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].
We now have a new Prime Minister. I have written before about what Boris Johnson thinks of higher education. But his first impact on higher education will be the formation of his government. It is likely Boris Johnson will be looking for a shake up, meaning that the position of Minister…
Beyond the headline announcements of the Augar Review, there are wide-ranging proposals, covering everything from Level 2 to adult education. Its recommendations regarding the promotion and expansion of Level 4 and 5 education demand particular attention, and I am pleased to see several recommendations I sought in my paper for…
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that there will be a general election before the year is out – perhaps as early as September. I once thought a second referendum was more likely than a general election but, at this moment, it seems I was almost certainly wrong.…
A version of this guest article was originally presented by Iain Mansfield at the HEPI Partner Policy Briefing Day. “I can call up 50 academics who will tell me how to design the perfect pension system, but I can’t find any who can tell me how to improve the one…
The results of this year’s school exams will be announced in a few weeks’ time. But as recently reported in the TES, Times and Telegraph, different examiners can legitimately give the same script different marks. As a consequence, of the more than 6 million grades to be awarded this August,…
Today’s guest blog, from Dr Greg Walker, CEO of MillionPlus, is a full and thoughtful critique of the Augar review, and we urge people to read it carefully. As someone with experience with independent reviews of higher education, I understand the energy and effort that panel members and officials put…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Paul Woodgates, at PA Consulting It’s hard to remember a time when universities faced so many unknowns. Will the Augar Report recommendations ever become reality? How much money will the sector have? What will Brexit mean? Will the economy nosedive? What kind of government…
At a recent HEPI roundtable on the future for global research the focus of discussion was the major recent study by Elsevier, produced in partnership with Ipsos Mori, which set out three future research scenarios – Brave open world, Tech titans, and Eastern ascendance – and explored how they could…
My response to last week’s National Student Survey results focused on question 26, which is generally ignored by everyone but is actually the question which always seems to score the lowest results of all. It is about the utility of student unions. It is, admittedly, an odd question that implies…
This is a guest blog from Dr Richard Budd, from the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at Lancaster University. The National Student Survey (NSS) has supposedly tracked the quality of undergraduate provision across the UK since 2005. It is apposite that universities are encouraged to pay attention…