Evaluating the impact of student number controls,

Transcript:Evaluating the impact of student number controls,:
Evaluating the impact of student number controls, choice and competition on the changing HE landscape Dr Colin McCaig and Dr Carol Taylor Sheffield Hallam University Paper Quantitative and qualitative data from Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition: An analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape Funded by HEA grant from open call Student Number Controls: making a market Core and margin allocations institutions could recruit as many high achieving students as they wished (85,000 taken from the core) Institutions charging less than £7,500 could bid for 20,000 places taken from the core the bigger your margin (ABB+) the less you rely on the core if you rely on the core, you get squeezed from above and below... so lower your prices! Mixed Methods Research Design CBHE data: survey responses, 2 interviews and additional focus group with 3 participants (April 2013) Findings: survey Student numbers 38.5% anticipated a slight decrease in undergraduate numbers in coming years 23.1% no change 25.6% slight increase Pre-1992 institutions more confident of at least maintaining current profile Differentiation 61.8% indicated that their institution was planning to further differentiate itself from other institutions 83% of post-92s planning to mission groups and league tables the most common vehicles for this Marketing strategies 87.9% expected to use more social media and online (post-92s most likely to) 78.8% would make more use of partnerships with schools (post-92s most likely to) Strategies being used less than before: direct marketing; TV and Radio, Newspapers and flyers Planned course closures There are no planned UG course closures in STEM subjects or for subjects allied to medicine. Arts subjects are the largest target for closure followed by Humanities and then Social Sciences In total 31.8% of institutions responding to this question are anticipating consolidating their course closures in non-science subjects Course rationalisation One HEI said they had had a ‘major reduction in low recruiting courses’ and another said ‘considerable rationalisation of courses across all subject areas’ took place in 2011/ 12 in anticipation of changes. Combined Honours and Joint Honours degrees were particularly vulnerable One HEI with a large Combined Honours programme were ‘slimming down’ their portfolio from 141 courses to less than 50 courses. Course rationalisation: sub-degree Seven respondents indicated that sub-degree provision, such as Foundation degrees, HNDs, HNCs and part-time provision, is likely to be discontinued in all subject areas