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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].

  • From Adversity to University: Bringing those affected by homelessness into higher education

    17 January 2022 by Becky Edwards and Darren Douglas

    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…

  • Is the ‘Distributed University’ the future of higher education?

    14 January 2022 by Richard Heller

    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…

  • AccessHE responds to HEPI’s ‘First-in-Family Students’ report

    13 January 2022 by Emily Dixon

    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…

  • Growing Diverse and Inclusive University Marketing Teams

    12 January 2022 by Ellie Highwood, Alison Elton, and Joel Arber

    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…

  • Did the pandemic hamper widening access and participation in 2021?

    10 January 2022 by Ben Jordan and Ellie Rowley

    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…

  • Giving widening access a real reboot

    7 January 2022 by Graeme Atherton

    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…

  • Turning up the volume on levelling up

    5 January 2022 by Dionne Lee

    This blog was contributed by Dionne Lee, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the University of Teesside. It seems counter-intuitive to suggest that we turn up the volume on levelling-up. In fact, there are many who would argue that the volume is already rather high – it is after all…

  • The significance of ‘place’ and local partnerships

    4 January 2022 by Jane Robinson

    Professor Jane Robinson is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Place at Newcastle University. In HEPI’s most recent debate paper, One Nation University, Richard Brabner presents a timely and important challenge about the role universities can play to support a fairer society and stronger communities.  As we look ahead to the much-anticipated…

  • What were people reading in 2021?

    31 December 2021 by Nick Hillman

    Here, on the last day of a year that many people will be pleased to see the back of, is our Top 40 most popular HEPI website pages of 2021. (The list is restricted to blogs and news stories so excludes, for example, our ever-changing home page.) I am struck…