Nick Hillman
@nickhillman
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Director of @Hepi_News . Former spad. RTs don’t equal endorsement.
Haddenham, England
Joined October 2009
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I’ve videoed a presentation for people thinking about going to higher education. What is it you really need to know? It might be helpful for PSHE / tutor groups / next steps days etc.
#edutwitter
CALLING YEAR 12 & YEAR 13 STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS, PARENTS AND ADVISERS: Find out what going to higher education is really like - HEPI
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Reminds me of my favourite higher education joke:
—How do you know if someone went to Oxbridge?
—They’ll tell you the minute you meet them.
If you take the Oxford vaccine, do you have to tell everybody about it?
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More calls this morning for some universities to stop being universities. Typically, they come from people with degrees from older institutions. Newer universities educating under-represented groups are a form of competition to such degree holders. It’s a monopolistic argument.
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One of the things that is often forgotten about international students is that you have to be pretty extraordinary to travel halfway around the world, sometimes at a young age, to live & learn in a country with a different culture / language. So we benefit from their presence.
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Rather wonderful that the BBC is celebrating
#chroniclesofnadiya
while, over the Channel, the French are deciding what women should wear.
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There’s a gender angle to the new announcement on international students, which is likely to get missed.
A large majority of the international students who bring dependants to the UK are women.
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The focus on reducing student migrants - which is a shockingly bad idea - by blocking their access to ‘low-quality’ courses is muddling up two policy areas. If there are poor courses (and working that out is much harder than it sounds), then Brits shouldn’t be doing them either.
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Someone w/ an English degree & a Master’s in Journalism who’s ended up with a great job at a national newspaper claims higher education is a waste of time…
Still it’s all based on a “hunch” so must be true…
Stop trying to pull up the ladder behind you.
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Just did an early morning interview on
@LBC
with Andrew Castle where he (completely fairly) asked me to prove that universities lose money on educating home students. I promised to put the numbers on here. So here is the high-level TRAC data (source: )
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You may have to work in higher ed to understand why this is so stupid, but I have just shouted ‘Augar’ instead of ‘Alexa’ by accident.
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Always always always check the education of those who tell you not to go to university.
Today’s silly piece saying too many people go comes, as they always do, from someone who has done spectacularly well from their own degree.
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The furore over tomorrow’s ‘exam’ results conceals the most important thing: people who‘ve spent years in schooling, have survived/thrived & now sit on the cusp of independent adulthood are about to go & do lots of exciting things. No one can take that away: well done & good luck
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If you think universities should get less money for teaching online but you don’t advocate schools getting less for doing the same, how do you rationalise it?
(For the avoidance of doubt, I think neither schools nor universities should get less for doing more in the crisis.)
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I’m just ripping up tonight’s speech about what the reappointment of Jo Johnson to the role of Universities Minister means for higher education…
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***ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS*** check the education of anyone who tells you not to go to university.
This journalist got a First in Classics at Bristol before catching a wonderful high-profile job at a national newspaper. Perhaps not such a waste after all?
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Is there a word in any language to describe the glaring typo you’ve completely failed to see on multiple occasions right up to the moment when the final copy lands and you immediately spot it as if it’s been staring you in the face all the time?
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Good-quality apprenticeships are great. But so is going to university. It’s a little silly to spend public money pretending one is better than the other. We should be trying to secure the best fit for each individual not perpetuating myths about ‘academic’ vs ‘technical’ routes.
Daisy had five uni offers, but chose an
#apprenticeship
route to her degree so she could earn and learn.
#NAW18
#WorksForMe
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Unacceptable: The Gen Sec of
@ucu
is encouraging people to ‘drag’ me on Twitter. I had to look up what it means but apparently it is ‘to publicly humiliate’ on social media, and is a term with origins in physical violence. There’s an article on it here:
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Newspaper editors, if you’re short of a column, it’s less original than it might seem to get one of your famous columnists with a degree to write about how, despite being incredibly successful themselves, university is a waste of time. Here’s three such pieces from the last week.
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It’s genuinely wonderful to see this clear statement from someone in one of the great offices of state on the benefits that university-based vocational education can deliver:
My vocational degree taught me: finance & accounting, marketing & comms, HR & team leadership, logistics & process management, employment law, contract law, tort law, etc
All very useful in running a government dept.
BTW is was from TVU not Ealing College.
@UWLAlumni
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Whenever I say we should prepare for increased participation in higher education, to match the levels in other countries, some people respond by arguing there’s too many students and too many universities.
It’s funny how many of them think 100% of their own children should go.
