As ever, HEPI is providing useful and stimulating food for thought as the sector and others grapple with certain recurring issues.In particular, we agree that the UK’s obsession with hierarchy limits the understanding of many people that excellence exists across the higher education sector. We all need to do more to challenge this…
In the first HEPI Occasional Paper of 2014, ‘Only Connect’: Is there still a higher education sector?, Professor Sir David Watson calls for a new approach in three areas: 1. quality assurance: he coruscates “Successive UK governments’ privileging of the private over the public sector” and highlights “a blind spot:…
Today the Office for Fair Access announced its decisions on access agreements for 2015-16 – the second set of agreements that we’ve negotiated under my directorship. The most striking development in these new agreements is the smarter way in which universities and colleges are planning to spend their access money.…
In the first HEPI yellow book of 2014, Occasional Paper 8, Professor David Watson considers whether there is still a higher education sector. The paper calls for a more collective approach in three areas: 1. quality assurance 2. credit transfer 3. explaining the benefits of higher-level study
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…
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 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…
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…
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.…
As I travel around the country visiting higher education institutions (HEIs), I am asked surprisingly often what UKIP’s policies on higher education are. There is particular interest in the question within HEIs that sit in areas where the party has a strong local presence. I’m not complaining: it is a…