A recent international conference at University College London (UCL) explored international perspectives on creating a more ‘connected’ higher education sector. More than 300 delegates from 18 countries shared research and practices relating to breaking down the divisions, including those between research and student education, between students, researchers and professionals, and between students and local and wider communities. More...

The number seven has many special properties. There are seven days of the week, seven colours of the rainbow, seven notes in a musical scale, seven ages of man, seven continents and seven seas. In 2014, a journalist asked people to pick their favourite number and, 44,000 votes later, the number 7 topped the poll (with 110, sadly, being deemed the least popular). More...

Yesterday, World Mental Health Day, prompted universities and colleges across the UK to reflect on their duty of care to students and staff suffering from mental health issues. In a sector dominated by data, it is all too easy to lose sight of the human stories behind the numbers. More...

In just over 50 years the proportion of students studying for sub-bachelor qualifications – such as Higher National Diplomas and Certificates – has declined from around half at the time of the Robbins inquiry to some 15 per cent now. More...

We, at the Leadership Foundation, are delighted to have launched our 2017-18 governance year with a joint event with HEPI, the leading policy institute of higher education in the UK. In this blog post we provide a summary of the debate on the challenges facing good governance that took place last month, which included contributions from governors and governance specialists from within and outside of higher education. More...

It is sometimes said higher education is the only part of our education system where prior disadvantage is wiped out. This is because the most advantaged students sometimes perform less well academically than other students between enrolment and graduation. More...

Fresh from what is becoming my annual sojourn to the political party conferences (a hat trick of Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative this year), I offer a few reflections on the mood of the political community. More...

The wonderful human geographer Danny Dorling has expounded on his long-held view that our student finance system was designed by the rich to hammer the poor in a new essay for Wonkhe entitled ‘Why student loans are a confidence trick for the 85%‘. This claims student loans have been implemented by ‘con artists’ to ‘defraud’ disadvantaged people. More...

The main currency of politics is killer facts: striking points that move a debate on. In higher education, current killer facts include the claim from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that the poorest graduates in England leave university with debts of £57,000 and that interest on student loans has increased to 6.1%. More...