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I honestly don’t know which of my colleagues sent this Tweet but I’m very honoured by it. I’m lucky to work for such a great organisation and with such an amazingly strong team. (And it is indeed 10 years, as I started at HEPI in January 2014!) Thanks for the Likes etc on it.
We're very pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our incredible Director,
@nickhillman
, taking over at HEPI. At the helm for half of HEPI's 20 years, Nick has taken it from strength to strength. We are hugely grateful for everything he has done for HEPI and the sector.
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I really dislike this sort of unwelcoming sign, which plagues so much of Oxford.
There’s surely a better way to say ‘please come back to see our beautiful college at another time’, with some information on how people - including potential future students - might actually visit.
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Feeling nostalgic for the days when the biggest challenges for our university sector were perceived to be a bit of degree grade inflation, the odd instance of over-zealous no-platforming and a few more unconditional offers.
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“[It] is absolutely right that genuinely bad university courses should be rooted out via regulation — no student should be sold a pup. But anyone who thinks a low graduate salary indicates a worthless course should chat to a nurse”
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So chuffed to have been shortlisted for this - and I’m in very good company. Thanks
@prospect_uk
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If you want to see how hard it is to make a joke on Twitter, read this thread...
Shame Barry Gibb hasn't got more of his own material. First he covered Take That, then Boyzone, now Steps.
#Glastonbury2017
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It may take a while.
As a spad in 2013, Sue Gray told me she would see through a review of my salary (which had been promised in writing in 2010 but had never happened).
I’m still waiting for her to get back to me…
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Whenever I visit campuses that look as good and as busy as
@UniofReading
does today, I wish I was a student again:
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Reasons why a 3D uni entry bar are absurd: A-Levels are far from the only game in town so hard to implement; A-Levels are a poor guide to success at uni; doesn’t work for OU / mature etc; will hit disadvantaged most; A-Level grades are not trustworthy.
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Playing Articulate with an 8-year old.
“They’re from olden times”
Apparently, the answer is “DVDs”.
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It’s quite something to attend Oxford and Cambridge and St Andrews and then to say others shouldn’t have the benefits of higher education.
That’s one helluva ladder to pull up behind you.
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Last night, I delivered the annual Drapers’ Lecture at
@QMUL
.
Among the issues I covered were:
-fees and funding;
-access;
-Augar;
-student numbers;
-international students;
-Brexit;
-edtech;
-part-time students; and
-research funding.
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Cambridgeshire has often flitted between being Conservative-controlled and NOC. You’d think it was unprecedented the way it’s being discussed on the news.
#ElectionResults2021
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“Those who think too many people go to university must say exactly who they want to shut out. You can bet your bottom dollar it won’t be their own children.”
The Debate: Do too many people go to university?
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Sometimes it’s important to remember the most basic facts. If any political party abolishes outstanding student debts, the debt doesn’t miraculously disappear, letting young voters off the hook. It stays on the national debt and will still need repaying by tomorrow’s taxpayers.
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Over Christmas, I’m going to try and explain what these things do to my children. Wish me luck.
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What I meant to do? I work for Tory politicians for 12 years, I spend time as a Tory spad and I even stand as a Tory in a general election. But, to
@gilescoren
, I’ll always be one of the cone-headed “leftie wonks”...
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Another piece bemoaning high university participation by someone whose family is benefiting from university. Any one who wants other types of education to be ‘seen as equally valuable’ could just decide to see it as such and vote with their feet to make it so.
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This
#bbcaq
/
@BBCAnyQuestions
discussion is really bizarre. Whether or not international students subsidise UK universities is not an issue for debate; it’s not one of those discussions on which wise heads can disagree. It’s a clear fact.
Just did an early morning interview on
@LBC
with Andrew Castle where he (completely fairly) asked me to prove that universities lose money on educating home students. I promised to put the numbers on here. So here is the high-level TRAC data (source: )
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You’ve got to be really confident you’ll enjoy living with your parents for another year to think deferral is a good idea (plus if lots defer, it may be harder to get the place you really want next year...).
@SianGriffiths6
@ucu
@nickhillman
@MailOnline
‘... up to 20 per cent of students will defer university for a year’ - important not to fear-monger at this point
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The worst thing about visiting so many universities? Over-hearing conversations like this:
“Seriously, you’re 20? I’d never have guessed. That’s so old.”
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The new
@SamsungUK
poll of young people showing 'only 54% now planning on attending university to get a degree' reveals the opposite of what they think. In 2020, the UK 18-year old entry rate was 37% (source:
@ucas_online
). So it actually shows huge desire to reach university.
