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Nick Hillman

  • A comparison of student loans in England and Australia

    24 April 2014 by Nick Hillman

    HEPI Report (66) provides a comparison of the English and Australian higher education funding systems, specifically the student loan arrangements.  The report focuses on four themes: entitlement; default rates; the balance between public and private contributions; and repayment. Alongside this report, HEPI has published a more detailed piece on the…

  • Should the police be allowed on university campuses?

    21 April 2014

    Earlier this month, the NUS annual conference took place in Liverpool. Toni Pearce, the NUS’s formidable President, was comfortably re-elected. It’s 15 years since I was a delegate at the NUS conference. It was in Blackpool, rather lively (£1,000 tuition fees had just been introduced) and a Robbie Williams impersonator…

  • Les Ebdon blogs for Hepi on the National Strategy for Access and Student Success

    4 April 2014

    The national strategy for access and student success By Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education I’m delighted that the Government has now published the national strategy for access and student success which OFFA and HEFCE developed at its behest. It’s an ambitious strategy that makes wide-ranging…

  • Finishing Unfinished Business

    3 April 2014

    With thanks to Julian Gravatt, Assistant Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, who is our second guest blogger. In Unfinished business, Nick Hillman makes the case for a higher education bill and identifies some priorities. He suggests action is needed to control new student loans properly, secure fairer competition between established…

  • Assessing Robbins Rebooted

    1 April 2014

    ‘Robbins Rebooted’ is a good title for Liam Byrne’s first really important speech on higher education. It is consciously based on a pamphlet written last year by David Willetts (to which I contributed, to declare an interest). The Robbins report has gradually come to play the role the Beveridge report…