Strategic marketing evaluation of the UK higher education market for overseas students

¶ … strategic marketing perspective evaluate the UK higher education market from the viewpoint of the overseas student

Is the British Council losing ground in competing with Australia and the U.S.A. In selling British higher education?

The British Council is an agency or an organization that attempts to promote educational, cultural, as well as technical cooperation between Britain and other countries anywhere in the world. The primary goal of the British Council is to successfully establish certain long-term, worldwide partnerships with other countries, so that there may be a better understanding between the various countries involved. In fact, the British Council is the United Kingdom's most important agency for creating and developing and maintaining cultural relations with several other countries overseas, and is an integral part of the United Kingdom's diplomatic relations and to aid effort. (The British Council General information and BC in Uzbekistan)

The British Council is also known as the British Government Agency that is responsible for promoting British culture all over the world, and the agency is one of the largest ELT, or 'English Language Teaching' employer in the world, with about sixty language schools across the globe, offices in more then a hundred countries, and more than 7,500 teaching staff on its rolls. The British Council also runs a voluntary 'Quality Assurance Scheme', in the United Kingdom, according to which the members of the scheme have a continuous obligation to work according to the agreed upon standards as specified in the scheme. (Definition of British Council)

However, the important question is whether the British Council is in fact losing out to the U.S.A. And to Australia in selling Higher Education. The British Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, has stated in a UK International Education Conference organized by the British Council, in response to the increasing phenomenon of globalization all across the world that the United Kingdom must indeed be a serious player in the global market for education, if it were to succeed. In fact, said Charles Clarke, this would be worth about 10.4 billion pounds a year to the economy if it were to do well, and it is high time UK started to concentrate on this market, because across the world, numerous universities are in the process of recruiting students across national boundaries. (UK must sell education to the world)

What the British Council says is that today, there are about a million overseas students in the United Kingdom alone, and the number of students who desire to study abroad will go up even further, and most probably, there would be 'transnational' institutions, including colleges and universities, which would set up their campuses abroad, or even offer long distance courses. Mr. Clarke also stated that "going global is not an option or just a marketing device - it is the only way forward," and the better way would be to start to think of what can be achieved globally, so that the young people of the UK may be well equipped to deal with change, and become virtual 'masters' at it, and not become cowed down or defeated by the changes that are taking place globally today. (UK must sell education to the world)

In Australia, however, it is said that foreigners are often scapegoats in the grand scheme of things, and that there is an innate hostility to mass university, and these are in fact causing a lot of trouble and problems to the $7 billion Australian Higher Education industry. Says Tony Pollock, the Chief Executive of IDP Australia, the firm that is responsible for selling education overseas, that Australians are only too ready to blame the foreign element in anything, and the amount of passion that had been wasted in the attacks on the idea of international education was quite beyond the normal. The problem that was stated was that the Australian University had traded in education for dollars, and that domestic students did not have a place in their own classrooms because of the fact that it was crowded with foreigners. He also said that it is important to note the fact that it will be these same students who would return to their home economies, and make their societies more liberal and civil, and therefore, a good and solid relationship would be built out of selling higher education to foreigners. (Foreign Push not a Sell Out)

In America, today, the issue of Higher Education has become a ragingly successful business, and, as it is generally the case in a high rate of capitalism, the struggles are not denied; rather, these too are marketed. In America today, it is a fact that Higher Education is a business, and a very successful one, and from the time of the World War II, the doors and the opportunities for higher education have been becoming increasingly wider, and university education has become a key in the meritocracy, wherein it is a literal stamp that will state whether the student is educated and smart and qualified, or not, and most of the time, the more prestigious the University is, the smarter and more better the student would be, and today, it is possible to gain increased access to universities, thanks to the higher education system. (Higher Ed, Inc.: The Wilson Quarterly)

In the U.S.A., higher education is a $250 to $270 billion business, and this is infinitely higher than the business of art and even religion, and the problem lies in the fact that more students desire to get in to those universities that are branded, and although there are about 2,500 four-year colleges in America, only about a hundred of these colleges actually do refuse more applications than they can accept, and the rest of them are quite free and empty. The growth of higher education is obvious in the increase in enrolment, new constructions for universities, the phenomenon of expanding statewide university systems, and an increase in federal money for all these purposes, and while in the beginning of the twentieth century, less than a mere 1% attended university for higher education after high school, today, the rate is about 70%. (Higher Ed, Inc.: The Wilson Quarterly)

