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].
This blog has been kindly provided by Scott Kelly, the author of two past HEPI reports: Raising productivity by improving higher technical education Reforming BTECs: Applied General qualifications as a route to higher education Scott was an adviser to the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (2010-12) and lectures at…
This guest blog marking Colleges Week has been kindly provided by Dr Paul Phillips, CBE, Principal & Chief Executive of the Weston College Group. The Post-18 Review has the potential to create real opportunities for further education (FE) or alternatively to be a damp squib. Which will it be? Philip Augar and his team face…
I dropped by the Barbican at the weekend, for the Battle of Ideas. It was my third visit to the annual festival to take part in a stimulating event about higher education. This time, the topic was ‘Universities: Can’t get no satisfaction’. In pointing out students’ high satisfaction ratings and…
This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Mark Corney, who is a post-16 education and labour market consultant. Recommendations by the Independent Panel on Post-18 Education and Funding are awaiting advice from the Office for National Statistics on how income-contingent loans in higher education and adult further education should…
At HEPI Towers, we’ve been discussing the latest spat between the UK Statistics Authority and the Department for Education about education spending. In a new exchange of letters, the Department has largely backed down. But I remain more sympathetic to their original position than, it seems, most people are. The…
I have blogged before about the recent disappointing Migration Advisory Committee report on international students. Like many others, I had assumed it would be more helpful to the higher education sector than it turned out to be. But this should not be the end of the road because there is…
This guest blog has been written for HEPI by Mark Geremia, Vice President and General Manager for Dragon Professional and Consumer. Studies have found that, on average, three children in every classroom are dyslexic which causes them to struggle with literacy. This equates to around 1.2 million children that find reading and writing in…
At last week’s Labour Party conference, the Opposition’s spokespeople for education were parroting some neat lines – while, frustratingly, offering next to no detail – on their proposed National Education Service (NES). One of these was that the NES will deliver ‘cradle to grave education’. If this means anything, it…
This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Michael Draper and Philip M Newton of Swansea University. It is the first time HEPI has addressed the issue of essay mills. Introduction There are renewed calls for the Government to legislate against essay mills – companies which offer, for a fee, to…
This blog has been kindly contributed by Professor Dave Phoenix, Chair of MillionPlus and Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University. In April, the Open University released a report showing that, a year after its introduction, 92 per cent of apprenticeship Levy funds went unspent, to the tune of almost £1.3 billion.…