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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].

  • Predicting Careers 2032: an optimistic future for student and graduate recruitment

    8 February 2022 by Joanne Patterson

    This blog was contributed by Joanne Patterson, Head of Marketing & Communications, Education & Employer, EMEA at Handshake (@JoinHandshakeUK). Despite the backdrop of COVID-related uncertainty, there is reason to be optimistic about the future of student and graduate recruitment. A combination of technological advancement, reflection and the mass change in…

  • We’ve reached a tipping point on apprenticeships

    7 February 2022 by John Cope

    This blog was contributed by John Cope, Director of Strategy, Policy & Public Affairs, UCAS. There isn’t an education minister in living memory who didn’t at some point say they wanted to bring ‘parity of esteem’ between higher education and apprenticeships. Most believed it when they said it. Not many…

  • OfS, TEF and Student Outcomes

    4 February 2022 by Scott Kelly

    Scott Kelly lectures in British Politics at New York University in London and has worked for many years as a policy adviser to the Rt Hon. John Hayes MP, who was Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (2010-12). He previously worked for the Learning and Skills Network and…

  • Realising the Civic University

    3 February 2022 by Ian Matthias and Mike Boxall

    Ian Matthias is head of higher education at PA Consulting and Mike Boxall is a higher education expert at PA Consulting. Click here for more information on PA’s work in higher education or download a copy of ‘A Differentiated Future’ here and PA’s paper on ‘Tomorrow’s Universities, Today’ here. Having…

  • International students – the silent engine in levelling up

    2 February 2022 by Ruth Arnold

    Ruth Arnold is a Senior Advisor to Study Group and was previously the Director of Public Affairs at The University of Sheffield.  In his Daily Mail opinion piece trailing the Levelling Up White Paper, Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove described the country and the economy in terms of a jet plane…

  • In the years of waiting for a full response, it’s become clear the Augar review is a smörgåsbord not a prix fixe. But while policymakers have been deliberating, universities have been delivering.

    1 February 2022 by Nick Hillman

    This month, February 2022, marks four years since the Augar panel was set up to review post-18 education in England. They reported in May 2019, by which time it felt like we had been waiting ages and longer than anyone had originally expected. But when compared to the Government’s dilatory…

  • The difference a year makes

    31 January 2022 by Diana Beech

    This guest blog has been kindly written by Dr Diana Beech, Chief Executive Officer of London Higher – the representative body for the UK’s largest regional higher education powerhouse in London. Diana was previously Policy Adviser to the last three Universities Ministers, and you can find her on Twitter at…

  • Will the Office for Students’ proposals bake in disadvantage?

    28 January 2022 by Joan O’ Mahony

    Dr Joan O’ Mahony is Director of Academic Development at Bloomsbury Institute London. Previously she was Senior Advisor (Teaching and Learning) at Advance HE, and before that the Academic Lead for Student Retention at the Higher Education Academy. The purpose of any policy consultation by a regulatory body is to…

  • Minimum Thresholds – Are we really protecting students?

    26 January 2022 by Sally Burtonshaw

    This guest blog has been kindly written by Sally Burtonshaw, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at London Higher – the representative body for the UK’s largest regional higher education powerhouse. You can find Sally on Twitter at @SallyBurtonshaw. As the dust begins to settle on the 699 pages of Office…