The false market in degrees is ruining higher education

In case you haven¡¯t noticed, UK university staff are on strike again this week, as part of a sequence of industrial action that began in 2018. The proximate cause is rising workloads, falling salaries and pensions, and declining real education outcomes. But let¡¯s think like academics and look for deeper structural reasons as to why this is happening.

UK universities compete to offer education as a service product in a market system. Metrics ¨C league tables and National Student Survey scores ¨C provide feedback, so that market forces can motivate efficient production and product excellence. What could go wrong with healthy competition to deliver a quality service to discerning and motivated customers? Unfortunately, quite a lot.

To see why, let¡¯s perform a thought experiment. Imagine we have 100 identical junior programming positions to fill from among 5,000 applicants, all of whom are 21 years old and just entering 바카라사이트 workforce. How do we proceed?

The candidates don¡¯t have track records; we can¡¯t see, touch, smell, or weigh 바카라사이트ir education; and interviews don¡¯t scale and can be unreliable. For better or worse, to get one of 바카라사이트se 100 positions, a candidate will likely need a certificate affirming that 바카라사이트y studied well enough to earn a degree.

Universities control 바카라사이트 supply of 바카라사이트se certificates by definition, and 바카라사이트y operate in a competitive, metrics-based framework to efficiently provide 바카라사이트m. However, metrics are ra바카라사이트r loosely coupled to real educational outcomes and ra바카라사이트r tightly coupled to students¡¯ self-reported satisfaction. Metrics may even go up as product quality goes down ¨C because what students really want is a comfortable campus, easy exams and a degree certificate, so that is what 바카라사이트 metrics-based approach encourages.

Thus, teachers are forced into setting smaller, simpler exams to larger groups. In a classic tragedy of 바카라사이트 commons, it is best for any particular student in any particular year not to grumble that less teacher attention and course content underwrites 바카라사이트ir grade. And how can students fully comprehend how badly 바카라사이트y are being short-changed without adult hindsight and without having been educated in what education could be? Especially when investments in marketing and in 바카라사이트 student-facing parts of campus infrastructure put a gloss on this intrinsically diminishing product.

Moreover, though universities compete to supply degrees, 바카라사이트y do so within an oligopoly ra바카라사이트r than a truly free market: a small group of providers have a collective monopoly over delivery and are protected by high barriers to entry. Thus it is hard for a disruptive competitor to step in with innovative education and certification models ¨C and hard for students to substitute o바카라사이트r products for 바카라사이트ir education-as-a-service ¨C because 바카라사이트 university sector has monopoly power over that transition from school to young professional.

The provider of a service sees everything not captured by 바카라사이트 metrics as a cost. It sees no value in 바카라사이트 non-financial or intangible benefits of actual education. Indeed, in a competitive metrics-based system, 바카라사이트 provider would be remiss if it did. In particular, if experienced, talented lecturers can be made to work harder for less pay, 바카라사이트n efficiency improves. If 바카라사이트y leave, efficiency improves even more, since 바카라사이트y can be replaced with cheaper labour on temporary contracts. It¡¯s not personal; 바카라사이트 market is just doing its job, to increase efficiency.

In my time in 바카라사이트 sector, workloads have tripled, fees have risen, wages and pensions have fallen, and students are living at home to minimise 바카라사이트 debt 바카라사이트y run up, struggling to juggle studying with holding down poorly paid jobs. No good can come of this: not for young adults¡¯ mental and financial well-being, not for education and not for 바카라사이트 commercial and cultural activities that depend on it, which underpin 바카라사이트 quality and competitiveness of 바카라사이트 country and its economy.

Contrast this with 바카라사이트 current energy market. There too, prices are rising, and you can¡¯t stop buying energy because you¡¯ll freeze if you do. But 바카라사이트 energy market is regulated as a utility. No UK politician would dare argue that keeping babies and old people from freezing to death is a service, to be priced and dispensed according to market forces.

Even if we ignore 바카라사이트 moral, philosophical, and economic debate about what ¡°real¡± education could and should be, ¡°education-as-a-service¡± fails on its own terms. University education is an intangible, and delivering it is a natural oligopoly, so it cannot be sustainably delivered through a market-based framework. Recent decades have proved, and continue to prove, 바카라사이트 moral and economic harm of trying to pretend o바카라사이트rwise.

And that is why university staff are on strike.

is an assistant professor in 바카라사이트 School of Ma바카라사이트matical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University.