Nnamdi Madichie
Europe’s students are rapidly learning what government austerity means for them - cuts in spending on higher education and, in many cases, rising tuition fees. The response has been a wave of sit-ins and street protests from Rome to Copenhagen and London.
That was the opening paragraph to the populous BBC’s Hard Talk renowned for featuring top politicians with anchor, Stephen Sackur. Only this time the guest was eloquent speaking Aaron Porter, president of the British National Union of Students in the hot seat.
With the recent hike in tuition fees, it seems likely that the sector may be the next to face a global credit crunch – where perhaps the ‘varnish’ that once characterised British education may be about to ‘vanish.’ Students are unhappy, their parents and sponsors are frustrated, and likewise their respective communities are not spared of the grieving.
Believe it or not, the tale of resentment is more severe than previously thought. The villains in this recent drama, the universities themselves, claim their hands were tied – thereby also making them unhappy. It would be unfair to suggest that the government is happy considering the amount of eggs being chucked at it – from the rhetorical call to arms to the huge protests that engulfed the capital where even ‘Royals’ got caught up in the siege’ – how can an embarrassed government be happy?
There is no denial that times are tough, government coffers are in the red, but so also are those of students and their parents. As the blame game continues, I dare suggest that it may be time to let out some inconvenient truths. Yes, it’s about time for some hard talking. How have universities responded to these budgetary constraints? How should they have responded? What should set apart an ‘entrepreneurial’ university from the rest of the fold or flock?
I would argue that in tackling the current impasse at least eight options come to mind, of which only three may have been tested. Now may be the time to rethink the additional five options some of which may have been previously tested – albeit only marginally.
The Three Musketeers - Tried & Tested Options
Past responses by “privatised” universities – having now become stripped of public sector funding, have been of three kinds.
The first and initial response was the spate of intra-organisational/ institutional mergers where schools that were once separate entities were forced to adorn labels such as The School of Business & Law, School of Computing & Engineering, School of Arts, Design & Architecture and The School of Fashion, Textile & Marketing amongst others.
A second approach, which is a ‘no-brainer,’ was the rationalisation of modules. In this regard efforts were made by many universities to weed out duplicate modules and consolidate those with weak critical mass. For example, rather than having to study consumer behaviour and marketing research as two separate modules, some universities opted to offer them as a combined module – consumer behaviour & research. Likewise marketing & operations management have also been combined in other universities and thereby ensuring that any staffing issues are adequately managed.
The third, which equates to a “gold rush,” was the emphasis placed on the international student market where many UK universities embarked upon an aggressive overseas recruitment drive with dedicated staff to manage the process. Target markets included mostly those from developing/ emerging markets of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – sometimes even lowering minimum entry requirements in order to boost their coffers.
The “Infamous” Five - Untried but ‘marginally’ tested options
The other five options include a mixture of previously and untried approaches. The first requires the development of franchises with well vetted smaller private colleges (i.e. the real small businesses) dotted across the country and especially in London. These smaller institutions are not only a cheaper option, but actually perform most of the “nappy changes” on behalf of their degree awarding university partners whose brand names are the prized attractions for students in the first place.
A second option is to introduce a piece meal approach where tuition fees should be disaggregated into bite-sized portions where students are made to pay on a modular basis.
A third approach would require a complete reversion to vocational study options such as the HNDs/ HNCs and Sandwich courses as well as others with APLs (accredited prior learning) options. Crickey, whose idea was it to scrap the Polytechnics?
The reintroduction of visiting lecturers from industry may be a worthy fourth option. Academia could do with some help from full time practitioners who would also help bridge the oft reported divide between theory and practice.
The last, and perhaps more contentious fifth option - which warrants this hard talking, is to get rid of redundant positions! How many Associate/ Assistant Deans does it take to run a successful business school? One would have thought that there was no room for tall organisational structures in the education sector – cut the red tape!
Parting Question – Are you still standing?
In the middle of writing this article, I stumbled upon, and for some inexplicable reason, could not resist the temptation to attempt a connection to this 2009 Management Decision Emerald’s flagship journal Special Issue publication entitled “Business schools: positioning, rankings, research and futures” and guest edited by Howard Thomas at the Warwick Business School, it is clear what might be expected of entrepreneurial universities.
Two papers co-authored by Howard in this Special Issue are quite illustrative – I crave your indulgence to judge a book by its cover. While the first article with Julie Davies may be self explanatory “What do business school deans do? Insights from a UK study” the second paper with Xiaoying Li is entitled “Mapping globally branded business schools: a strategic positioning analysis” reads like a mandatory course of action.
Both papers respectively call the role of Deans to question, as well as emphasise the importance of branding and strategic positioning in the global competitiveness of, not only business schools, but universities at large. How well your institution scores on these points should provide an indication of your degree of entrepreneurialism - the question now is whether you are still standing or sitting?
Nnamdi O. Madichie, Associate Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, UAE