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 kindly contributed by Dennis Sherwood, author of Missing the Mark: Why so many school exam grades are wrong, and how to get results we can trust, published by Canbury Press. At a hearing of the Education Select Committee on 12 October 2022, Ofqual’s Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, stated that the…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Robert Crammond, Senior Lecturer in Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). Universities are driven by several factors, from teaching and student satisfaction to the demands of the local business community , as well as the push to respond to social and…
This blog was kindly provided by Jessica Turner, Chief Executive of QS. Over the last three years, the global higher education sector has demonstrated its resilience and ability to reinvent itself following the COVID-19 pandemic and institutions are now seeking to understand how they can better manage and improve their performance. Current predictions…
This blog was kindly contributed by Liz Shutt, now Programme Director for the new Insights North East initiative at Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. Until recently Liz was Director of Policy for both the University of Lincoln and the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The blog refers to work undertaken in this previous…
This blog is provided by Professor Sir Malcolm Grant and Mary Curnock Cook CBE. Sir Malcolm chairs the PLUS Alliance, which sponsors TEDI London; Mary Curnock Cook chairs the Council of the Dyson Institute and is a non-executive Director at the London Interdisciplinary School, and is also a Trustee of…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Emily Danvers, Lecturer in Higher Education Pedagogy (Education), School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex. Emily is on Twitter @EmilyDanvers. Since 2019, my colleagues and I at the University of Sussex have partnered with Friends, Families and Travellers to deliver outreach to young people…
This blog was kindly contributed by Ceri Nursaw, Chief Executive of the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE). Over 12 weeks, HEPI has hosted blogs exploring the topic of leadership in higher education. In the final post in the series, Ceri reflects on some of the series’ key messages. Our Autumn…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Natalie Forster, Research Fellow in Applied Health and Social Care at Northumbria University. The idea of ‘raising aspirations’ has long been recognised as problematic in the field of widening participation. A focus on aspiration can blame members of under-represented groups themselves for their low…
The Unite Foundation partnered with UCAS on their recent ‘Next Steps Report’ which shines a light on the potential and ambition of young people leaving care and the challenges they can face when exploring university options. Global Law student and Unite Foundation scholarship recipient Lisa reflects on her experiences in higher education opens and…
Katherine Emms is a Senior Education & Policy Researcher at the Edge Foundation. You can read all of Edge’s ‘Learning from the Past’ series here. The current shortage of high-skilled professionals has again placed vocational education centre stage. Unfortunately, shortness of memory in government and policymaking circles has created a disconnect between…