The UCAS Policy Team

John Cope - Director of Strategy, Policy, & Public Affairs 

John has worked in politics, communications, and policy development for the last decade. Before joining UCAS John was deputy director of Public First, an education consultancy and polling company set up by the former head of education in Downing Street, Rachel Wolf. Prior to this, he worked with business leaders across the UK as Head of Education & Skills Policy at the CBI, advised three former education ministers, and was a founding director of the Education Policy Institute.

Outside of work, John is non-executive director of the Activate Learning group of colleges, trustee of the charity Achievement for All, and governor of a special needs secondary school. 

Ben Jordan – Head of Policy

Ben has been at UCAS for over a decade and has been described as a ‘leading figure of HE admissions policy’, with his knowledge in this area ‘second to none’. During his time at UCAS, Ben had led the response and engagement around every major political event that could impact on student progression, including Brexit, admissions reform, qualification reform, Scottish independence, general elections, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved forming part of three separate ministerial taskforces.

Ben has also overseen the delivery of UCAS’ key policy outputs, including Unpacking Qualification Reform, the first major report on schools’ response to qualification reform, Where Next?, a leading piece on student decision making, What happened to the COVID cohort?, the definitive assessment of the impact of the pandemic on student progression, and Starting the Conversation, UCAS’ landmark piece on student mental health. 

Carys Fisher – Principal Policy Adviser

Since joining UCAS in October 2014, Carys has taken a lead role in understanding the impact of the changing policy environment on us and our customers. Carys works to ensure that our data and insight influences the shape of the sector. Most recently, authoring two landmark reports: 'What happened to the COVID cohort?' – with a focus on outcomes for WP students – and 'Where next? What influences the choices school leavers make?' – shedding light on how and why students make choices. She also led on a two-year project to develop and launch our corporate strategy 2020 – 2025, Discover Your Future.

Carys previously held the post of Postgraduate Admissions Manager at Arden University. A linguist by trade, graduating from the University of Bath with a first-class honours degree in 2011, Carys also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration.

Brian Pepin - Policy Adviser (international)

Brian focuses on supporting UCAS’ role in connecting the world to UK higher education.

Prior to joining UCAS, he was a senior government relations officer at Universities Canada, the national membership and advocacy association for Canada’s universities, helping advance its priorities pertaining to higher education, research and innovation. He previously held issues coordination and member relations roles at the same organisation. He has also worked for University Alliance, a mission group representing technical and professional universities in England and Wales, on teaching, learning and skills policy.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree in political science from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Public Administration degree from Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada).

George Ryan – Policy Adviser (apprenticeships, FE and skills)

George oversees UCAS’ policy work in the apprenticeships, further education and skills areas across the four nations. He is a former parliamentary reporter at the Press Association and an ex-further education reporter at the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

George’s background as a journalist covering politics and education policy allows him a media-focussed lens in his approach to policy work which delivers results. His latest research briefing on apprenticeships was featured on the front page of The Times.

Nicola Turner – Policy Adviser (widening participation, schools and careers education)

Nicola joined UCAS in 2016, and oversees the team’s policy work on widening access and participation, schools and careers education. She co-ordinates UCAS’ work to support under-represented and disadvantaged groups, working collaboratively with expert organisations to develop information and advice for students and advisers, and good practice resources for HE providers. She recently authored Starting the conversation, UCAS’ first report on student mental health and is exploring how UCAS can work with the sector to create a culture of positive disclosure. 

Nicola is a former secondary English teacher and Head of PSHE and careers education. Before joining UCAS, she completed an MSc in Information Management from UWE Bristol where her dissertation researched the information and digital literacy skills of sixth formers progressing to higher education, and was awarded the 2017 CILIP Harry Galloway Prize. 

Caitlin de Jode – Public Affairs Adviser

As Public Affairs Adviser, Caitlin leads UCAS' work building and strengthening relationships with parliamentarians, ministers and officials across all four nations of the UK. Her role includes working closely with colleagues across the policy and communications team to ensure our research outputs have the maximum impact and can result in tangible policy change.

Prior to joining UCAS, Caitlin worked for the education charity, Teach First, managing relationships with parliamentarians, local government and other charities and education sector organisations. Here, she played a key role in managing the charity's external response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including leading on external communications regarding the delivery of the National Tutoring Programme. She has also worked for a leading public affairs and communications consultancy, and in the University of Cambridge's widening participation team.

Emily Bennett – Lead Data Scientist

Emily is the team’s resident data scientist, providing a bridge between the Analytical Data Team and Strategy, Policy and Public Affairs. She brings an analytical lens to Policy outputs and uses her skills in data science and analysis to create meaningful insights from UCAS’s data. Emily’s current project is co-authoring the LGBT+ report, the first in a new series of planned outputs called Next Steps.

Emily has worked at UCAS since 2017, joining as a Data Science Intern in Analysis and Insights as a graduate. Since then, she has worked on various projects, most recently developing the interactive data dashboards on ucas.com, and transforming the way UCAS publishes data insights, before transferring to the Policy Team in May 2021.

The team works to offer meaningful context and insight into the behaviour and attitudes of applicants and students through our suite of reports, briefs and insights. These publications bring together UCAS’ end of cycle data, survey findings, and knowledge of the HE policy landscape to explore a broad range of topics, spotlighting issues important to the sector and identifying key patterns and trends.

In addition, the team coordinates and oversees UCAS’ response to sector consultations, ensuring that our views represent the best interests of our customer groups, and align with the core principles and values we outline in our corporate strategy, Discover your future.