Session Information
Contribution
Description: As national systems for the funding of universities evolve, an increasing number of students are now expected to make a direct contribution to the cost of their courses. In the consumer society of the 21st century, this inevitably affects the attitude that a student has to his or her studies and also the relationship that evolves with his or her institution. Specifically, it has the potential to impact on an applicant's choice of mode, programme and place of study and subsequently on a student's expectations of both course and college.When universities are seeking to set the level of fees for their first degree courses, there are many theoretical models - taken from either the service or the manufacturing sector - which they might consider using. However, higher education policy-makers lack one key piece of contextual information that would be expected to be a precursor to any pricing decision in other sectors: the absolute financial cost to the university of delivering a specific course to an individual, representative student.This limits an institution's ability to make well-informed market-sensitive decisions on appropriate fee levels. However, as one of the four elements of the marketing mix, price is recognised as critical to the commercial success of any product or service; furthermore, as usually it is the most readily and rapidly feasible to adjust, it is the one that is frequently manipulated by organisations seeking urgent measures to adjust their perceived or actual market position in relation to their identified competitors.So how can a university go about the business-critical task of setting the level(s) of fees for its full-time undergraduate degree courses with any confidence? In this paper, I will consider how an institution with a clear and realistic sense of its own strengths and weaknesses might approach the task of identifying an appropriate region to occupy on the price spectrum - and how it can use indirect methods (such as bursary schemes, facilities fees or accommodation charges), in addition to the direct method of fee-setting, to vary the cost to students in ways which reinforce its desired market position and institutional image.This analysis will be conducted in the UK context, with a focus on the practical problems of applying recognised marketing theory when only limited market intelligence and relevant institutional management information is available. It will also highlight the categories of data that should be collected on institutional, national and international bases so that decision-making in this area within universities and by those responsible for making policy concerning higher education more widely can be made from a position of greater certainty.
Methodology: documentary analysis- institutional case studies- literature review
Conclusions: The market in undergraduate degrees is very immature and there is a high risk of commercial failure for institutions which try to be truly innovative or extremely competitive in their pricing policies. For these reasons, this market should have some form of regulatory safety net, and in countries where none exists, the higher education sector and its members would be well-advised to self-regulate.
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