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The HEPI/Kortext report on students’ use of generative AI is a wake-up call: students are making extensive use of generative AI in increasingly sophisticated and discriminating ways. For academics and university leaders who are not specialists, it’s hard to appreciate the sophistication of the large language models [LLMs] which underpin…

This is a personal perspective on one of the most enduring challenges facing those of us working to widen university participation (WP). My involvement in this subject dates back to 2007. That year, as Aimhigher East Midlands’ projects manager, I oversaw the launch of an initiative aimed at identifying and…

It’s a wrap! Over the past two weeks, HEPI has hosted events in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff in conjunction with the Nuffield Foundation and London Economics. The theme in each place was higher education fees and funding, with a backdrop of:the forthcoming Westminster election and other political goings on –…

The impact of the earliest years of life BusinessLDN – the independent voice of business in London – has recently published a report with KPMG and the Central District Alliance analysing the business impact of the lack of affordable, quality childcare. The challenges facing an outdated early education and childcare…

UK universities have increasingly had to speak the language of ‘impact’, which has become another addition to the sector’s lexicon of buzzwords. For researchers, the REF exercise is about much more than just impact: it has become an important frame for discussion. A recent report commissioned by the British Academy…

The 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) outcomes were announced on 28 September 2023, figure 1. At that time, just over 20 per cent of provider ratings were still ‘pending’ as they were being finalised by the TEF panel.  The OfS website advised that these ratings will be updated when the…

As I was leaving home to attend a recent HEPI roundtable event, my A-level-year-daughter asked where I was heading. On learning about the focus of the discussion, we chatted about the use of Generative AI tools amongst her peer group, and she wondered why my contemporaries were so flustered by…

The story of the massification of higher education – whereby we have seen around 3% of 18-year-olds going to university in the 50’s, up to over a third in 2023 – is often the subject of debate. With such a growth in scale, it is right that our sector and…

Breaches in student academic integrity include, but are not exclusive to, acts such as cheating, plagiarism, and others which gain an unfair advantage over other students. Previously, the problem was persistent but manageable for the academic world. However, emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and sophisticated search algorithms have…

Miners would famously take a canary below ground with them as a form of early warning signal.  What would the equivalent indicator look like in higher education, where several commentators are concerned about the potential impact of recent changes to immigration policy in the UK? Various challenges, such as post-study…