UK HE is facing a range of financial challenges, like never before. Changes to policy and university funding are only part of the problem. Even before the outbreak of Covid-19, a record number of 114 universities were reported to be in deficit. The recent release of financial data for 2019-2020 has also provided some early indicators of how the pandemic is affecting the sector, with a significant rise in costly, short-term borrowing and the sharp decline of residences, catering and conferencing making headline news. For the first time, even universities with large reserves that have embraced commercial ways of thinking have felt the loss of income from students and ‘associated activities’.

As institutions globally rethink how they deliver education and the wider student experience, they continue to listen to the student voice. As such, i-graduate’s latest global surveys, the Covid-19 Response Barometer and the International Student Barometer (ISB) have been able to deliver valuable insight to the sector. Here we share just some of the findings. (The full global report, including regional focus reports, can be accessed here.)

Leeds City College’s successful CAG process in 2020 resulted in just 24 appeals out of 29,000 qualifications, of which just 6 were upheld. In this article, Head of English and Maths, Jonny Diamond, and Director Quality of Education, Carol Layall, discuss how they achieved that, and consider the lessons learned to inform the 2021 TAG process.

While the constantly evolving COVID-19 situation makes it difficult to predict, a number of studies have shown that students are more likely to delay rather than cancel study abroad plans and it is predicted that demand for study abroad will surge as the pandemic subsides. It has also been suggested that there will be a shift in market share post-COVID as a result of countries’ handling of the crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the Higher Education sector over the last few months. Institutions and networks continue to react swiftly to an ever-changing situation, and as the case with many other sectors, have been developing new ways of working with strained resources.

The usefulness of benchmarking in any instance is the accuracy, validity and consistency of the data collection. This may be achieved via remote collection of data but invariably requires people to be on-site to ensure all assumptive processes are removed and the final dataset is consistent with the framework being employed. Getting this right enables meaningful performance comparison across any number of public providers and on a huge range of characteristics. 

Accurately identifying inefficiencies 

The words and the backdrop may differ, but the sentiment is largely the same across the world’s Post Secondary Education (PSE) systems – find out which parts of the organisation are less efficient and address those inefficiencies.  

Many OECD countries currently face falling domestic enrolments. Universities have been able to successfully prop their numbers up by looking to the international student market for a number of years, but there is increased concern about an unsustainable over-reliance on international students.  

Improving financial performance and mitigating risk in post-secondary restructures

Post-secondary education systems regularly change as a result of new government policy, or the introduction of initiatives to tackle under-performance in student outcomes or financial terms.