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, Rose Stephenson, at [email protected].
This guest blog has been kindly written for us by Professor David Phoenix OBE, Chair of MillionPlus and Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University. Should we regulate – or co-regulate – higher education? Well, the Office for Students is certainly a regulator, there is little doubt about that. But is…
This guest blog has been kindly contributed to HEPI by Richard Gascoigne, Managing Director of Solutionpath Limited (@GazzaToGo). As with all our guest blogs, this does not represent a HEPI opinion but is designed to stimulate informed debate and discussion. Demographics in higher education are important. Analysis of demographics can: identify disparity in academic…
This guest blog has been kindly provided to HEPI by Mary Curnock Cook, Senior Adviser to Cairneagle, a member of the HEPI Advisory Board and the former Chief Executive of UCAS. The UCAS data published this morning gives a useful guide to trends in undergraduate entry to higher education –…
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 Another important but often overlooked historical document is the expansionary education white paper of 1972.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,…