News Archives

Fast response to some slow thinking: Initial comment on today’s slew of documents from the Department for Education by HEPI’s Director

21 January 2021 by Nick Hillman

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…
New HEPI Debate Paper argues for the student loan scheme to be replaced by a graduate contribution scheme, including contributions from those who graduated in the era of grant-funded study

21 January 2021 by Alan Roff

The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) has published a new report on the student finance system in England, Student Finance in England from 2012 to 2020: From fiscal illusion to graduate contribution? (HEPI Debate Paper 25). Written by Alan Roff, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire, the new…
New report warns that an excessive focus on university drop-out rates conflicts with other important priorities

7 January 2021 by Nick Hillman

As students prepare for the new term, the Higher Education Policy Institute is publishing a report on non-continuation (or ‘drop-out’) rates. A short guide to non-continuation in UK universities (HEPI Policy Note 28) by Nick Hillman, HEPI’s Director, looks at the scale of the problem, including showing that the UK has…
New report urges universities to have zero carbon emissions by 2035 and to rethink knowledge and teaching practices for the era of climate change

10 December 2020

The Higher Education Policy Institute is publishing its first ever report on climate change. Beyond business as usual: Higher education in the era of climate change (HEPI Debate Paper 24) by Keri Facer, Zennström Professor of Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University and Professor of Educational and Social Futures at…
New poll finds a decline in student mental health but growing satisfaction with online learning

3 December 2020

The Higher Education Policy Institute has worked with Youthsight on a poll of over 1,000 full-time undergraduate students to see how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting them. The results show: This follows on our two rounds of previous polling, undertaken at the start of the crisis in March and at the…
New report finds focus on graduate pay as an indicator of institutional quality is sexist in its implications and effects

12 November 2020

The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new report looking at the gender pay gap between graduates. The report, Mind the (Graduate Gender Pay) Gap by Bethan Cornell, Rachel Hewitt and Bahram Bekhradnia, looks at how the graduate gender pay gap changes over time and uses new and existing data and…
New HEPI report reveals over 350,000 more higher education places will be needed in England by 2035 to keep up with demand, while Scotland will see a decline in demand for places over the same period, despite increased participation in higher education

22 October 2020

The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new report looking at future demand for higher education places in the UK over the next fifteen years. The report, Demand for Higher Education to 2035 by Rachel Hewitt, builds and expands on HEPI’s long history of exploring demand for higher education. The…
Access to higher education before, during and after the pandemic – by Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation

30 September 2020 by Chris Millward

This blog was kindly contributed by Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students, who is taking part in a free HEPI webinar later today. I last wrote for HEPI in December 2019, responding to its pamphlet on social mobility and elite universities. Since then, higher education has…
New polling shows students’ support for the Labour Party has grown under Keir Starmer and students have become more politicised since the start of 2020

24 September 2020

Students’ voting patterns are often assumed but, as our recent report on the role of student voters in the last four elections has shown, their role can often be misunderstood. Today, we publish new YouthSight data on students’ voting intentions, which finds: The Labour Party continues to hold the greatest support among…
At the 2019 General Election, Labour’s vote share was 25 percentage points higher in student constituencies – and the Conservatives’ vote share was 25 percentage points lower

17 September 2020 by Nick Hillman

The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new report on student voters at the last four UK general elections (2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019). Student voters: Did they make a difference? (HEPI Report 133) by Nick Hillman focuses on the results in the 25 parliamentary constituencies in England, Scotland and…