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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]

  • Have teachers been set up to fail?

    18 June 2020 by Dennis Sherwood

    This new blog has been written by Dennis Sherwood, who has been tracking the story of this year’s school exams for HEPI. Friday, 12 June was the deadline for schools to submit their ‘centre assessment grades’ and rank orders for this year’s GCSE, AS and A-level students, and over the…

  • Inaccurate graduate employment data helps no-one

    17 June 2020 by Paul Hayes, Dean Machin & Paul Spendlove

    This blog was kindly contributed by Paul Hayes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean Machin, Strategic Policy Adviser, and Paul Spendlove, Graduate Outcomes Manager, at the University of Portsmouth. Earlier this year we wrote for HEPI about the unenviable challenge HESA faces in introducing its new Graduate Outcome Survey. We were worried that…

  • Why and how the post-Covid world could offer more opportunities for widening participation in England

    16 June 2020 by Renata Albuquerque, Sam Dunnett, Annette Hayton, Colin McCaig & Anna Mountford-Zimdars

    This blog was kindly contributed by five co-authors: Renata Albuquerque, Widening participation Manager (Languages & Communities), SOAS, London Sam Dunnett, Head of Widening Participation, University of Sussex Annette Hayton, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Education, University of BathColin McCaig, Professor of Higher Education at Sheffield Hallam University Anna Mountford-Zimdars, Professor…

  • How can we best use Graduate Teaching Assistants during the Covid-19 pandemic?

    15 June 2020 by Bethan Cornell

    This blog was written by current HEPI intern and KCL Physics PhD student Bethan Cornell. Bethan has written on the blog before on a range of postgraduate topics covering accommodation and climate change. In normal circumstances, universities rely on the help of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) for the smooth running…

  • Higher education providers must take action to protect their least advantaged offer holders

    15 June 2020 by Jane Cahill

    This blog was kindly contributed by Jane Cahill, Head of English at an inner-city London school. She is a former Debate Mate Programme Director and Teach First ambassador. Higher education providers are facing unprecedented admissions challenges as a result of exam cancellations. Currently, more advantaged students are six times more…

  • WEEKEND READING: The Covid-19 pandemic and internationalisation of higher education: International students’ knowledge, experiences and wellbeing

    13 June 2020 by Padmore Adusei Amoah & Ka Ho Mok

    This blog was kindly contributed by Padmore Adusei Amoah, Research Assistant Professor, and Professor Ka Ho Mok, Chair Professor, both of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Covid-19 Pandemic and International Education Internationalisation of education is facing unprecedented challenges when the world is presently confronted with the Covid-19 pandemic. Well before the…

  • Bring back Brexit!

    12 June 2020 by Diana Beech

    This guest blog was kindly contributed by Dr Diana Beech, Head of Government Affairs at the University of Warwick and former Policy Adviser to the last three Ministers of State for Universities and Science. She was also HEPI’s first Director of Policy and Advocacy. Bring back Brexit! Yes, you read…

  • Making big decisions in an information vacuum

    10 June 2020 by Paul Humphreys

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Paul Humphreys, Founder and CEO at StudentCrowd and a Member of the Higher Education Commission. HEPI readers will be painfully aware of the myriad of issues facing university decision makers that require their immediate attention. Whether it’s implementing their safety…

  • Students: What are the polls saying about the next academic year?

    9 June 2020 by Nick Hillman

    The latest polling of students arrives this morning from Unite Students. A rapid survey of 1,000 people, students and parents, undertaken last month, it tells us some interesting things about what people expect in the midst of the pandemic. Overall, the results are positive for the higher education sector. The…