New entrants in the University degrees market: Education on the cheap or the biggest shake-up for higher education in our lifetimes?
With the recent rise in tuition fees to £9,000 a year, the traditional route to a university degree has never been more expensive for the student. 'This market is now seeing an unprecedented increase in the range of different providers offering degrees. And this increase brings new ways of delivering degrees,' says Debbie Lawley, MD of online learning company WillowDNA.
The recent rise in tuition fees to £9,000 per annum has opened the market to private university colleges, challenging the traditional approach to a university education. With the option to fast-track degrees over two years instead of three, the attractive reduction in the cost makes considerable sense to students, as well as to their parents. The Guardian's reporter, Stephen Hoare writes: "Since being given degree-awarding powers in 2010, ifs School of Finance has launched three new undergraduate banking and financial sector BScs and one specialist master's degree. Although a full-time option is available, distance learning is increasingly popular as students can pay by the module. Studying four modules a year adds up to an annual tuition fee of £3,040."
In the same article, Vice-principal for professional higher education at ifs, Martin Day, is quoted as saying: "While Ucas has been reporting an 8% drop in applications, our applications have more than doubled". (www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/03/online-degrees-employers)
The WillowDNA team was chosen as the digital partner for a new distance degree due to be launched this autumn. Head of Product Development at WillowDNA, Lisa Minogue-White explained: "We deal with complex material for professional learners and this was a natural next step for us. The way in which the material is handled is the key to working with more challenging subjects. We have always avoided 'e-learning in a box' - hugely convenient for the training department and e-learning provider but very limited for the learner and for these sorts of subjects. Having worked with professional learners and distance learning organisations for some years, the need to incorporate the role of the tutor and the contributions of the learners also matters in these courses. Social and collaborative learning are essential for people taking their degrees online."
"Quite a few years ago, I took my post grad. conversion to IT through the Open University. One of the striking comparisons I noted at the time was the much higher quality of materials provided by the OU, compared to my recent university experience," added Debbie Lawley. "Distance learning is a different environment to the lecture hall. There is no teacher in the classroom, so the materials have to speak for themselves. The OU knew this from their earliest days. With the advent of new technologies the expectation of students, who have only known the PC and internet age and for whom social collaboration is norm, is very high. The university colleges of the future who can meet this challenge, and cut the costs of a degree, will be way ahead."
The educational establishment that manages to pull off lower fees with potentially fast-tracked routes will be hugely attractive. And it would not have to be distance learning v. campus learning. The educationalist fast-tracking students will need to be able to compliment traditional tutoring and lecturing with online access to extra tuition time. Another variation on that theme will be the mostly distance provision, with much lower attendance but far more intensive campus tuition. Principal of BPP University College, London, Carl Lygo, was recently quoted as saying: "Over the next decade we will see a different picture emerging, where both students and employers will drive demand for their preferred method of study and training… We have some exciting growth plans for the next five years, which include expanding into other sectors, increasing our range of programmes and providing highly flexible methods of study" said Carl Lygo. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18712289)
"The biggest challenge of all though will be with perception. Can the new entrants truly challenge Oxbridge and the Russell Group? Or will they be seen as degrees on the cheap by students and employers? I hope not. I hope this is the opportunity to break into new territory and give the traditional route to a valued and valuable higher education a much needed shake-up," added Lawley.