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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].

  • The Fair Access Coalition: 10 requirements for a fair admissions process

    22 March 2021 by Nathan Sansom, Laura Gray, Anne-Marie Caning, Sam Holmes, Eleanor Harrison, Rachel Carr, Johnny Rich, John Craven & Rae Tooth.

    This blog was kindly contributed by The Fair Access Coalition. The Fair Access Coalition is a group of the heads of leading third sector organisations engaged in activities to support access and progression, including the Access Project (Nathan Sansom), Brightside (Laura Gray), The Brilliant Club (Anne-Marie Canning), Causeway Education (Sam…

  • Myth Debunking: A post-Easter mass return to halls and rented houses

    19 March 2021 by David Tymms

    This blog was kindly contributed by David Tymms, Chair of the British Property Federation Student Accommodation Committee. You can find David on Twitter @TymmsDavid. Much has been written in recent months on university students and the spread of Covid-19. The February 2021 Public Health England (PHE) study cited recently in…

  • Decolonisation is a welcome contribution, but must not be enforced

    18 March 2021 by Doug Stokes

    This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Doug Stokes, Head of Research and Development at The Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter. The subject of decolonising the curriculum is once again back in the headlines, following recent comments by the Universities Minister. Advocates of decolonising the curriculum have objected…

  • Bahram Bekhradnia: The White Paper on free speech is intellectually flimsy

    17 March 2021 by Bahram Bekhradnia

    Bahram Bekhradnia founded HEPI in 2002 and was its Director until the end of 2013, since when he has been HEPI’s President. Before establishing HEPI, he was the Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Last month the Government produced a White Paper on free speech…

  • Lee Elliot Major: A way forward for the Social Mobility Index

    16 March 2021 by Lee Elliot Major

    This blog was kindly contributed by Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter and co-author of HEPI Policy Note Social Mobility and Elite Universities. You can find Lee on Twitter @Lem_Exeter. We are defined by how we are measured. Statistics that measure the performance of…

  • Goals-based R&D policy: high popularity, low effectiveness – What is the likelihood of the UK reaching its target of spending 2.4% of GDP on R&D by 2027?

    15 March 2021 by Adão Carvalho

    A few days ago, the head of UK Research and Investment, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said the Government’s target of having 2.4% of GDP spent on research and development (R&D) by 2027 was ‘very challenging‘. Here, Adão Carvalho of the Department of Economics at the Universidade de Évora in Portugal considers the…

  • Reflections on Learning and Teaching during COVID

    12 March 2021 by Brett Koenig

    This blog was kindly contributed by Brett Koenig, Senior Lecturer in Law at De Montfort University. The use of learning technology as an attempt to supplement traditional teaching methods has been on the rise in higher education for the last decade and has been in existence for centuries. Technological developments…

  • Dear Mr Williamson and Mr Zahawi…

    11 March 2021 by Giles Carden & Lawrence Young

    Today’s blog is an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, and the Minister for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment, Nadhim Zahawi, written by Giles Carden, the Chief of Staff at Lancaster University, and Lawrence Young, a Virologist and Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Warwick. Dear…

  • Reflecting on the value of higher education

    10 March 2021 by Rachel Hewitt

    Today marks one year since the last HEPI in-person event. On 10 March 2020, while we were getting used to using hand sanitiser more regularly but not quite at the point of cancelling events, we held a small Expert Policy Seminar on ‘Measuring the value of higher education’, where we…

  • David Phoenix responds to Peter Scott on the Social Mobility Index

    9 March 2021 by David Phoenix

    In this blog David Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor at London South Bank University and author of the recent HEPI report which outlines what a Social Mobility Index for the UK, responds to a blog by Peter Scott, Commissioner for Fair Access, Scotland, and Professor of Higher Education Studies at the UCL Institute…