The HEPI Blog aims to make brief, incisive contributions to the higher education policy landscape. It is circulated to our subscribers and published online. We welcome guest submissions, which should follow our Instructions for Blog Authors. Submissions should be sent to our Blog Editor, Josh Freeman, at [email protected].
This blog was kindly contributed by Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice at the University of Manchester. Andy is writing in a personal capacity and can be found at @andywwestwood on Twitter. By now we are all familiar with Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty, Dr Jenny Harries and…
This guest blog responding to HEPI’s new report on postgraduates has been written in a personal capacity by Dr Diana Beech (Head of Government Affairs at the University of Warwick). Diana was Policy Adviser for higher education to various Ministers for Universities and Science (Sam Gyimah, Jo Johnson and Chris…
This blog was kindly contributed by Rachel Ambler, an independent researcher, Gervas Huxley, Teaching Fellow at the University of Bristol, and Mike Peacey, Senior Lecturer at the New College of the Humanities. Without warning, and almost overnight, the higher education sector has embarked on a whole-scale experiment in online learning.…
The official support recently made available to higher education institutions, such as the bringing forward of payments from the Student Loans Company to universities, relates almost wholly to home students. This is unsurprising: they are the students who receive support from UK taxpayers, who will foot the bill for any…
This blog was kindly contributed by Eluned Parrott, Director of the Unite Foundation, a charity that provides scholarships and support to care leavers and estranged students. Eluned previously blogged for HEPI on the experiences of care-leavers and estranged students during the lockdown. As the lockdown continues, it has become clear…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Giles A.F. Carden, Chief of Staff & Director of Strategic Projects, Lancaster University and Professor Lawrence S. Young, Pro-Dean of External Affairs, Warwick Medical School. While the higher education sector considers the measures recently announced by the government to protect students and staff…
This blog has been kindly contributed by Clare Marchant, Chief Executive of UCAS. With A level results day now firmly circled in the sector’s diary for 13 August and guidance issued about how students will be awarded their grades, minds in admissions offices across the country will begin to look…
This blog has been kindly contributed by Joe Nutt, an international education consultant and author of several books about poetry including ‘The Point of Poetry’. His new book, ‘Teaching English for the Real World‘ will be published on May 15th by John Catt. A recent newspaper article complained that it…
Bahram Bekhradnia founded HEPI in 2002 and was its Director until January 2014, since when he has been HEPI’s President. Before establishing HEPI, he was the Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This is his first HEPI blog. The Government’s introduction of controls over the…
This blog was kindly contributed by Jefferson Frank, Professor of Economics, Royal Holloway, and Norman Gowar, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, University of London. (Jefferson Frank can be contacted here.) In January 2019, we published English Universities in Crisis: markets without competition. Our analysis showed the market failure from the threefold…