Page argues franchising — where students are disproportionately from poorer backgrounds — has been oversold as a means for widening participation. In reality, he says, it often leaves students behind, with outcomes “taking down our overall metrics”.
Staff were never comfortable with the franchise-heavy model, he says. “Voices were raised about their concerns, the things they saw and practices that didn’t align with our values, but they weren’t listened to,” he adds. “Now we live or die by our own work. We’re not going to be reliant on other organisations. I would advise any other university with large franchise numbers to do the same.” Buckinghamshire cut ties earlier this year with five of its former private franchise partners.
Even so, other universities are continuing to explore franchise models. For Queen Mary’s new “International Year One” in business and management, for example, it will outsource the teaching and recruitment for the programme to Kaplan International College, a for-profit group offering pathway courses into higher education.
Taught at Kaplan’s centre in London Bridge, the one-year course will enable foreign students to move straight on to the second year of Queen Mary’s business management undergraduate degree. Kaplan’s tuition fee is about £9,000 cheaper and requires lower entry grades and English language qualifications.
Queen Mary academics fear the Kaplan pathway, billed as the only one of its kind leading to a London Russell Group university, will not improve the academic preparedness of students.
A brilliant piece in the FT about the human and institutional cost of overreliance on international student fees. Managers are making our most vulnerable students pay the price of a failing funding model and are skewing the purposes of university in their pursuit of fees.
www.ft.com/content/3f49...
