Teaching quality

Government funding initiatives are raising the profile of university teaching in their evaluation of financial support for HEIs. In future funding will be increasingly affected by the strength and quality of teaching that the school provides in addition to its research standing. Schools must improve the quality of teaching delivery through the development the skills of teaching staff and through the improvement of teaching facilities in order to maintain and then grow their portion of direct government funding. Improvements in teaching facilities and techniques not only help attract the best students and staff, they have a direct impact on the bottom line.

ICT and e-learning

Information Technology has revolutionized the provision of education in the UK. The Internet has enabled HEIs to expand the range and scope of remote learning as well as enabled innovative schools to provide simulation-based and interactive learning in their classrooms and seminars. ICT enables schools to raise the level of student interaction and enjoyment, helping retain the best students and staff as well as improving the ICT skills of students preparing for business and ICT careers. In times of financial restraint schools also want to achieve the most from their ICT investments and use existing resources in new and creative ways.

Co-operation with business

UK universities pride themselves on their links with business. In 2001 there were 175 new start-up ventures formed through collaboration between industry and universities, mainly in the hi-tech fields of bio-technology, engineering and ICT. The government ‘third way’ initiative aims to further strengthen academic / business collaboration in the UK, while universities increasingly pursue longer term relationships with business organizations in order to gain access to wider networks of corporate interest and promote their capabilities, knowledge and their research.

Greater integration with local economies

UK government and university initiatives have underlined the crucial importance of establishing links with local businesses and supporting them. Many regions of the UK have unique local economic environments and universities increasingly seek to reflect local needs in their course provision and in their partnerships with local businesses.

Student retention and course relevance

Despite the changes and improvements in course delivery and content over the past 20 years some students still feel that academic courses are less relevant to them. This is due in no small part to the speed of economic and technological change which means that even courses developed recently can be perceived as out of date very quickly. Universities have to seek out means to provide access to the latest educational resources whilst the useful duration of those facilities and skills gets ever shorter.

Variety of subjects

To attract and retain the best students universities increasingly offer a more diverse and sophisticated range of subjects that reflect that complexity of the modern world. Universities increasingly deploy new delivery mechanisms including e-learning, vocational and mature/lifelong learning and then combine them with an ever broader range of study streams so that student choice is greater than ever before. This presents a means to differentiate the school based on course content whilst strengthening core content applicable across multiple courses from marketing and accounting to operations and strategy.

Staff attraction and retention

In certain core subjects – most notably business and IT/Computing – higher education institutions often find it difficult to attract and retain the best qualified lecturers that will enable them to offer their chosen courses. Schools are faced with the need to attract staff just as the sector enters a phase of ever more intense competition for limited resources.