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 blog was contributed by Professor Susan Lea, University of Hull Vice Chancellor. The Government’s focus on place, tackling inequality through levelling up, boosting productivity and developing a green economy is roundly welcomed. The image of a better and brighter future for all is both reassuring and seductive. Yet, whilst…
This blog was contributed by Oliver Price, a graduate of the University of Manchester and former Research & Editorial Assistant for the Engineering Professors’ Council. Here he discusses his experience as a Foundation Year student at the University of Manchester, where he eventually graduated with First-Class Honours in Chemical Engineering.…
No one would dispute that COVID-19 has severely disrupted the education of millions of people. Our polling with Advance HE, for example, shows an unprecedented proportion of undergraduate students think they have received ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ value for money and twice as many as usual feel their experiences have been…
This blog was contributed by Becky Edwards, Coordinator of ‘From Adversity to University’ and Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Chichester. The University of Chichester has just been chosen as one of the top 100 changemaker organisations by the Big Issue for the From Adversity to…
This blog was contributed by Richard Heller, Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester and author of The Distributed University for Sustainable Higher Education. There are many threats to the future of universities. These include the need to ensure environmental sustainability, to be responsive to the way people access information…
This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Emily Dixon, London Programmes and Communications Coordinator at AccessHE – the pan-London network driving the access, success and progression agenda for under-represented learners into and through higher education, and a key division of London Higher. You can follow AccessHE on Twitter at…
This blog was contributed by Ellie Highwood, Associate Consultant, SUMS, Joel Arber, Group Managing Director, SUMS Group, and Alison Elton, Higher Education Senior Consultant, GatenbySanderson. University marketing teams play an essential role in portraying their institution and the HE sector to the outside world. Brand communication, reputation-building and student recruitment…
This blog was contributed by Dr. Alex Blower, Access and Participation Manager at Arts University Bournemouth. For a number of years, some areas of the higher education sector have taken a less than consistent approach the treatment of applicants holding vocational qualifications. It’s an issue that has been commented upon…
This blog was contributed by Ben Jordan, Head of Policy, and Ellie Rowley, Fair Access Programme Lead, UCAS. The pandemic brought with it a sharpened focus on disparities in society, and with it, unified efforts to minimise the impacts. The education and skills sector was no different. For the first…
This blog was contributed by Professor Graeme Atherton, Director National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) and Head of Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up (CILUP), University of West London. The reboot The reboot to widening access to higher education announced by the Minister for Universities last month is in some ways…