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The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Blog

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].

  • Enough policy already; let’s get real about student mental health and wellbeing

    19 June 2018 by Tim Daplyn

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Tim Daplyn, Managing Director at Red Brick Research – an agency focussed on delivering strategic insight into student life for universities, students’ unions, accommodation providers and the private sector. He is fond of metaphors and enjoys an argument. An odd…

  • Why merging post-18 education spending may not help

    18 June 2018 by Nick Hillman

    All eyes are on the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding and the independent panel of experts headed by Philip Augar that is feeding into the Review. Select committee reports keep emanating from Parliament aimed at the Department for Education and with an eye on the Review panel. There have…

  • Response to the recent survey on students’ attitudes towards illegal drugs

    15 June 2018 by Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers

    This guest blog responds to HEPI’s recent survey on attitudes towards illegal drugs. It has kindly been contributed by Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers. Keir is a lecturer at the Open University, a researcher on alternatives to imprisonment and the author of a forthcoming paper on ‘Drug prohibition, Inequality and Consumer Capitalism: A Toxic Trap.’…

  • Staff wellbeing in universities

    15 June 2018 by Diana Beech

    The issue of mental health is rising high on the higher education policy agenda across the country. The harsh realities of poor mental health were brought home this week at the University of Buckingham’s Festival of Higher Education. Yesterday, we heard from James Murray, the father of Bristol student Ben…

  • In case you missed it…

    14 June 2018 by Diana Beech

    This time last week saw the 2018 HEPI Annual Conference take place in London, with keynote speeches from Sam Gyimah MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research & Innovation, and Lord Mandelson. We have since published both speeches on our website (available here). We have also published the PowerPoint presentations…

  • Shining a light on hidden course costs

    13 June 2018 by Caitlin Bloom

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Caitlin Bloom, who is an advocate for parity in student experience and was previously a student union officer.  The recent Brightside and HEPI report for the new Director of Fair Access and Participation got me thinking: at university I was on a…

  • Would differential fees make a difference?

    11 June 2018 by Alec Cameron

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Professor Alec Cameron, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Aston University. In the context of the current review of post-18 education, one of the ideas considered to have some political support was that of ‘differential fees’, or the setting of different fee levels…

  • A Manifesto for Access

    8 June 2018 by Roger Brown

    This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Roger Brown, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Policy and former Vice-Chancellor of Southampton Solent University. HEPI’s recent report Reaching the parts of society universities have missed: A manifesto for the new Director of Fair Access and Participation (HEPI Report 106) is…

  • Our Manifesto Conclusion by Diana Beech (@dianajbeech)

    6 June 2018 by Diana Beech

    This blog concludes the series featuring ideas contained in the new HEPI-Brightside report, Reaching the parts of society universities have missed: A manifesto for the new Director for Fair Access and Participation. It presents the concluding words from co-editor of the report, Diana Beech, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Higher…