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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].

  • Employability Blog Series: Employability Monsters – exploring the challenges and barriers to employability

    22 April 2022 by Dawn Lees and Kate Foster

    HEPI’s hybrid Policy Briefing Day is on 27 April 2022 and institutions that support HEPI are entitled to a free place. The seventh in this weekly series of blogs on employability was written by Dr Dawn Lees, Principal Investigator and Student Employability & Development Manager and Kate Foster, Project Lead Facilitator and Employability & Careers Consultant…

  • The British Academy’s Early-Career Researcher Network: A view from one ECR

    21 April 2022 by James Riley

    HEPI’s hybrid Policy Briefing Day is on 27 April 2022 and institutions that support HEPI are entitled to a free place. This blog was written by Dr James Riley, a science studies scholar and an early-career researcher at the University of Birmingham. James is on Twitter @JamesIRiley. If you get a group of…

  • Universities rose to the challenge during COVID: where’s the public recognition?

    13 April 2022 by John Cater

    This blog was contributed by Dr John Cater, Vice-Chancellor of Edge Hill University. Two years ago, every night at 5pm, we were listening to a prevaricating Prime Minister flanked by the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer. And every morning, at every university, the senior team tried to…

  • The never-ending story? The Conservative Party, the EU and universities

    12 April 2022 by Nick Hillman

    Back in 2015, when the referendum on UK membership of the EU was approaching, I attended an event on it at the University of Westminster. While there, I heard a former (pro-EU) Tory MP argue that, while high-falutin’ arguments were all well and good, there was only one surefire way…

  • Reflecting on a Centenary

    11 April 2022 by Nishan Canagarajah

    This blog was contributed by Nishan Canagarajah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. In celebrating its past, the University of Leicester has found inspiration for its future mission. Levelling up, equality of opportunity, and geopolitical stability –these are all Government priorities of today which compare with those of the post-First…

  • Employability Blog Series: A Case Study on Embedding Employability within the Student Experience

    8 April 2022 by Matthew Vince and Thea Jones

    The sixth in this weekly series of blogs on employability was written by Dr Matthew Vince, HE Enterprise and Employability Coordinator, and Thea Jones, Deputy Head of Higher Education, at the University Centre South Devon. With the steady expansion of approaches to employability, there has been increasing concern about the extent to which employability should be…

  • Refugees in higher education – a personal perspective

    6 April 2022 by Kate Allan

    Kate Allan is a Principal Associate at Mills & Reeve LLP. In 2018, I was lucky enough to spend some time volunteering in Calais with organisations supporting refugees there.  At that point in their journey, the refugees were away from the danger that had caused them to flee their homes,…

  • Researching China: How Germany tackles the issues

    5 April 2022 by Andreas Fulda

    Andreas Fulda is Associate Professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham and author of The Struggle for Democracy in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong (Routledge, 2020). In Germany, a public debate about the current state of China studies has erupted. Rivalling op-eds appeared in…