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, Rose Stephenson, at [email protected].
Below are the remarks made by Nick Hillman, HEPI’s Director, at Sunday morning’s MillionPlus / HEPI event at the (virtual) Conservative Party Conference, with the Minister for Universities, Michelle Donelan, on the theme, ‘Back in Business: What can modern universities do to support Britain’s recovery?’ The video of the session…
This guest blog by Dean Machin, Head of Policy at the University of Portsmouth, reviews David Goodhart’s thought-provoking and challenging new book. The central thesis of David’s Goodhart’s new book Head Hand Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century is that we have privileged ‘head’ over ‘hand’…
Students have been returning to university campuses across the UK. This has been, inevitably, accompanied by stories about students flouting the rules: ‘Students locked down after illegal parties at UK universities’, ‘Hundreds of Exeter University students flock to huge outdoor parties until 2am sparking fears lives are being ‘endangered’ on…
This blog was kindly contributed by Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students, who is taking part in a free HEPI webinar later today. I last wrote for HEPI in December 2019, responding to its pamphlet on social mobility and elite universities. Since then, higher education has…
Sixteen months ago today, on 30 May 2019, the long-awaited Augar report came out. Written by Philip Augar and a team of experts, it included 53 recommendations covering FE, HE and student funding. At the time, HEPI responded positively to the package of proposals, which were serious, coherent and wide-ranging. They were not perfect,…
This blog was written by Eve Alcock, Former SU President at the University of Bath and Michael Natzler, HEPI’s Policy Officer. You can find Eve and Michael on Twitter @EveAlcock and @Michael_Natzler . It is plain to see that this academic year in universities will be a year like no…
I am one of that small group of people who is genuinely sad that the autumn political party conferences are (necessarily) not happening in person this year. They are eccentric affairs, but genuinely good fun and interesting for anyone with a passion for policymaking. They are also useful occasions for…
HEPI was established in 2002 ‘to promote research into and understanding of all aspects of higher education and to disseminate the useful results of such research for the education of policy makers and the general public in the United Kingdom’. As we approach our 18th birthday (in November 2020), we…
This blog was kindly contributed by Sarah Barr Miller, Head of Insight and Consultancy at UCAS Media and Josephine Hansom, Managing Director of Insight at YouthSight. Supporting undergraduate applicants who were due to sit exams in the summer and then start university this autumn has been top of the agenda…
One of the few academic books I purchased rather than borrowed, as a History undergraduate 30 years ago was Peter Mandler’s Aristocratic Government in the Age of Reform: Whigs and Liberals 1830-1852 (1990). Sadly, I don’t remember much about the contents but I do still recall vividly how I felt when I…