Historical methods applied to higher education policies and practices.

Further Notes on Key Sources

1. The Patterns series combines useful time series data (now up to a ten year period) on a consistent basis, with annual thematic supplements (on, for example, “groups” of HEIs [2], regional perspectives [3], health [4], internationalisation [5], the “student experience” [6] and “strategic subjects” [7]). From edition 6 the full data set can be accessed by individual institutions (via a code issued to UUK members). From edition 7 subscribers are able to set up bench-marking comparisons for up to six institutions. The author and compiler of Patterns is Professor Brian Ramsden, founding Chief Executive of HESA (see below) and the single most authoritative guide to statistical data about UK HE (http://www.brianramsden.com/).


2. Wider Benefits of Learning is especially useful for its continuing analysis of the life-course (including experience of higher education) of cohorts born in 1958 and 1970, now supplemented by the Millennium cohort (2000).


3. The Centre for the Economics of Education has led the way on studies of social and personal rates of return on the experiences of higher education.


4. The UK Government Departmental links (accessed through Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) and Department for Children, Schools and Families) lead to:
   • research studies (of variable significance);
   • evaluation reports (often commissioned too early to have real utility);
   • an archive of press releases and other information dissemination;
   • Annual Reports (which contain really useful information, but frustratingly not collected and presented in consistent time series).


5. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is a continually improving source, at the moment stronger on student and financial data than on staff.


6. The University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) produces demographic data not only about new undergraduate entrants each year, but also on the pool of such applicants. These may require a fee to access.


7. The Association of Graduate Recruiters produces valuable data on graduate destinations (including by field of study) accompanied by less reliable commentary. Some of their material requires a paid subscription.


8. The publications of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) are usefully categorised (and coded) by type. It is possible to subscribe (at no charge) to the regular information service. It is helpful to separate:
   • the “management narrative” of circulars and consultations;
   • the re-publication – with commentary and analysis – of official policy documentation (I have found the annual “letters of guidance/direction” from Secretaries of State since 1988 to be a rich source);
   • specially commissioned studies (for example on capital requirements of the higher education sector, or the impact of the various Research Assessment Exercises [RAE] from 1982 to 2007);
   • Hefce's own annual and periodic reports, such as those on financial forecasts, the overview of corporate and strategic plans of institutions, as well as thematic series such as the “Business and Community Interaction Survey.”


9. The Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) maintains an excellent “higher education” zone summarising the funded projects and providing links to the website for each. This includes projects on Widening Participation to Higher Education.


10. The Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) 's output is generally more immediately responsive to policy and management initiatives (and is now significantly trusted by the media as an authoritative source of independent policy analysis): examples include commentary on the 2006 government proposal (subsequently severely trimmed) to replace the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 by a system of so-called metrics). However, Hepi has also begun to publish useful periodic studies, for example projecting demand for UK higher education and on aspects of the student experience.


11. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides its most useful longitudinal data through the series Education at a glance , although this is often significantly delayed by the need for member country sign-off, and confused by differing definitions, for example of “tertiary” education and of the “public/private” split. It commissions valuable single-country studies of higher education on a programmatic basis, as well as occasional thematic studies (see, for example On the Edge: securing a sustainable future for higher education [2004] on funding and Higher Education and Regions; globally competitive, locally engaged [2007]). It sponsors the International Management in Higher Education Programme (IMHE).


12. In addition to its weekly hardcopy publication, the US Chronicle of Higher Education produces (by paid subscription) a twice-daily update. Its international correspondents provide an unrivalled coverage (much more comprehensive and analytical than that of the UK 's Times Higher Education Supplement (THES)). Its annual Almanac is a valuable periodic resource.

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