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 Dr Dean Machin, Strategic Policy Adviser at the University of Portsmouth. Last month’s Department for Education guidance to the Office for Students commands the attention of anyone in the Higher Education sector but, for those of us drawn to the absurd, Gavin Williamson’s injunction…
This guest blog was kindly contributed by Malachy Ó Néill, Provost of Ulster’s Magee campus and widely recognised for his excellence in both teaching and research. Ulster University’s Magee campus, located in the UK’s most western and historic walled city of Derry~Londonderry, has its origins in 1865 with the inception…
This blog was kindly contributed by Laura Burley, Apprenticeships Ambassador at The Open University. For those universities that have taken the strategic decision to support the apprenticeship agenda in England, there is much to get to grips with: the development of new practice-based programmes: Ofsted for higher apprenticeships; new agencies;…
The residential model may be firmly embedded in UK higher education, writes Manchester Metropolitan University Vice-Chancellor Malcolm Press, but a student-centred approach is more important than one centred on a view of where students should live. This guest blog is based on the remarks Professor Press made at the HEPI / UPP event on students’ living arrangements at the Conservative Party Conference fringe earlier this month. The excellence of UK higher…
This blog was kindly contributed by Vincenzo Raimo, Visiting Fellow in the International Study and Language Institute at the University of Reading and Adjunct Professor of Global Higher Education at the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. In 1997, I wrote an opinion piece for the Times Higher Education…
This blog was written by HEPI’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, Rachel Hewitt. The issue of whether students are getting good value for money has been a focus since fees came into play but has been increasingly under the policy spotlight in recent months. Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State…
This guest blog for World Mental Health Day was kindly contributed by Catherine Grout, Head of Change – service development, and lead on work around mental health and wellbeing at UK education technology company, Jisc. Over the past few months I feel like I’ve been an amateur detective. Every day…
This guest blog was kindly contributed by Peter Brant, Senior Policy Manager at The Open University. There was much excitement at the end of September as the latest Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) data apparently showed that Tony Blair’s ambitious target for “50 per cent of young adults going into higher education” by 2010 had finally been achieved, seven years behind schedule. Opinions were…
This guest blog was kindly contributed by Fiona Ross, Professor in the Joint Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London and independent governor at Westminster University. This HEPI collection of essays, written from multiple perspectives, is an excellent contribution to our…
During their recent party conference, Labour reaffirmed their promise to remove tuition fees. At an (excellent) Million Plus and NUS event I attended, the audience and fellow panellists quizzed Gordon Marsden, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Further Education and Skills on what this would mean for universities. Marsden confirmed two…