Nick Hillman

You'll never believe(*) where I found that secret LEO salary data that "looking for growth" keep banging on about!

wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

* you will, in fact, probably not be that shocked.

The Coalition’s higher education reforms in England The Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in office from 2010 until 2015 sharply increased the maximum tuition fees for UK and EU undergraduates at English universities to £9,...

I have written about the decisions that were made in detail here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Also, it is probably fair to say my overarching goal has been to explain how we got the system we did. The campaigners have not always well understood why the Coalition did what it (we) did, which explains why they have implied the system is much cheaper to change than it is.

Thanks. I am willing to defend it, given the circumstances of the time and the inherent strengths of the system. But I am much less willing to defend the tweaks made after 2012. eg I have always opposed the abolition of maintenance grants, which meant bigger debts for the poorest.

Ah here’s a link to the IFS podcast where he defends it in depth

bsky.app/profile/nick...

"We also have to remember that half the population don't go to higher education"

Who should pay for higher education? On our Plan 2 student loans podcast, @nickhillmanuk.bsky.social tackles this fundamental question.

🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/are...

"Loan or graduate tax?"

On our podcast on Plan 2 student loans @helenmiller.bsky.social, Kate Ogden and @nickhillmanuk.bsky.social note that it depends on the borrower's likely earnings and repayment trajectory.

🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/are...

" Those loans are basically now gone. And they were deemed inappropriate"

On our podcast on Plan 2 student loans, @nickhillmanuk.bsky.social explains the old mortgage style student loans and why they were replaced.

🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/are...

If everyone hates today’s student loans, where are the big alternative ideas? - HEPI HEPI Director, Nick Hillman OBE, considers the paucity of big alternative ideas from those behind the campaigns against student loans. The student loan row rumbles on for another weekend … It is an od...

So you hate student loans? What’s your alternative?
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/i...

Are Plan 2 student loans 'unfair'? | Institute for Fiscal Studies Student loans now top £50k for many graduates. We explain how repayments work, who pays most, and whether the system is 'unfair'.

This is one of the most interesting, fun (and important?) things I’ve done in my 12 years at HEPI. Please do take a listen.

ifs.org.uk/articles/are...

I’ve asked myself that question a million times and every time the answer is the same: No! Employers need higher-level skills, places on high-grade alternative routes have been too few to attract such big numbers and people get all sorts of financial and non-financial benefits from HE.

It’s the other way around. No one forced the NHS to insist nurses have degrees. But they know the evidence from around the world shows hospitals with a higher %age of graduate nurses are safer for patients. So it makes perfect sense.

There are three ways to tackle the student loan crisis: one is unwise, one is unaffordable and one is unpalatable. All are unfair. - HEPI HEPI Director Nick Hillman takes a look at the continuing row over whether student loans are turning out to be fair for graduates. The weekend media were full (yet again) of the perceived unfairness o...

If you hate Plan 2 student loans, what would you do to fix them?
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/02/t...

There are three ways to tackle the student loan crisis: one is unwise, one is unaffordable and one is unpalatable. All are unfair. - HEPI HEPI Director Nick Hillman takes a look at the continuing row over whether student loans are turning out to be fair for graduates. The weekend media were full (yet again) of the perceived unfairness o...

If you hate Plan 2 student loans, what would you do to fix them?
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/02/t...

A recording of our webinar on students’ employment is now available here:
www.hepi.ac.uk/events/webin...

I’m not the only one listening carefully to the live @hepi-news.bsky.social webinar on student employment:

Why the current campaign on student loan interest may be misguided, misunderstood and misdirected - HEPI HEPI Director Nick Hillman takes a look at the campaign to write off some outstanding student debt. There has been a spate of media stories this week about student loans. In essence, people who went t...

www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/22/w...

Why the current campaign on student loan interest may be misguided, misunderstood and misdirected - HEPI HEPI Director Nick Hillman takes a look at the campaign to write off some outstanding student debt. There has been a spate of media stories this week about student loans. In essence, people who went t...

www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/22/w...

This is nonsense (as @wonkhe.bsky.social have already pointed out elsewhere). Our work with both @advancehe.bsky.social &, separately, with a group of unis led by the University of Lancashire show this beyond any doubt. The reason is obvious: insufficient maintenance support. @hepi-news.bsky.social

Does the Post 16 White Paper have the right answers, or even the right questions? - Inside Your Ed It is entirely normal for a Government to announce plans to reform either Higher Education (HE) or Further Education (FE). What is much less normal is a Government announcing a plan to reform HE and F...

And at No.1 for 2025.....

1. Does the Post 16 White Paper have the right answers, or even the right questions?

@nickhillmanuk.bsky.social and @ukshane.bsky.social provided a fascinating and detailed dissection of the Government's plans for HE and FE.

Congrats Nick and Shane!

🎧 bit.ly/44LSaRS

A Baker’s Dozen: Thirteen years of book reviews on higher education, 2013 to 2025 - HEPI Fifteen years ago, in December 2010, students were rioting on the streets of London as the House of Commons voted to allow undergraduate tuition fees in England to rise to £9,000. These higher fees le...

In a new HEPI paper, I gather together 30 of my book reviews relating to higher education:

www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/a-ba...

I wouldn’t go that far and I’d hope re-association might do a bit to bolster languages … but I do think few people know how our old membership worked in practice and how it cost us much more £ than it benefited Brits going overseas.

Can you explain what you’re referring to here? What ‘random review’ from 2016?

My take on the new Curriculum and Assessment Review:

I blame Tom Richmond for the fact I have Zombie by The Cranberries stuck inside my head again:

English lessons: Review of Nick Gibb's book on educational reform after 2010 - by HEPI Director Nick Hillman - HEPI This is the second book on education in a row that I have reviewed on the HEPI website that comes from a right-of-centre perspective. The previous review (of a book by the President of the New College...

My holiday reading included this excellent new book:
www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/08/30/e...

“For researchers, the ability to engage with a text in the original language is especially useful in situations where precise nuances—whether technical, legal [or] literary—really matter,” she [Megan Bowler, HEPI report author] said.

@ucflangs.bsky.social The University Council For Languages (UCFL) responds to welcome a new @hepi-news.bsky.social report and joins them in calling for urgent action on revitalising language learning university-council-for-languages.org/2025/07/31/n...

Sharp decline in students taking A-level exams in French and German % change in provisional A-level entries for the summer exam series in England, 2024 to 2025 French -8.3 German -6.8 Classical subjects -1.9 All modern languages -1.5 All A-level subjects Spanish 1.4 -8 -6 FINANCIAL TIMES -4 -2 Source: Ofqual

HEPI Director @nickhillman.bsky.social points to the 2004 decision to scrap the requirement for young people to study one language until the age of 16.

“It is, quite clearly in my view, the worst educational policy of this century.” he says.

We use the Languages for All project as a case study on page 29.