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Adapting to the new economies of higher education
 

Adapting to the new economics of higher education

UK Universities are being confronted with a global recession, reduced public spending and international market changes are combining to create a permanent change in the economics of Higher Education. The impacts of this change for universities are immediate and dramatic, with many institutions projecting significant financial deficits and a growing number facing risks to their very survival.

It is clear that government will not provide the solutions to this challenge, whether through additional funding or through protectionist policies. Conventional institutional self-help measures, whether aimed at reducing costs or diversifying revenues, offer only marginal or short term benefits and do not address the underlying shifts in the conditions for sustainability. 

What is needed, therefore, is a fundamental rethinking of assumptions about the university business model, to match the changed economics of HE. This should entail 'thinking (and perhaps doing) the unthinkable' in terms of the basic building blocks of the 21st century university – the nature and presentation of HE offers and services for teaching and research; the ways that different customer needs for those services are met; how institutions organise themselves and secure the capabilities they need; and how quality is interpreted and assured.

PA Consulting Group (PA) are currently exploring the imperatives of the new economics of HE and the implications for universities, and present a framework which institutions might use to shape and realise their responses.

To discuss how PA can help you develop a framework which your institution might use to shape and realise responses, please contact us now