Nick Hillman

Personal account. (Director of @HEPI_News.)

[Taylor & Francis @WeAreTandF]

New report calls for greater investment in 'connective tissue' of research ecosystem

@profgeraintrees @nickhillman @ersatzben @obrienpeter72 @HEPI_news

https://t.co/8He4xGbkFE

#Innovation #Infrastructure #SciencePolicy

[Helen O'Driscoll @boggywood]

@MZHemingway
#Matt for the 21st of June 2026
#TomorrowsPapersToday

[Colin Bingle @bingle_colin]

This is great and although it relates to US HE, I honestly think that his could be applied to many @UniversitiesUK institutions.
Think there is lot sh*t being made up these days.

[Higher Education Policy Institute @HEPI_news]

“If we build a library, how’s it going to make us more money?” https://t.co/UWce63otjk

[Higher Education Policy Institute @HEPI_news]

Any guesses for the US university that is said to have operated “like a Ponzi scheme”? https://t.co/UWce63otjk

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

“one professor claims this meant the leader of his institution could ‘just think up shit and do it.’” https://t.co/lrEbqpElla

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

It is bloomin' hard to rejoin @DisneyPlus! Slightly regretting I tried:

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

This is probably the best excuse anyone has ever used for not holding a meeting:

[Emily Thornberry @EmilyThornberry]

Hi Frances, I know it was 4 yrs ago, but your memory lets you down. You asked to see me on the day that I attended the Privy Council to choose the next King of England.

My minion, as you called her, apologised & offered other dates.

Not a coward, just busy - like many women👑

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

As the @nusuk moves to its newly elected leadership team, it’s worth noting how brilliant Amira Campbell and Alex Stanley have been fighting for their members across higher ed. The deep problems of a few years ago increasingly seem like a distant memory.

[Jonathan Woodhead @JonathanWoodhe2]

Great opening panel @HEPI_news Annual Conference with @nickhillman @viviennestern @BobbyDuffyKings @Moreincommon_ A lot to ponder & more importantly - to do. #HEPIAC26

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

That is one way to hit your word target...

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

@ProfAliceS @HEPI_news Thanks Alice. The full data table, including a Russell Group crossbreak, are available here:

https://t.co/GvtyLSxRGZ

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

A very odd policy from @RestoreBritain for anyone who knows the educational evidence

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

How disappointing that their first campaign is to jump on a passing bandwagon to focus on an issue others have already made their own.

I guess it’s a good way to harvest email addresses, but this is not the original thinking many hoped for:

[Prosper UK @Prosper_UK_]

Graduates are being charged far more than they borrowed.

Today we launched our first campaign to reform the student finance system and make it fairer for graduates, students and the next generation.

Sign the petition: https://t.co/1mLpbRL5xi

[Victoria Smith @glosswitch]

It's so profoundly entitled to take your place at a prestigious university - playing the game when it benefits you - then shout over people who've done years of research because you don't want others to hear their arguments

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

It is likely this story will get legs for all sorts of reasons now:

[Julie Bindel @bindelj]

If you want to see what those censorious students did and said, to disrupt two consecutive lectures by the brilliant @michaelpforan, here it is:
https://t.co/CX4e7lhJCz

[Colin Bingle @bingle_colin]

Read them both and the others that are out there.

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

Yes but:

https://t.co/hKj0vAMOmQ

[Austin Williams @Future_Cities]

A devastating critique of academic collapse by Stephan Collini @LRB
"In the past 10-15 years, even cash-strapped universities seem to have found the resources to build shiny new monuments to ancillary services while cutting back on teaching & research" https://t.co/39pWBcZhpJ

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

It’s a take.

But people were making similar complaints about universities long before 2010.

My take is different:

https://t.co/hKj0vAMOmQ

[Lawrence Patihis, PhD @lawrencepatihis]

The Hollowing Out of Britain’s Universities

"In the wake of the reforms of 2010-12 came the senior managers who called what we published “outputs”, wore sharp suits and stern looks, circulated spreadsheets, and spoke only in PowerPoint bullet-points."
...
"The middle managers were not unlike the prison guards in Zimbardo’s ill-fated 1970s experiment, gradually intoxicated by the petty sovereignties and sanctioned cruelties suddenly available to them."

by Frederick Attenborough

https://t.co/TchWf6UASz

[Nick Hillman @nickhillman]

For a different opinion, my response to Collini is here:

https://t.co/hKj0vAMOmQ

[John Tasioulas @JTasioulas]

An excellent, albeit depressing, analysis.

https://t.co/UO76gkzLEO