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].
This summer we have been commemorating 75 years of the NHS, the first universal health system in the world to be available to all, free at the point of delivery. Most Britons were born in an NHS hospital, and nearly everyone living in the UK has benefited at one time or…
Challenges and concerns for women post-pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis were the focus of an event held in Parliament, organised by Right to Learn, the national campaign which brings together further education, higher education, skills, and lifelong learning to look at new ideas and policies to drive the economy, social…
Right now, with the start of another academic year only a few weeks away, a new cohort of students are preparing to embark on their intellectually most significant academic journey. The award of a PhD as the result of several years as a doctoral student is seen as the pinnacle…
Since HEPI was founded in 2002, it has published around 160 Reports (blue books), 50 Policy Notes and over 30 Debate Papers (red books, but originally yellow Occasional Papers) as well as over 1,500 blog posts. This is not anything like a complete record because some of HEPI’s written output,…
Creating a parity of esteem between Further Education and Higher Education, or between ‘vocational’ and ‘academic’, is often suggested as a good idea to improve skills shortages, achieve levelling up and promote economic growth. As Wales establishes a Commission for Tertiary Education and Research and Keir Starmer signals that Labour…
Discussions on vice-chancellors’ pay are not something I particularly enjoy. They tend to generate lots of emotion, be relatively short of facts and often turn unpleasant So, when the HEPI report on VC pay landed on my desk, my reaction was not unalloyed joy. However, what I read was an…
To suggest that widespread condemnation of spiralling vice-chancellor pay is a product of confected outrage by unions is to seriously underestimate the level of anger this glaring injustice demands. It also diminishes the reality of a significant and growing pay gap ratio between those who lead universities, and those who…
Speak to someone working in a UK university and they will tell you there is a problem with financial resilience. Either because they already see it impacting the condition of the buildings they work in, what they can offer students or the type or amount of research they can perform,…
Demand trends The summer recruitment round is volatile in 2023, and intake levels hard to predict. Even now, after exam results have been announced, many institutions do not have a completely clear view of the shape of their incoming cohort for the approaching academic year. This is perhaps the most…
In his book, The Living Company, Arie de Gues observes that most companies either go bust or are acquired within their first 50 years of existence and that it is a rarity for companies to survive for over a century let alone 200 or 300 years.1 He wanted to understand…