Students in Higher Education

The United Kingdom’s higher education system has changed during the past . Government has decreed that the life and work of universities and colleges should become increasingly accountable to public scrutiny. The system must that public are used responsibly and effectively to high quality teaching and . Increasingly for both and teaching is being to the quality of provision. are being encouraged to less upon from taxation and to other means of raising their income by becoming more entrepreneurial within the wider educational marketplace.

It is the pressures upon higher education which, in part, provide the impetus for this book. One of the ways in which are aiming to their activities and increase their is by developing the courses that they offer for students. There have been increases in the numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students within the system. As this of university and college activity has burgeoned it has become that the quality of the teaching and learning offered to students must be and and also become subject to audit. The central aim of this book is to draw upon the developing literature, and experience which upon the delivery of courses for students and to offer a useful for those staff who have a measure of responsibility for teaching and the quality of students’ learning experiences. In addition, it is hoped that the book will be of interest to students who are contemplating or embarking upon programmes of study in the United Kingdom.

The in students numbers has been noteworthy during the past . In 1973 there were 35,000 international students in HIEs in the UK. This was followed by a in the early 1980s, and by growth in the early 1990s so that by 1992 numbers had risen to 95,000 (CVCP 1995a: 2.2). This increase can he accounted for by a in the real cost of courses for students, steady per capita growth in the countries, and the of the student base in UK (ibid.). Currently one third of students are postgraduates, and international students are in three main : Engineering, , Social Science, and Business and (ibid: 2.3).

Within the (setting aside the USA’s 70 per cent share) the UK is a player in the provision of courses for students and has 17 per cent of the total student population, with one third from the European Union (CVCP 1995a: 5.3). It should be noted that it is that the supply of student places will increase, and expected that the UK will endeavour to its in to in home student numbers, the higher international students command and the move to increase postgraduate numbers (ibid: 5.5).

students are having a upon the of UK higher education . In broad terms their arises from the of educational services from the UK so that student and expenditure represent an injection into the circular flow of (CVCP 1995a: 3.2-3.3); even discounting EU students, at undergraduate level and paid for by the UK Treasury, the value of of fully students was £310 million in 1992-3 (ibid: 3.31). In addition, their expenditure on UK-produced goods and services is to be at least £405 million in 1992-3 (ibid.: 3.32). In total this to twice the value of UK of coal, gas and electricity in the same year (ibid: 3.33). In terms of the to themselves, on average 5.1 per cent of ‘old’ university depends on international students and 2.2 per cent in ‘new’ universities. There are also, of course, non- arising from student provision such as the of the English language and and fostering understanding between races. In such it is hardly surprising that the government is keen to the of educational services as a means of growth (see for example DTI 1995).

According to a wide recent , the main reasons why students decide to study in the UK rather than anywhere else are: that the English Language is spoken; UK qualifications are recognised by the home government and companies; the standard and quality of education in the UK; the international reputation of UK education; the presence of well known universities; and that students are already used to the English system of education (Allen and Higgins 1994: 22, table 20). The two main reasons they decided to go to their current rather than elsewhere in the UK were the reputation of the (for 27.8 per cent) and the content of the course (for 20.8 per cent) (ibid: 39, table 27).

(Overseas students in higher education by David McNamara and Robert Harris)