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The Government and higher education institutions should do more to support students who live away from campus – often in the parental home – and who commute long distances to study, according to a new report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).

Homeward Bound: Defining, understanding and aiding ‘commuter students’ (HEPI Report 114) has been written by Professor David Maguire, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, and David Morris, the Vice-Chancellor’s Policy Officer at the University of Greenwich.

The report has been sponsored by University Partnerships Programme (UPP), the UK’s leading provider of on-campus student accommodation infrastructure and support services.

The paper considers the experiences of students who live in the parental home during university. They have poorer outcomes than those who move away from home and are less engaged and satisfied with their academic experiences.

Almost one-in-ten (9 per cent) commuter students would not have entered higher education if they could make their decision again, which is higher than for any other group.

The report also finds:

commuter students are more likely to be first-in-family students, to come from a lower-income household, to be mature students and to have an ethnic minority background;
at 10 universities, over half the students live in the parental or guardian home, including City University London, the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Bradford; and
institutions with a lower proportion of commuter students are more likely to achieve higher student satisfaction scores.

The report includes five case studies – including the University of Manchester, Staffordshire University and Anglia Ruskin University – which explain how they support their commuter students.

The report ends with recommendations for policymakers and universities:

the Post-18 Education and Funding Review should ensure concerns about the cost of living are […]

On Thursday, 29thNovember 2018, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) publishes Fairer Funding: The case for a graduate levy (Policy Note 10) by Johnny Rich, which outlines a radical new approach to funding higher education.

In order to balance the cost more fairly between students, taxpayers and employers, the paper proposes that, instead of students borrowing money to pay for tuition, businesses should pay a levy for each graduate they employ. The amounts would be equivalent to the student loan repayments made under the current funding system in England.

Revenue from graduate levies would be paid directly to the higher education institution where each graduate studied. Institutions would be financially sustainable because they would share an investment in the future employability of their students, rather than because they maximise their student intake.

The paper comes in advance of the Augar Review’s report in the new year on the future funding of Post-18 Education and Funding. It also comes as the Office for National Statistics prepares to announce possible changes to student loan accounting rules that could create a black hole in the Government’s budget deficit plans.

The paper has been written in a personal capacity by Johnny Rich, a higher education specialist who is also Chief Executive of Push, a not-for-profit outreach organisation, and the Engineering Professors’ Council.

Rich also argues for a redistribution of funds between higher education institutions based on their ability to attract and support students from poorer backgrounds. This would give institutions an incentive to support social mobility and ensure access money is spent more effectively.

Johnny Rich said:
For too long, higher education funding has been a battleground of competing interests between taxpayers, students, employers and universities. Over three decades, students have come off worst. A graduate […]

Outgoing Vice-Chancellor says improving the prospects of thousands of students from deprived backgrounds is one of his proudest achievements
Professor John Raftery said: ‘The turnaround since 2014 at London Metropolitan University is an example of what is possible when a university “gets a grip”, taking both ownership of its past and responsibility for its future.’
As Professor John Raftery steps down as Vice-Chancellor of London Metropolitan University, he reflects in a new HEPI Policy Note – A University Turnaround: Adaptive Leadership at London Metropolitan University, 2014 to 2018 – on the measures he took during his time as Vice-Chancellor (2014-2018), which helped to transform the University from a struggling institution to one with improving scores in all key performance areas.

One of Raftery’s proudest achievements is the University’s social mobility mission, which has helped to change the lives of tens of thousands of students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, often from deprived areas. This has largely been down to the University’s success in improving employment outcomes: the most recent figures show that the proportion of graduates from London Met finding highly-skilled ‘graduate’ jobs has increased by 56%, while 96.7% of graduates are in work or further study within six months. London Metropolitan University is now ranked second in the country for social inclusion, with 96.5% of students coming from state schools, according to a recent ranking by The Times.

Raftery credits an adaptive leadership approach that included:

a programme for improving student outcomes;
a programme of financial discipline and investment; and
an intensive interactive communication effort with the University community.

This was underlined by a requirement for all new staff to show they were prepared for the heavy lifting work of turning around the organisation.

Raftery helped the University […]

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) is publishing a report on the past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK. Released just before the new academic year begins, the report traces the history of student representation in higher education to show its role in higher education debates.

David versus Goliath: The past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK by Mike Day and Jim Dickinson, includes a Foreword written by Douglas Blackstock, Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency.

The report digs into the origins of students’ unions and summarises their role and history through the major higher education debates of the past century. It covers student rights, in loco parentis, massification, marketisation, freedom of speech and the co-production of educational outcomes. It also reflects on emerging practice in students’ unions in relation to innovation in student-led activity.

The report reveals:

Debates over campus freedom of speech have a long history – in a 1986 letter to Phil Woolas (the NUS President and future Labour MP), Keith Joseph (the Secretary of State for Education and Science) accused the student movement of barbarianism and fascism: ‘So these new barbarians set up their own fascist policies: they ban that which they disapproved by adopting “no platform” policies.’
Student representation has a much longer history in Scotland than in England – students have had a voice in Scottish universities since the fifteenth century, the antecedents of today’s students’ unions were founded in Scotland from 1737 and the UK’s first Student Representative Council was founded in Edinburgh in 1884, whereas universities in England were not legally obliged to have a student association until 1965.
The nature of the relationship between students and their universities has long been […]

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) is today publishing a new paper, Filling in the biggest skills gap: Increasing learning at Levels 4 and 5, on reviving the layers of education that lie between school-leaving exams and full honours degrees, where employers say they face the biggest skills gaps.

Only 10% of UK adults hold stand-alone qualifications at this level as their highest award, which is lower than in many other countries. More provision of this type would:

Enable employees to raise their skills;
tackle the needs of employers; and
offer a better path for mature students.

In the report, Professor Dave Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University (LSBU), calls on universities in England to champion so-called Level 4 and 5 qualifications – including well-known brands like HNCs, HNDs and Foundation Degrees. He additionally calls on the Government to change the current student funding rules to promote this level of education.

Professor David Phoenix, author of the report said:
Too often, these qualifications are seen as exit awards for those that fail to complete their degree; but universities should be promoting them as reputable awards in their own right.

Weaknesses in secondary education have resulted in a poor supply of learners able to progress to these levels and the funding system discourages universities from offering them.

There is a common misconception that school leavers must jump straight to degree level if they are to continue learning. Highlighting and improving other options would make progression more achievable for many learners. We need a policy shift to make that happen.
Nick Hillman, the Director of HEPI and the author of the Foreword to the report, said:
Qualifications between school-leaving exams and honours degrees have collapsed in recent years. If there had been such a […]