In 2012, Australia removed student number controls or, in the local terminology, introduced a ‘demand driven system’ based on student choice. In 2015, England followed suit. In both places, entry to higher education was opened up but non-completion rates rose. In Australia, the demand driven system ended in 2017, despite…
International Women’s Day always offers a good opportunity to reflect on how far we have come and how far we still have to go when it comes to equality between the sexes. In fact, there is a positive story to be told when it comes to women’s place in higher…
In recent years there has been an increased focus on students’ transitions out of university and into the workplace. Policy changes have included the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework, the new Graduate Outcomes survey and the tracking of graduate salaries through the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset. This report examines…
A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, Getting on: graduate employment and its influence on UK higher education (HEPI Report 126), explores the recent focus by policymakers, students and employers on getting graduates into professional jobs. The paper digs into the related policy changes, including the development of the…
A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, Making Universities Matter: How higher education can help to heal a divided Britain (HEPI Report 125), is calling for fundamental change to ensure universities meet the priorities of their communities and help the Government bridge social, economic and regional divides. Building on the…
The General Election of December 2019 ended the political gridlock of the previous three years. The question of whether we remained in or left the European Union was definitively settled, and not in the way universities had hoped. In this report, the authors call for fundamental change. Now, they argue,…
The 2019 election result signalled a significant change in British politics. It brought about the end of the period of minority government, with the Conservatives winning the largest majority of any party since the early 2000s. The day the election result was announced, Jeremy Corbyn stated he would be standing…
Professor Tim Blackman, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, has applied sophisticated statistical techniques to the most recent HEPI / Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey results in order to see which factors most affect student wellbeing. The key findings in What affects student wellbeing? (HEPI Policy Note 21) include: a relationship between ethnic identity and dissatisfaction…
The key findings in What affects student wellbeing? (HEPI Policy Note 21) include: a relationship between ethnic identity and dissatisfaction with life, with life satisfaction scores of under 7 (on a 0-to-10 scale) varying from 42% among Bangladeshi students to 28% among White students a similar relationship between ethnic identity and anxiety,…
A new paper from the Higher Education Policy Institute, Unheard: the voices of part-time adult learners (HEPI Report 124) by Dr John Butcher of the Open University, considers the sharp decline in part-time learning through the voices of students. Between 2011/12 and 2017/18, there was a 60% fall in the number of…