A KEY CHALLENGE FACED BY MARKETERS IN RELATION TO UK POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION

A key challenge faced by marketers in relation to UK Postgraduate Education

A key challenge faced by marketers in relation to UK Postgraduate Education

Introduction

Postgraduate students are highly valued by British higher education institutions. They make a vital direct contribution to the life of research teams and to income generation. When they return home, they can be important economic and scientific contacts for the UK, and are increasingly likely to continue playing a role in collaborative research from their home base. Yet their role in institutions, as a group distinct from undergraduate students, is frequently too little understood and given insufficient consideration in long-term development strategies. (Aspland, T., Edwards, H., O'Leary, J. 1999, 65-78)

The expansion of provision for postgraduate students has outpaced the development of means for monitoring the quality of their experience, or of their subsequent relations with their alma maters. Many institutions have habitually decentralised responsibility for dealing with postgraduates; and this has repercussions not only for franchising operations, but also for data collection. This report addresses a number of key issues educational institutions need to address as part of any strategic review of recruitment of, and provision for, postgraduates: (Aspland, T., Edwards, H., O'Leary, J. 1999, 65-78)

the simultaneous need to recruit the best students to the research enterprise and to increase the volume of recruitment for income generation;

the need to develop strategic, multivalent partnerships in training, research and development with overseas institutions supplying postgraduate students to the UK ;

whether to specialise in Postgraduate Taught (PGT) or Postgraduate Research (PGR);

the need to keep track of, and have an active strategy for developing, networks.

Explanation

Do they come to the UK to train for a traditional academic career at home, or for induction into cutting-edge research? How should we approach issues of social adjustment and the seniority or family status of many postgraduate students? What are the differences between different groups of postgraduate students, and between postgraduate students and UK postgraduates, especially those with similar socio demographic characteristics (eg mature or ethnic-minority students)? How do we ensure transparently fair treatment of postgraduate students? Will adjustment to the needs of postgraduate students also benefit UK students? Finally, this chapter addresses issues such as pre-competitive collaboration between institutions in promoting subject offerings on a national scale (the 'one-stop shop' approach). (Aspland, T., Edwards, H., O'Leary, J. 1999, 65-78)

The growth in UK recruitment owes much to the vigour with which UK Higher Education is marketed abroad as well as to the enhanced status of the new universities after the ending of the binary divide in 1992. Changes in sources of UK recruitment from non-EU countries. (Aspland, T., Edwards, H., O'Leary, J. 1999, 65-78)

Two factors may help explain this pattern of recruitment: the changing nature of domestic postgraduate provision (perhaps especially the availability of masters courses) and the significance of English language provision (available in the Netherlands and not an issue for the Irish). Figures are not available to indicate the proportion of EU postgraduate ...