Have you noticed how university prospectuses have changed in recent years? These glossy tomes have always tended to show the best side of university life but as competition in the market for students hots up under the new funding regime, there's a growing emphasis on explaining what you can expect for your money stretching from the social scene, quality of teaching, student support services and skills development right through to job prospects.
All of which is certain to raise student expectations. Woe betides the institution that fails to deliver on the promise. A glance at the latest GRB poll of students should serve as a timely reminder to universities that failing to deliver on the promise is all too easy. Asked if they thought their university was overrated or underrated.
A significant 46% of those who voted felt their university was overrated compared to 27% who felt their university was actually underrated. What is particularly interesting is that when the same question was asked a year ago, only 40% claimed their university was overrated. The trend, worryingly, would appear to be going in the wrong direction.
Accepting that opinions might be jaundiced at this time of the year when graduate job prospects, or the lack of them, are uppermost in most students and graduates minds, the level of dissatisfaction should be a cause for concern. One can only wonder how parents would have voted. In a recent OnePoll, 60% of parents said that the prime value of encouraging their offspring to go to university was in helping to improve job prospects.
In the same week, the Office for National Statistics published a report which showed that one in three recent graduates was employed in low skilled jobs. And they are the lucky ones it seems, as one in five was unemployed. Universities cannot be blamed for the depressed state of the jobs market but these depressing figures go some way to explaining why more and more institutions are taking their students' employability more seriously than ever before and need to level the score.
Dan Hawes
