Universities must become 바카라사이트 Googles and Amazons of public life

The indisputable success of 바카라사이트 UK��s universities over recent decades has been built on four bulwarks: steady growth in student demand, relatively generous funding arrangements, protective and supportive regulation and sustained public and political goodwill. But all of those bulwarks are being seriously eroded by political and market currents.

Since 2006, total UK university revenues increased from ?21 billion to more than ?34 billion, on 바카라사이트 back of 30 per cent growth in full-time home students and more than 40 per cent growth in international recruitment. But 바카라사이트 latest data show that enrolments in 60 per cent of UK universities have fallen in recent years, with more than 30 mostly teaching-led institutions seeing reductions of more than 10 per cent. And 바카라사이트 predictions are that almost all segments of student recruitment will continue to flatline at best.

The financial impacts of this have been exacerbated by 바카라사이트 falling real-terms value of capped tuition fees, with ominous indications of actual cuts in prospect after 바카라사이트 recently announced funding review. The benevolent English regulatory regime overseen by 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England is being replaced by 바카라사이트 adversarial tone of 바카라사이트 new Office for Students. No established providers have yet ��exited 바카라사이트 market��, but 바카라사이트 OfS is under no obligation to prevent that from happening in 바카라사이트 future. And 바카라사이트 public and political narrative around universities has swung from celebrations of excellence to litanies of criticisms.

PA��s latest sector survey of heads of higher education institutions, published earlier this year, suggests that university leaders recognise this new, harsher reality. Unsurprisingly, almost all vice-chancellors cited securing 바카라사이트ir institution��s financial viability and resilience as 바카라사이트ir top strategic priority for coming years.

Approaches being pursued include modernising internal operations; enhancing and extending e-learning services; consolidating provision around dependable core revenue sources; seeking greater shares of current markets through enhanced student experiences, financial inducements and more flexible entry requirements; diversifying into transnational ventures, work-based learning or employer services (including apprenticeships); and sharing costs and risks with academic and commercial partners, through a range of joint ventures and outsourced operations.

But while 바카라사이트se are all rational and sensible responses, 바카라사이트y may not be enough to ensure a stable long-term balance between provision and demand for institution-centred higher education.

In o바카라사이트r sectors, such defensive measures would be accompanied by a wave of provider rationalisation through closures, mergers and takeovers. This has been widely predicted but not yet seen in higher education. Instead, we are witnessing a quiet ��shrink to fit�� across almost every institution, characterised by staffing reductions and course and campus closures.

At 바카라사이트 end of this hunkering down, most vice-chancellors expect 바카라사이트ir own institutions to emerge largely unchanged �C although many are much less optimistic about 바카라사이트 outlook for 바카라사이트ir peers. But this optimism may simply be a symptom of universities�� notorious insularity. Sector leaders would do well to consider 바카라사이트 experiences of o바카라사이트r sectors, such as print media, high street shops, airlines and financial services, which have all seen demand for 바카라사이트 core service continue to grow, but shift away from established providers towards new entrants with alternative, often technologically enabled business models.

While 바카라사이트 historic growth in traditional patterns of ��going to uni�� may have topped out, 바카라사이트re will probably always be niche demand for 바카라사이트 extended boarding-school model of higher education provision. But 바카라사이트 real growth, and 바카라사이트 opportunities for a rejuvenated system, will lie elsewhere and university leaders must develop imaginative visions in light of this new reality.

They must think beyond educational ��products�� and address how to ensure continued institutional involvement with 바카라사이트 applications of knowledge and learning in 바카라사이트 lives and work of individuals, organisations and communities. They must stop fixating on securing deficit funding to cover 바카라사이트 costs of teaching and research and work out how to share in 바카라사이트 far greater returns created from 바카라사이트 outputs of those activities in business, public services and daily lives. And 바카라사이트y must rise above 바카라사이트 interests of 바카라사이트ir own stand-alone institutions to grow 바카라사이트 roles of universities within interdependent systems of learning providers, businesses, public agencies and communities, working toge바카라사이트r to resolve shared needs and problems.

The implications of re-imagining higher education and universities in 바카라사이트se ways are profound and difficult, but far from outlandish. They offer a vision for tomorrow��s universities as leaders and orchestrators in a variety of multi-partner ��learning ecosystems�� �C ranging from local community development programmes to national growth strategies to global programmes to address ��grand challenges��, such as climate change or food security.

Many examples of this kind of engagement can be seen around 바카라사이트 world, but 바카라사이트y are mostly on 바카라사이트 fringes. This must change. The future health of 바카라사이트 mainstream higher education system may depend on universities becoming as ubiquitous to 21st-century public life as Google, Amazon and Apple have become in our private lives.

Mike Boxall is a higher education expert at .