quality of students’ academic…

  • HEPI Policy Briefing

    16 July 2014

    HEPI exists thanks to the support of individual higher education providers, including a majority of UK universities, and other organisations with an interest in higher education. This generous support means every HEPI pamphlet is produced in hard copies for wide circulation and is also freely available to anyone around the world in electronic…

  • HEPI Director writes in the Guardian

    15 July 2014

    Today’s Guardian includes a piece by the HEPI Director looking at the impact of student loans on election results. The argument is that, while they may not make much difference to the election result in 2015, they could do so in 2030. The final paragraph gives a flavour of the…

  • And the new Minister for Universities and Science will be…

    15 July 2014

    So my boss for 10 years, David Willetts, has finally left the Government. By the end of his tenure, he was the only person to have attended shadow cabinet and cabinet continuously for over 15 years – since William Hague made him shadow Secretary of State for Education in 1998.…

  • Putting schooling and higher education in different parts of Whitehall creates friction. But a certain level of friction serves a purpose

    11 July 2014

    As SW1 prepares for an expected ministerial reshuffle, it is a timely moment to consider the landscape of Whitehall alongside the personalities that reside there. In the latest edition of Insight, a new magazine published by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, the Director of HEPI, Nick Hillman, considers where responsibility for higher education…

  • Extract from a speech to the Open University

    9 July 2014 by Nick Hillman

    Introduction Thank you for inviting me. HEPI is the UK’s only specialist think-tank on higher education: we are independent, non-partisan and a registered charity. Our goal is to shape the higher education debate for the better, with research. Or, to put it another way, using evidence to help politicians resist…

  • Survey of Conservative election candidates on student migration

    30 June 2014

    As reported in today’s Daily Telegraph, the Higher Education Policy Institute has conducted a small survey among Conservative candidates in place to fight the 2015 general election (excluding sitting MPs). The survey shows: 78% of Conservative candidates think international students should be excluded from any target for reducing migration 69% of Conservative candidates think the UK…