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People who knock on doors are volunteers who've given up their w/e. Swearing at them is not cool. It doesn't matter which party they're from
So some Conservative came to visit my mum while I was FaceTiming her. You're gonna wanna watch this.
@jeremycorbyn
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Before anyone else slams the Government’s advice for students / universities on going home for Christmas, I hope they’ll share with us in full their practical and workable alternatives. Policymaking is tough and we shouldn’t forget that.
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My timeline is full of people taking different positions on the Amber Rudd / Oxford row. My overwhelming opinion, whatever the rights and wrongs, is that it is yet another unnecessary gift to those who want to kick universities. Why do we make it so easy for people to do that?
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Either you want more diverse civil servants or you follow policies like this. No one should have to wait two months for their first pay, surely? Can’t a workaround be found? Write a cheque?
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With reference to this week’s spate of articles, a better way to show people that you can succeed without a degree would be to have *non-graduates* tell us how they’ve done it, not to have successful graduates reveal they might have succeeded even without their higher education.
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I’ve no idea how you can read that story and think it relates to the number of students. And why is it that the only people who tend to say too many people go to university have benefited hugely from getting a degree? Research suggests it’s about pulling up the ladder behind them
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I am no Lib Dem but please don’t do this. Canvassers and leafleters for all parties are volunteers who give up their own free time to fight for what they believe will make our country a nicer place to live. If we want kinder politics, it starts on the doorstep.
@philipjcowley
@ProfTimBale
Yes, I gave the Liberal Democrat activists canvassing for Dominic Grieve in Beaconsfield a very nice smile as I tore up their leaflet ...
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I hate how my timeline is full of people attacking Laura K. She’s doing her job, she’s good at it, I doubt a male correspondent would be attacked in the way she is. The story should not be about her, surely?
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I've just had to input the date as THIRTIETH OCT MMXXIII on a university expense claim form (for a train fare) because it won't accept numbers...
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As there are so many people on here who are 100% certain that they could run the country miles better than the politicians and officials we have, will there be a massive increase in political party membership and civic participation when this crisis is over?
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It’s less the canapés, caffeine and alcohol that have got me through two weeks of party conferences and more this card that my daughter gave me in the middle to put In my hotel room.
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This is fascinating - but not necessarily in the way you might think. (Read the photo.)
You might not want to hear this, but giving more social security payments to low-income families (in cash or in kind, e.g.
#FreeSchoolMeals
) DOES have a knock-on effect on alcohol & tobacco consumption. See except below.
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People who assume that young people will want to defer going to higher education this year are forgetting that the lockdown and enforced home living could well make them even keener to move out from home to start making their own way in the world:
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Telling kids not to go to university is foolish on every level - especially during a crisis like this
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A friend of mine died from meningitis in her early weeks at university. There are often outbreaks of this horrible disease when freshers congregate at the start of the academic year. If your higher ed place is confirmed and you haven’t had the jab, now is the time to consider it.
Got your place at uni? Congrats! Here’s something really important to think about doing between now and enrolling:
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Just registered to attend a conference. I can't help thinking the online booking process is a little harsh:
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In the past fortnight, I’ve been to
@uniofleicester
@HarperAdamsUni
@UniofExeter
@FalmouthUni
@Cambridge_Uni
&
@KeeleUniversity
. I’ve seen the most fantastic things & met the most fantastic students & staff. Anyone who doubts the quality of our unis should do a similar tour.
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Overwhelmed by the nice comments from people I respect in response to my lecture from last night. My primary goal was to get lots of things off my chest, but I am delighted it has struck a chord with others. Full text:
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@edcumming
Evelyn Waugh wrote in Brideshead Revisited, you may even “find you spend half your second year shaking off the undesirable friends you made in your first”.
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Anyone who thinks universities have a problem with free speech should try posting on my village’s FB site...
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Apologies if I sound like a broken record but this is why we, as a higher education sector, need to engage with the value debate. Either we have our own agreed measures of value or we let others’ measures control what universities can do.
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Very sad to see you go, Jo. Thank you for all you’ve done for the sector in which I work. And for being so open, challenging and thoughtful at all times. You leave a huge legacy, especially as a result of the establishment of the OfS & your positive work on international students
It’s been an honour to represent Orpington for 9 years & to serve as a minister under three PMs. In recent weeks I’ve been torn between family loyalty and the national interest - it’s an unresolvable tension & time for others to take on my roles as MP & Minister.
#overandout
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I’ve written a thing about that thing we’d be talking about if it wasn’t for that other thing:
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Admittedly, you generally have to be pretty wealthy too. We should be talking about whether we can do more to entice less well-off international students to the UK rather than thinking about how to limit those who are already coming.
