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The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Blog

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].

  • Institutional autonomy: does it need an ‘academic community’?

    16 February 2024 by Gill Evans

    The arrival of the ‘alternative provider’ In 1997 the Dearing Report saw diversity in British higher education institutions as an advantage ‘especially in providing for student choice; in programme and pedagogic innovation’ and ‘in the ability of the sector as a whole to meet the wide range of expectations now…

  • The contested rise of ‘institutional autonomy’

    15 February 2024 by Gill Evans

    The Higher Education and Research Act of 2017 (HERA) asserts that both the Secretary of State and the Office for Students ‘must have regard to the need to protect the institutional autonomy of English higher education providers’. HERA s. 8 defines this autonomy in terms which have been accepted since they…

  • A manifesto for the future

    13 February 2024 by Chloe Field

    On 30 January, the National Union of Students launched our Manifesto for our Future which represents the aspirations of the millions of students across the UK. We developed these ideas based on consultation with over 10,000 students. Regular polling has afforded us a clear picture of the big issues for…

  • Recognising the individual: re-thinking engagement and the staff-student relationship in personal tutoring

    13 February 2024 by Rachael O'Connor and Jon Down

    As the student body in most universities becomes ever more heterogeneous, one of the greatest challenges has been to see and understand students beyond a single administrative demographic label or identity. As universities begin acknowledging students’ complex, intersecting social identities, staff approaches to engaging and supporting students become much more…

  • Levelling Up: How not to let the opportunity pass – an APP case study

    12 February 2024 by David Woolley

    The HE sector is in danger of letting a major opportunity pass by due to its tendency to focus on what it does do, not what it could do.  Whatever colour of Government we have over the next five years, surely the Levelling Up agenda is here to stay.  This…

  • How can we use data to improve student and staff wellbeing?

    9 February 2024 by Michelle Morgan

    Higher education has come a long way in recognising and being aware of mental health issues that students enter their studies with. This includes better data collected through UCAS,  work undertaken via AdvanceHE with their Education for Mental Health Toolkit,  TASO’s Student Mental Health Evidence Hub and the development of…

  • Explaining the rise in student mental health and wellbeing issues

    8 February 2024 by Dr Michelle Morgan

    Over the past few years there has been veritable blizzard of articles and reports about the rise in wellbeing and mental health issues, especially among young people in higher education. Mental health and wellbeing challenges are not new phenomena, yet Generation Z is being labelled as less resilient than previous…