Accusing universities of ‘grade inflation’ has become a common pastime in political and media circles. What they mean is that the proportions of good degrees awarded have been going up, but it is referred to as grade inflation so that the preferred explanation (ie university perfidy) is built into the term that is used to describe the phenomenon. More...

On Monday 25 June, the team at Oracle – a HEPI partner organisation – is hosting a half-day event looking at the big issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in UK higher education. More...

The tenor of the current policy debate on post-18 education and the Augar Review is the binary world of ‘Either/Or’. The conventional wisdom for some is to switch prospective higher education students from Level 6 degrees to technical qualification at Level 4 and 5. Surely this would be ‘better value’. More...

For the success of our higher education sector, now is the time for Government to work together with universities and other stakeholders to do more to harness the opportunities presented by global higher education and promote higher education exports. More...

The research shows a majority of students think illegal drugs cause problems for individuals and society – 88% think drug usage causes problems ‘for the mental health of the user’ and 68% think it causes problems ‘for society in terms of contributing to criminality’. More...

The Opening Keynote by Sam Gyimah MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research & Innovation is available here. More...

In a marked reversal of a five-year downward trend, students in the United Kingdom are reporting statistically significant improvements in perceptions of value for money from their higher education experience. This is the headline finding from the 2018 Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES) published today by Advance HE and the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). More...

Today’s TEF results appear good news all round. Of those providers which reapplied for an award under TEF 3, many managed to upgrade their previous awards. This shows there is much to be learnt with the benefit of hindsight and reflection on what worked in the 2017 exercise (as featured in HEPI report 99, Going for Gold: Lessons from the TEF provider submissions). More...

By Phil Hill. Inside Higher Ed published an article today, titled "Free MOOCs Face The Music", about edX quietly adding support fees for many of their courses. Dhawal Shah and I both commented that we were not surprised by the move. More...

By Phil Hill. Last week Walmart announced a new education benefit for its employers, subsidizing undergraduate college degrees at select online programs at the University of Florida (through UF Online), Brandman University, or Bellevue University. More...