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].
There have been rumours for months, if not years, that student fees will come down. It has been a likely prospect ever since at least the 2017 general election. Then, Jeremy Corbyn copied Michael Howard’s stance at the 2005 election and Nick Clegg’s at the 2010 election by promising to…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dr Helen Carasso. She teaches and researches higher education policy in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. Drawing on her professional experience in university communications, marketing and student recruitment, she has a particular interest in questions relating to fees, funding and…
International Women’s Day always leaves me feeling uplifted about the steps that have been made towards gender equality and the examples of women supporting women. As journalist Dolly Alderton tweeted, ‘Tonight a female friend told me she loved international women’s day because people kept wishing her a happy one and…
On Wednesday, I went off to the UCL Institute of Education for the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE)’s excellent Conference, in particular to participate in a panel on Brexit and higher education. The instructions had asked us ‘to steer away from the political manoeuvring’, but unsurprisingly that proved impossible.…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Paul Feldman, chief executive of Jisc to mark the publication of a new HEPI report ‘How Safe is Your Data?’ by Jisc’s Dr John Chapman There is no more important time to talk about the importance of cyber security in Higher Education. We are in…
It felt strange to be in the Houses of Parliament on Thursday 21st of March and not discuss Brexit. One of our panellists, Gervas Huxley, had been told by a student that our event was like discussing what colour to paint the bathroom while the building was on fire. Parliament…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dean Machin, Strategic Policy Adviser at the University of Portsmouth David Hume, it is said, awoke Immanuel Kant from his dogmatic slumbers. We might all aspire to have similar effects but most of us will fail. However, Professor Emma Smith’s and Dr Patrick White’s Nuffield Foundation…
Last week the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) published their consultation on the future of the data it collects, in response to their changing role as the designated data body. To me, this exemplified the change in the way higher education regulation has changed since the Higher Education Research Act…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Tom Sperlinger, Professor of Literature and Engaged Pedagogy at the University of Bristol. He is also the co-author of Who are universities for? Recently, I was talking to an academic colleague who I have known for more than 10 years – and who I had always…
A guest blog kindly contributed by Dr Greg Walker, Chief Executive of MillionPlus, the Association for Modern Universities. Iain Mansfield, sets out in his HEPI blog (26 March) a defence of limiting access to a university education according to a minimum threshold of grade attainment (DDD at A Level, or…