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, who is on Twitter @noookophile. Official consultations are important documents, if only to allow the issuer to claim that ‘we consulted widely’. Whether or not the issuer is influenced by any responses is another matter, and those responses are of course heavily…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Scott Kelly. Scott lectures in British Politics at NYU and was an adviser to the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning 2010-12. He has written papers for HEPI on BTECs and Levels 4 and 5. For anyone who has been involved…
This blog was kindly contributed by Luke Myer, Policy and Public Affairs Officer at the Quality Assurance Agency. It is based on a private roundtable discussion in December with senior sector stakeholders in England. You can find Luke on Twitter @luke_myer. Last week, the Westminster Government’s long-awaited Skills white paper…
On Thursday, the Department of Education published a whole range of documents announcing developments in further and higher education. We were both overwhelmed with information and felt short-changed by the lack of firm details in some areas, such as the response to the Augar review which only received an interim response, with…
This blog was kindly contributed by Daniel Dipper, a first year History and Politics undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford. You can find Daniel on Twitter @DanielDipper1 . Having started studying BA History and Politics at Magdalen College, the University of Oxford, in a time like no other, the first term…
Today, the Department for Education has delivered at least partial responses to many of the key sector debates from the last few years. With the release of the Skills for Jobs White Paper, an interim response to the Augar review, a consultation on post-qualification admissions reform, publication of the independent report on the Teaching Excellence and Student…
Slow thinking A few years ago, there was a vogue for ‘slow thinking’, ‘slow food’ and even for a whole ‘slow movement’, all of which were aimed at reducing the pace of life down. In recent years, people watching UK higher education policy might well have felt the idea was…
This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Kate Mori, Quality and Standards Specialist at the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). Kate is working on the update of Education for Sustainable Development Guidance. You can find Kate on Twitter @katemori1. The Education for Sustainable Development Guidance is being updated by an expert…
This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Dave Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor at London South Bank University. You can find Dave on Twitter @David_PhoenixVC Most significant in the Prime Minister’s speech at Exeter College in September last year was the suggestion that further education colleges will be given access to the main…
This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Paul Layzell, Principal, Royal Holloway University of London and former Chair of AQA. You can find Paul on Twitter @RHULPrincipal. Three years after the creation of the Office for Students (OfS), has higher education’s regulator come of age? When formed, I shared the…