We recently published a new report on the history of the Universities Superannuation (USS) Scheme. It received a warm reception for recounting the little-known history of the foundation of the USS and its first 30+ years of stability as well as the origins of recent troubles. More...
Stuck ‘in irons’ is sailing parlance for a paralysed vessel: trapped with sails luffing in a head-on wind. It is a no-go zone for progress on water. Weathervanes and moored boats passively find the same position. More...
We would agree with this, although would argue it is fruitful to explore both areas. In fact, we have published the most comprehensive data on student’s views on how their fees should be spent, through the HEPI/AdvanceHE annual Student Academic Experience Survey. More...
In UK and across the world we are in the middle of a long wave of higher education expansion. Countries are moving from 20-40 per cent participation in tertiary education to 50, 60, 70 per cent and beyond, with most students at degree level. South Korea, Finland and Canada are already at 90 per cent. More...
I had no idea that the results of school exams were so unreliable. And so variable by subject too – 4% wrong for Maths, 44% wrong for History. There’s another blog too, showing the evidence that scripts marked at grade boundaries have only about a 50% chance of being awarded the right grade, even for Maths. More...
Have we come to the end of a golden age of higher education? That suggestion set the tone at the first of this year’s HEPI / AdvanceHE’s parliamentary seminars: ‘Boom or bust? How can institutions – and the regulator – best respond to the new market pressures in higher education?’. More...
The role of a think tank is – in large part – to make potentially dry subjects interesting, engaging and impactful. But just sometimes, our job is the opposite. It is to try and help temper subjects that have become so divisive that it is hard to make reasonable progress. More...
The aim of the Student Minds University Mental Health Charter is to encourage and recognise excellence in the way HE providers promote the mental wellbeing of their whole community. Through the Charter, we hope to inspire cultural change and have a long-term, transformative effect on the mental health of both staff and students. More...
In the past 15 years, the Labour Party has backed the tripling of undergraduate fees in England (at the 2005 election), supported a big cut in fees (at the 2015 election) and is now backing the abolition of fees (from the 2017 election onwards). Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has shifted from opposing fees (at the 2005 election), to tripling them in office and now, apparently, wanting to see them fall. More...
On each occasion staff were told that these reforms would be enough but each time – sometimes within a matter of months – the talk returned again to reform. With each iteration staff have become less convinced that the actuarial and political arguments for change stack up. More...
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