2. Has the market for British higher education been redefined?

It is a fact that Universities of Higher Education and also other Higher Education Institutions have been undergoing major changes, especially over the past few decades, and more particularly, in the relationship of the various roles and the responsibilities that are present in national systems of innovation. (Industry-Academic Links in the UK) The future market for higher education is however being redefined, and there have been several changes implemented in the system. A wide range of evidence was considered for this reason, and these were: what are the various economic factors that generally affect the demand for those individuals with higher educational qualifications, what are the different possible scenarios in which higher education would be needed or demanded, how can the demand for higher education be reflected in determining the size, and the scope of future higher education?

The future demand for those individuals with higher education will be shaped in fact by the national economy, as well as the labor market, and these two will in turn change in response to the changing world economy, and all its associated challenges. National economy will also be in a constant state of change, as seen in the fact that state education was introduced more than a century ago to cope with the changing and the developing needs of the economy, and the fact that the state education has been in a constant state of change and of progress, and this is something that is not only infinitely desirable but also excellent in its own right, and that this state came about as a response to the changing economy, which placated the demand for better services and better goods. (Chapter 6, Future Demands for Higher Education)

The United Kingdom therefore, when seeking to provide all its citizens with an improved and a better standard of living, will be capable of doing so and also remain one of the major economies of the world only if its entire people are well trained, well educated, and also well skilled. However, this must be at an equal level to match the investments that people of other countries have made in their own people, and also the volume as well as the quality of their outputs as a benefit of such high training and education. Studies reveal that about a decade before today, the United Kingdom had indeed fallen behind other countries for the provision of higher education for its people, and even today, the levels have stayed at a lower rate than that of the United States of America and of Japan. (Chapter 6, Future Demands for Higher Education)

Higher Education today in the United Kingdom has increased to significant levels, and in the year 2001, there were about 2.2 million full and part-time students in higher education in the United Kingdom, and about 42% of eighteen-year-olds go on to study further at higher education institutions, and when compared to the figures of the 1990's, when the age participation index showed a mere 17%, this is a significant change indeed. Further increases are planned in the UK, wherein a 50% of 17 to 30-year-olds would enter higher education by the year 2010, and the fact that the acceptance rates to universities has increased to more than 14% in recent years shows that it would be infinitely easier for the UK to achieve its target for increases in the number of students enrolling for higher education. (Search View, Education, Higher)

Furthermore, since it is a fact that dropout rates remain significantly lower in the UK than in any other European country, and four out of five students complete their graduation courses successfully, Britain produces the largest number of graduates in Europe. The number of universities in the UK has also increased after the binary division between traditional universities and higher education institutions was abandoned in the year 1992, and today, all British institutions come as a part of a single system, and are funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Scottish Higher Education Council, and the Funding Council for Wales. (Search View, Education, Higher)

Successive governments have made several attempts to redefine the higher education system in order to meet the changing business needs, and the first step in this restructuring has been the wholesale reform of the funding for the purpose, and the outcome has been that public funding has not only been diverted from public to private interests, but also that it has been at time cut. (Whose Universities are they anyway?)

3. What should British universities do to respond to market changes?

David Blunkett, in a speech made on Higher Education at the Maritime Greenwich University, in February 2000, has stated that it was very important to start to take notice of the changes taking place in higher education, and that the future direction of the higher education of the United Kingdom must be assessed and analyzed, and certain steps taken to ensure that it is going in the right direction. He also said that it was only when the funding crisis in higher education became so very important that the Dearing Committee of Inquiry was established, and he stated that at this point every one must remember that between the years 1989 and 1997, the cost for the higher education of every student was cut by a huge 2553 pounds, or a 36% per student, and these cuts had in fact placed an inordinate amount of pressure on the basic ability of institutions of higher education to maintain their existing quality, as well as to response appropriately to the new challenges that they were facing. (David Blunkett's Speech on Higher Education at Maritime Greenwich University)

