This year’s Student Academic Experience Survey found that 37 per cent of students believe that they receive good or very good value for money from their studies.
29 per cent said that they found their courses gave poor or very poor value for money.
As the report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute observed, “value-for-money perceptions remain a challenging measure for the sector”.
The Quality Assurance Agency’s Student Strategic Advisory Committee – of which I’m a member – has now published a new report on student perceptions and expectations of value for money in higher education.
We don’t just ask whether students think their courses offer value for money – we also take a deeper dive into those factors which are seen as constituting that value.
Our study is based on a survey we conducted involving the views of 48 current and recent students at UK universities – about half undergraduates and half postgraduates. The survey was promoted through social media and open to all those who wished to participate.
Our study has found that the primary value-for-money concerns expressed by respondents related to teaching quality and resources, and employment – and wider – outcomes.
The survey’s respondents emphasised that they care primarily about teaching excellence and want current, industry-relevant content delivered by lecturers, rather than an over-reliance on self-study with poor, or inaccessible, support.
Our research has also highlighted the fact that students want to develop skills that are transferable to a range of careers. It seems clear that if a degree is unable to support them into employment it has a perceived lower value for money.
Perceptions of value
But what’s perhaps most important in our findings is that the students don’t just want to be able to get a decent graduate job.
There’s a range of factors that go into student expectations of value for money: students want to learn things of real value for their future lives (both in terms of, and beyond, their employment prospects), and to be properly supported to do so – and to enjoy and be enriched in many ways by their studies.
Indeed, our survey demonstrated that student perceptions of value also involve the quality of the support services and facilities which institutions provide.
Taking these views into account, we are calling up the UK higher education sector to support the creation of a definition of value for money.
The fact that the sector currently lacks an agreed – or even shared – definition of what value for money might constitute is highly problematic. This gap in our understanding of student and stakeholder expectations has made it possible for certain voices in the media and the policy sphere to seek to focus any possible definition exclusively upon the economic outcomes of employment – leading to a narrow interpretation of educational success which prioritises immediate financial returns over the benefits of broader intellectual and personal growth and civic, social and cultural engagement and contributions.
We are, of course, very aware of the financial pressures which higher education is currently facing, and so we are calling upon the government to develop and implement policies to support universities to be able to deliver the value that students want and deserve, in terms of the quality of teaching, support services and facilities.
The ability to engage
At the same time, it’s crucial to note that students’ engagement with their studies and their institutions and academic communities is closely linked to their ability to gain the full value of opportunities available as part of the student experience.
It is apparent, however, that the extent of students’ ability to engage in these ways very often correlates with their economic backgrounds and their circumstances – such as whether they commute or reside on campus, or whether they study full-time or part-time, whether they do paid work on top of their studies, whether they have the support of their families or themselves have parental or carer responsibilities.
Issues of disability and health can also of course impact on students’ capacities to engage fully with the educational, social and professional opportunities which – within curricula or extracurricular – can add significant value to the student experience and to their educational outcomes and future prospects.
We therefore believe that universities should focus substantial effort and resource on ensuring that access and engagement is equitable for all student groups, and that governments and regulators should support them in doing so.
Our research has found that students are understandably concerned about being able to access all the opportunities available to them while at university, to graduate into relevant and skilled employment, and to go on to lead productive and fulfilled lives.
As universities prepare to welcome new cohorts of students this autumn, we must do whatever we can to ensure that every student has fair access to high-quality teaching and learning and to all of the diverse opportunities that add significant value to their studies.
We need a definition
And so, we are calling upon the governments and regulators of the four nations of the UK to work with students, student’s unions and key sector bodies (such as QAA) to create a single, collaboratively produced and jointly owned definition of value for money to be used to support and inform policy creation and quality assurance.
While we appreciate that the public purse is extraordinarily constrained by current fiscal and economic conditions, we also believe that the prosperity of the UK, industrial growth and social mobility are dependent upon the quality and value offered by its higher education system.
The perception of that value among students, employers and the public – and therefore trust that policymakers will recognise the immediate and long-term benefits of investing attention, energy and resource into supporting the dynamic academic and skills infrastructures which underpin our nation’s future.
