A major Australian higher education policy review, known as the Australian Universities Accord, submits its final report this month. The Australian Labor Party announced the Accord idea from opposition in 2021, with the current review commencing after its 2022 election victory over the Liberal Party. As the name suggests, an Accord goal was greater…
This week is the last week of term at many universities. So we will be marking the start of the Christmas period with three detailed pieces on the state of higher education at the end of 2023. These will feature on our News page (and are in addition to the…
The Higher Education Policy Institute has published a new Debate Paper, Neoliberal or not? English higher education (HEPI Debate Paper 34), which includes two contrasting chapters by Professor Roger Brown and Nick Hillman as well as a Foreword by Professor Sir Chris Husbands. Roger Brown argues that the organisation of English higher education…
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) is today publishing a new paper, Connecting the Dots: The Need for an Effective Skills System in England (HEPI Report 167). It focuses on the urgent need to break down the educational barriers created by regulatory burden and competition between education institutions, which is preventing our…
The higher education sector in the UK is facing a need to deliver change on multiple fronts as it grapples with how to deliver more from less, the demands of government and regulators, the needs of students and the opportunities offered by new technologies. This has led to large portfolios…
In a new HEPI Policy Note, REF2028: Outputs Matter, Professor Sir Nigel Thrift, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, argues the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is becoming overloaded – thereby diluting its core purpose. Professor Thrift argues: Academics’ actual contributions to knowledge are being devalued in favour of bureaucratic…
Rents for student accommodation have increased by an average of 14.6% over the past two academic years, according to a new report from Unipol and HEPI, meaning they now swallow up nearly all of the average maintenance loan. Student accommodation costs across 10 cities in the UK: Cost pressures and…
It is great to be back in Bradford. Thank you for inviting me. I have visited a few times since becoming HEPI’s Director 10 years ago. The other day I looked back to what I said to you during my first visit, at the end of the 2014/15 academic year…
The English Social Mobility Index, which is compiled by London South Bank University (LSBU) and published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), compares the performance of individual English higher education providers. The Index measures the social distance travelled by graduates from each institution as well as the proportion of…
The Robbins report of October 1963 has been compared in importance to the Beveridge Report (1942). Its recommendations for a big expansion of higher education were immediately accepted by the Conservative Government and the Labour Opposition. In a new HEPI Policy Note, The Robbins report at 60: Essential facts for policymakers…