David Blunkett also said that increasing globalization was changing the face of higher education, and that the arrival of the 'knowledge economy' has in fact increased the various pressures that institutions were already facing. Today, learning has in fact become a big business in the market, and the universities of UK are doing all they can to cope with these changes, but the fact is that there are new providers for this demand everyday, and they are all in the process of expanding the basic learning environment to met the growing demands, and one perfect example is the United States of America. These American providers are in fact in the process of using the competitive advantage and edge that they enjoy, being English speakers, and also utilizing the fact that English is a global language, to expand overseas, having grown quickly and with a high rate of success in their own country. (David Blunkett's Speech on Higher Education at Maritime Greenwich University)

Some American Universities like for example, the University of Phoenix and the Western Governors University are becoming renowned and famous for their facilities for higher education, all over the world. Certain other established providers are also in the process of marketing themselves to new students, so that they may be attracted by their global brands and by the prestige that is generally associated with global branding. In addition, international media is also set to enter the fray, with their forming unique kinds of partnerships wherein the media and the education providers would go hand in hand to exploit the growing market for education, globally.

One example is the purchase of a 25% stake in Scottish Knowledge Inc., by News International, recently. Scottish Knowledge Inc. is an organization that has been formed by several Scottish Higher educational institutions, so that they may be able to capture a big chunk of the share of the overseas market in education. In fact, the Pearson Group, the Harcourt General, the Mc Graw Hill, and Simon and Schuster have all entered into similar partnerships recently with universities in recent years, and this is a growing phenomenon worldwide, and the United Kingdom would do well to emulate this type of alliance and partnership. (David Blunkett's Speech on Higher Education at Maritime Greenwich University)

In the United States of America, the primary focus of higher studies has been on aiding and helping more numbers of students enter the field of higher education, by providing them with billions of dollars by way of loan assistance that would help them finance their education. However, not mush attention has been paid to the phenomenon of students not being able to complete their higher secondary education, and this is one area that the United Kingdom has done infinitely better than any other country in its high rates of completion of higher secondary education among its students. (New Dogs and Old Tricks: What can the UK teach the U.S. about University Education?)

Howard Newby talks about the month of March's allocation for the Higher Education Funding Council for England, was the last of this type of funding, in the year 2005, and from the next year onwards, there would be a newer system, where a 'variable fees system' would be implemented. With that, the HEFCE funding will become an increasingly lesser income provider for universities all across the United Kingdom. The Office for Fair Access further provides injunctions on this matter, and it is said that there will be a growing source of discretionary income for institutions, that they would have the right to spend as they saw fit. Studies and research have shown that the biggest beneficiaries would, of course, be students, who would, through an upgrading of their various student services, would be able to avail of these funds. However, this particular pattern may change as time goes by and the several institutions manage to establish their own solid market position. The question that inevitably arises at this point is, what the HEFCE is providing for, and in what way can the public interest in the subject of higher education be secured, even though it is a fact that the issue is embodied in the continuing investment of public funds. (Facing up to HE's New Economy)

The point must be made here that the universities of the United Kingdom have in fact been in a different type of market situation, wherein strong new international students markets are being combined with the falling and fading away of the other older and traditional types of markets. The 'Higher Education Statistics Authority' has published a report in the UK for the year 2000 to 2001, which reveals that student trends today are in fact quite similar to the student trends demonstrated by the United Kingdom's secondary school market. Furthermore, the falling number of students from a number of important student markets such as, for example, in France and Germany, America and also in Singapore, are in fact being hidden and covered up be the larger numbers of students from China, and this trend has ensured that there would be an overall increase in the number of students, about a 5.5% from 1999. The reason for this phenomenon may be that the international pattern of economic growth has been steadily changing, and this may be the main factor behind the increasing numbers of students form places like China and India. (UK Universities)

The issue of market orientation is a major one in almost all European countries, and the United Kingdom is no exception. Market orientation generally refers to offering institutions of higher education within the country a basic incentive structure that would be very similar to those organizations that operate under any normal market conditions. In the UK, there seems to be a real paradox on the issue of market orientation in higher education, and this may be because of the fact that more often than not, the market and the state are treated as being two different and conflicting methods of coordination, while the truth is that when there is more coordination through markets, then there will be a lesser amount of coordination through the states, and vice versa. In Britain, however, both these issues go together, and to comprehend this type of interaction, three important elements would have to be examined in close detail, and they are, first, the British state model, which is quite evidently centralist in nature, second, the policy-network for higher education, which has today started to develop into a more centralized network, and third, the market orientation in the British higher education system, which has in fact increased drastically over the past few years. (Statism by Stealth? Market Orientation in British Higher Education)