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In a new book published today by Bright Blue, I argue: that tuition fees are probably here to stay; that higher education is unlikely to be a major election issue in 2015; and that the Coalition should change course on international students. The chapter is written in a personal capacity,…

Yesterday I spoke to a careers guidance conference. It was very good to interact directly with those who are in charge of giving advice to young people on their futures. As I said in my speech, my own experience as a secondary school teacher running a pre-university course showed me…

Having travelled a lot over the last few weeks, I’ve been musing on HE in other countries. Perhaps nowhere are the differences so stark as in two of the countries I’ve visited: Australia and North Korea. In 2012, Australia removed student number controls for undergraduate places at public universities. With…

The new report on Estimating the public cost of student loans authored by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and sponsored by Universities UK is an important and detailed piece of work. Let me try and explain why. Point 1: It confirms the Government’s warnings about the inherent sensitivities in calculating a…

As Chief Executive of University Alliance I am often asked to talk about the value of higher education, why we need more graduates in the economy and the need for smart investment in teaching and research. But I don’t always get to look at the detail of how this funding…

Earlier this month, the NUS annual conference took place in Liverpool. Toni Pearce, the NUS’s formidable President, was comfortably re-elected. It’s 15 years since I was a delegate at the NUS conference. It was in Blackpool, rather lively (£1,000 tuition fees had just been introduced) and a Robbie Williams impersonator…

There are few issues in higher education as lively as widening access and there is a vast literature on it. BIS recently published Hefce and Offa’s National Strategy on Access and Student Success – on which Hepi had an exclusive blog by Les Ebdon, the Director for Fair Access. The Higher…

The national strategy for access and student success By Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education I’m delighted that the Government has now published the national strategy for access and student success which OFFA and HEFCE developed at its behest. It’s an ambitious strategy that makes wide-ranging…

With thanks to Julian Gravatt, Assistant Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, who is our second guest blogger. In Unfinished business, Nick Hillman makes the case for a higher education bill and identifies some priorities. He suggests action is needed to control new student loans properly, secure fairer competition between established…

‘Robbins Rebooted’ is a good title for Liam Byrne’s first really important speech on higher education. It is consciously based on a pamphlet written last year by David Willetts (to which I contributed, to declare an interest). The Robbins report has gradually come to play the role the Beveridge report…