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Been debating higher education finance at the Oxford Forum at
@ExeterCollegeOx
tonight.
Depressingly familiar tropes.
—I’ve got 4 children. They’ve all been to uni and are successful.
Also same person: —Too many people go to university as it is often a waste of time.
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Actually it took 800 years. It’s a fabulous achievement, just like keeping half of people on to post-elementary education was before it. But some other countries are already way ahead of 50%, which is where we should be heading too:
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So nice to get out and about again to visit a university. There aren’t many that greet you with a huge quote from a Tory MP.
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Yep, we’d be debating it. And, after discussing whether “more means worse“, I reckon we’d conclude that the graduate earnings premium remains high, there will continue to be a need for highly-skilled graduates and that we are currently falling behind other countries for graduates
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I learnt a lot from Mia Liyanage when she was writing this new HEPI paper, out today, on decolonising the curriculum - especially that decolonising can mean adding rather than subtracting, and therefore making curricula more - rather than less - rigorous:
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The President of the NUS replied by saying she was tempted to do so. The attempts to bully on this platform are very toxic and should be called out each time or they just get worse. I continue to know HE is better than this.
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One further practical thing the Government could do is to remove this year’s temporary student number cap:
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Just saying “holistic” repeatedly is not the same as actually creating a new policy.
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Fingers crossed it’s a permanent shift and that policymakers realise blocking people’s aspirations is not a good look.
A-level crisis has had a major side effect on political/media mood around universities: govt's previous focus on talking about need to reduce numbers going into HE has been superseded (for time being, at least). Suddenly, focus is on calls for HE expansion/extra funding.
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Occasionally, at work people come across amazing-but-little-known stories. For me, the transformation of the University of Northampton is one. 1/n
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There’s some great positive individual stories here but they’re not ‘ditching uni’ so much as making positive choices like millions before them to join professions that don’t need a degree. They wouldn’t have gone to uni in the past either.
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I’ve often said the Government’s attitude to foreign students is by far their worst HE policy. But if we’re not in the EU, there is no moral case for subsidising relatively wealthy EU students while making a surplus from relatively poor Indians / Chinese / Nigerians etc.
Cracking thread. The extent to which our current government appears to hate migrants more than it likes money, jobs, peace, and common sense, is really quite something.
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There are very few good HE jokes but here’s a new one to me that my daughter just found:
Interviewer: So what’s this four-year gap on your resumé?
Interviewee: Oh, that’s when I went to Yale
Interviewer: Impressive. You’re hired!
Interviewee: Thank you I really need this yob.
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I’m speaking at an event today and I’ve been told I can’t know who is in the audience due to
#gdpr
. Please someone tell me this is nonsense gold plating.
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Not sure if this is good or bad but I just left part of my speech on the benefits of HE, delivered to today’s teachers’ conference at
@OfficialUoM
, with two teenagers, who were discussing why they won’t go to university next to me on the train.
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I’m not exaggerating when I say every senior manager / governor at every English university should read this important account of what it’s really like to be investigated by the
@officestudents
"We are delighted that the report says there were no concerns about the quality of our provision."
Despite a good outcome, important blog from
@David_PhoenixVC
raising concerns about LSBU's experience with the OfS quality assessment visits on
@HEPI_news
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Having had to organise some extra childcare very rapidly to attend the launch of the
#AugarReview
, I’m warming to Philip Augar as he opens his remarks by apologising for launching the report during half-term.
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Remember folks, it’s not too late to decide to go to higher education this academic year. There are still places open if you want a new start, to change direction, other options haven’t come off or if you have gone off the idea of a gap year.
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The news made much more sense this morning once I’d realised they were talking about introducing a new sin tax rather than new syntax.
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If the young care about the environment so much, why do they *never* turn off their bedroom lights?
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To be clear, I personally support the current funding system (& always have). HEPI is a broad church. We publish good papers on a range of issues. We don’t just publish things I as the Director think. As a think tank, our goal is to make people think not to lobby for a position.
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You finally get around to buying a new office chair and then...
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An alien watching
#Budget2021
would have no idea we have one of the best higher education systems in the world, nor that it is one which has been waiting years already for many crucial and long-promised decisions to be made.
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I can't help thinking of Tony Blair whenever I help my son brush his teeth.
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My take on the comings and goings in Whitehall and the devolved administrations on whether to help universities - and if so by how much.
Don't panic ... yet. via
@HEPI_news
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As is so often the case, the bit in brackets is actually the most important bit here (as it explains all sorts of public policy conundrums)
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Like this sign at my son’s football tournament this morning:
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