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].
When politicians associated with one particular policy or another change their mind, it is often a reason to cheer. This is because it tends to happen when they recognise some old evidence is correct after all or some new evidence comes to light and they respond to it. In general, our…
‘Ombudsmen in higher education are a growing and distinct cadre’, writes Rob Behrens, Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education and Independent Adjudicator and Chief Executive of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education in England and Wales between 2008 and 2016. It is these eight years…
Last week, HEPI hosted a roundtable lunch discussion at the RSA in conjunction with the UPP Foundation, looking at what ‘good work’ means for graduates. Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA, was the guest speaker at the event, sharing his thoughts on the Government’s review on modern employment practices,…
Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘The Teaching Excellence Framework would have comprehensively failed if it had simply replicated existing hierarchies. It was always designed to do something different to other league tables and rankings – namely, to show where there are pockets of excellence that…
In January this year, the Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening, set out the role of education in removing obstacles to social mobility. She proclaimed she wanted ‘to see more disadvantaged young people attending the very best universities, … entering the top professions, and progressing through the most rewarding…
This guest blog comes from the University of Buckingham, where HEPI is hosting two debates at the Festival of Higher Education later this month. The term ‘HE conference’ usually conjures up images of dingy lecture theatres, central London and concrete. Nothing could be more different when it comes to the…
After the trials and tribulations of the past week, the release of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data on Tuesday at least provided the higher education sector with a welcome sense of ‘business as usual’. For those unfamiliar with the LEO data, these are experimental statistics on the employment and…
Since the nation woke up on Friday morning to the news of a hung parliament, one party from Northern Ireland has found itself thrust into the limelight as the key to sustaining another Conservative term in office. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – Northern Ireland’s largest political party, representing a…
A few days ago, we imagined how the first conversation between a new Universities Minister, should there be one after the election, and his most senior official might go. Here, Dr Dean Machin, Strategic Policy Adviser at the University of Portsmouth, imagines the same conversation taking a rather different course. Minister: So what is our most…
With just one week to go until the General Election, HEPI is asking the political parties for their views on higher education issues. We are asking the same 5 questions to all parties. In this post, Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Richmond Park, has given her views in…