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].
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dr Liz Morrish, author of today’s new HEPI Occasional Paper 20: Pressure Vessels: The epidemic of poor mental health among higher education staff. There has recently been a significant amount of media concern surrounding the poor mental health of academics. In February 2018, Paul…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Scott Caizley, who is a PhD researcher at Kings College London looking at the experiences of low-income state school pupils at elite UK music conservatoires. Access and participation amongst state schooled students in UK conservatoires throughout the past years have remained at an all-time…
Lucian J. Hudson writes in a personal capacity. He is interim Director of Public Affairs and Communications at Oxford University, and a past Director of Communications at The Open University and Foreign & Commonwealth Office. In Lampedusa’s novel, The Leopard, chronicling upheavals in Sicilian society, one of its characters offers…
One issue on which most academics agree is how not to judge the value of different university courses. But, unfortunately, no one can agree on the right way to do it. This matters because the lack of consensus cedes power to people who may care less about the health of our sector.…
This book review has been kindly contributed by Francis Green, Professor of Work and Education Economics at UCL Institute of Education, and co-author, with historian David Kynaston, of ‘Engines of Privilege. Britain’s Private School Problem’, (Bloomsbury 2019). Private school leaders and sector authorities are sometimes more informative and thought-provoking when…
It is mental health awareness week so – quite rightly – your newsfeeds will be full of articles about mental health. At HEPI we’ve written about these issues at length before. But that is not what this blog is about. As our own Rachel Hewitt pointed out in last week’s…
A guest blog from Patrick Mulrenan, the course leader for the BSc Community Development and Leadership at London Metropolitan University. One of the challenges of policy making is that issues are sometimes defined in stereotypes. This is particularly true of university education. Television programmes such as Fresh Meat have portrayed…
This guest blog responding to yesterday’s media stories about independent schools and university entry has been kindly contributed by Chris Ramsey, Headmaster of Whitgift School, and spokesperson on universities for the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC). Journalists’ headlines are fair game of course, and always have been, but sometimes you wince a bit more than usual, and reading…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dennis Sherwood, founder of Silver Bullet Machine. When the history of the world is written in 1,000 years’ time, Friday 10th May 2019 will be identified as a landmark date. For it was an event that happened on that day that enabled that history to…
This is a guest blog contributed by Professor Steven Spier, Vice-Chancellor at Kingston University. Helping people achieve their aspirations and unlock their potential are surely two of the key missions of higher education. And while it should not be necessary to add to that mission, regardless of one’s background, the…