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].
I have been asked a lot, particularly by journalists, about the vagaries of the university application system – and clearing in particular – this past week. It is a peculiar, difficult and stressful process that can last for months between submitting your UCAS form and having your place confirmed. As…
HEPI has occasionally published hard-to-find and interesting historic educational documents, such as Anthony Crosland’s 1965 Woolwich speech heralding polytechnics and Ken Baker’s Lancaster speech extolling the virtues of expanding higher education. Another important but often overlooked historical document is the expansionary education white paper of 1972. It includes a section…
Iain Mansfield, a senior civil servant working on higher education and now an interesting contributor to public debate, has written an article on Wonkhe about influencing policymakers successfully. There is a huge appetite to know more about this: my own piece on the subject has been more widely read than anything…
This guest blog has been put together by Tony Nneke, Higher Education Specialist at HEPI Partner Oracle. Student number planning is a complex task. Historically, student number data has been completed in spreadsheets and compiled from data from lots of different departments and systems – from finance departments, academic administrators through to…
Six under-reported points in today’s debate about the sharp rise in unconditional offers for applicants to higher education. The autonomy of universities over whom to admit is enshrined in primary legislation. This was confirmed in the most recent higher education act, which was passed just over a year ago. This…
On Monday 16 July, I chaired my final HEPI roundtable policy discussion, in conjunction with HEPI Partner Elsevier, looking at the topic of human behaviours in higher education. The discussion (held under the Chatham House rule) took as its starting point the #MeToo movement, which has exposed the prevalence of…
This blog has been kindly written for us by Dr Greg Walker, Chief Executive of MillionPlus, the Association for Modern Universities. Greg has worked in different parts of the tertiary education sector in his career. He recently wrote a blog for us on the topic of England’s choice for post-18 education. Work-related,…
Could data and analytics help to promote student wellbeing and mental health? Jisc commissioned independent global higher education expert Professor Martin Hall to examine this idea and he highlights the key findings of his report in this guest blog. Professor Hall was former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford and former…
For the past 18 months, I have been delighted to serve as HEPI’s first Director of Policy and Advocacy – a role which has cemented my deep-seated interest in higher education policy and instilled in me a genuine desire to contribute to the sustained success of the UK higher education…
This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Elaine Boyes, Executive Director of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS). It will come as no surprise that the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) First-year Student Career Readiness Survey 2017/18 found that socio-economic background continues to be…