Business Education in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Education is the foundation which helps countries and societies build for the future. The worldwide movement towards a post-industrial economy in which the people must have greater knowledge and skills created a scenario in which the most educated persons are the ones with the greater opportunities of obtaining higher paying jobs. This trend goes beyond the United Kingdom; it is a worldwide trend for all nations. In a nation such as the United Kingdom, a developed country with a sophisticated economy, education is the key for continuous economic growth and success into the future. Education has a tremendous long term impact over on young people’s career trajectories and life experiences (Kehily, 2007, p.155). The focus of this paper is to analyze the changes that occurred in higher education in the United Kingdom. The most critical factor which differentiates an industrialized country from a developing or third would country is the level of education within its population. The United Kingdom which reached the status of an industrialized country decades ago emphasized on improving its educational system and provide solutions for lower income families to send their children to college. The United Kingdom realizes that other nations, even those who were categorized as third world countries are rising and the country’s future depends on its educational system. For example India is a country that created an economic growth platform based in the intellectual capacity of its people. India is the biggest exporter in the world of business processes and information technology services. A country which in the past was categorized as a third world nation has transformed its economy and is now a global force in the information technology field. The United Kingdom region as well as other nations have witness a widespread de-industrialization, the dismantling of former industries and the emergence of a competitive global economy in which a knowledgeable workforce has become the critical factor for success and economic progress (Kehily, 2007, p.156). In the past access to a college education was a privilege which was primarily determined by the economic resources of the student or the parents of these young persons. The United Kingdom’s government realized that in order to compete with other nations after the globalization movement they needed to improve the skills and abilities of its human capital. A major change in higher education in this society in recent times has been the expansion of this sector to make available university education to more young people (Kehily, 2007, p.160). The United Kingdom’s government and the private industry are helping many young promising students gain access to higher education by providing scholarships and student loans to pay for their educational expenses. A negative consequence of the changes in education especially at the college level is the creation of a marketplace in which students became customers in the higher education marketplace (Kehily, 2007, p.161). The United Kingdom Educational marketplace enjoyed tremendous growth during the last 25 years. In 1982 the participation rate (API) of UK youth in university classrooms was 6.9, by 1992 the API of UK youth had gone up to reach a 27.8 level (Trowler, 1998). This represents a 402% growth in student participation in the education system. The government reorganized higher education with the introduction of the Educational Reform Act of 1988. The Act affected polytechnics and colleges by removing them from local educational authority (LEA) which made them competing corporations resourced through another funding body (Henderson, Holland, McGrellis, Sharpe, Thompson, 2007). The Act helped a lot in the expansion of the polytechnics which eventually would be referred to as universities. Growth of young adults entering college is great for any society. The growth in the United Kingdom occurred so rapidly that the government could not keep with the pace and created policies to decelerate the process. This did not benefit the student body at all. The government lowered their overall funding to halt growth, cut grant offerings, penalized institution that exceeding governmental target acceptance numbers among other policies which were implemented to slow overall growth of higher education in the United Kingdom (Trowler, 1998). Higher education in the United Kingdom changed a lot during the last 40 years. One of the biggest changes was a renovation of the internal educational structure of colleges. The way universities assessed and placed value on education was transformed. The United Kingdom culture has been influenced a lot by the western American culture. Higher education is not an exception to this cultural trend. The schools began to adapt modular systems which place certain credit values to educational experiences. “In the conditions of the 1990… going modular is a serious and useful option” (Trowler, 1998). New concepts such as allowing work experiences to become accredited educational experiences were now part of the UK higher education reality. A person can learn a lot from work experiences and in certain scenarios such as internships they are legitimate educational experiences in which the colleges can provide guidance to the private industry on the types of things the students should learn. This trend is a little worrisome due to the fact that some universities can take advantage of the system and utilize work experience educational accreditation to recruit students. This type of recruiting does not really consider if a person has learn specific traits at work, it is about sweetening the deal for a person to offer degrees in shorter amounts of time which may create college graduates with sub par knowledge, skills and abilities. The modular system was a tremendous initiative which facilitated curriculum innovation so that students could customize their educational experience since the system provided them with choice and control over their education (Trowler, 1998). This sounds great for most people, but during its inception and still to this day some educators disagreed with the pedagogy of the system. The old system gave the educators full control over the curriculum. Many of these educators felt that their expertise in academics provided an insight into areas of study which students could not comprehend. They were the ones that should have full control over curriculums to ensure students are enrolling in the courses they need to learn about a subject matter. Another new trend which greatly impacted both teachers and students was franchising. Franchising refers to any validation of university modules at accredited centers outside the university (Trowler, 1998). These new ways to provide educational experiences revolutionized the industry and created the demand of educators with greater levels of hands of experience in their field of expertise. The students benefited from this concept because the system provided a way for them to learn from remote locations. The information age further revolutionized this concept with the creation of online universities. In the 21st century online universities are the fastest growing niche within the education marketplace. Online learning is an experience which provides working adults the opportunity to earn a degree while working full-time because students can enter a classroom at any time of the day because the campus is open for business 24/7. The students in the United Kingdom have been affected a lot by the changes that occurred and that are still occurring in the higher educational market. The Teaching and Educational Grant of 1998 instituted new and expanded arrangements for loans, abolished maintenance grants and introduced tuition fees for undergraduate students (Henderson, et. al. 2007). Grants and flexible loan arrangements benefited the student body a lot. Tuition fees for undergraduate students hurt students from poor families and increased the social gap between the poor and the rich. Poor students were forced to become student and work long hours to survive, thus they had less time to dedicate to their studies (Henderson, et. al. 2007). Providing student loans is a great concept, but it does have its negative consequences especially for students with lower economic resources. These students take on large amounts of debt which influences a lot the standard of living of these people after they leave college. A lot of expansion in the academia in the United Kingdom was good, but there are also negative consequences to excessive expansion. A college education in the old days would focus in providing the highest quality standard possible in which students were encouraged by the faculty to perform research fostering a complete educational experience. “The old university system was small and cozy, containing a smaller number of highly qualified and motivated undergraduates” (Independent, 2006). There is validity to the argument that size lowered overall quality. The educators can not focus as much on providing the individual assistance students need from them. These college professors are also to a certain degree victims in the entire process since their overall workloads have increase at much higher pace than the compensation they are receiving for their professional services. Providing more opportunities of admission to college students is good, but overpopulation within university campuses may be lowering the standards of education universities in the United Kingdom use to provide. The changes in the educational system in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s in the United Kingdom came simultaneously with society’s realization that the structure of the traditional family in which the man was the primary figure responsible for bringing income into the household was beginning to change. Women of the households in this country were entering the workforce at a rapid pace due to the nation’s liberal equality perspective and the economic needs which forced families to have a two income household to obtain a higher quality of life. The empowerment of women in this country is a great thing. The last part of the 20th century was a period in which there was significant reduction in gender inequality in the higher education market in the United Kingdom (Henderson, et. al. 2007). The overall women population within the student bodies of British universities increased form 42% in 1982 to 47% by 1992 (Trowler, 1998). Other significant trends within the student bodies of United Kingdom universities during the last part of the 20th century and into the 21st century are an increase of part-time students; more acceptance of disadvantage groups such people with disabilities in college classrooms and greater ethnicity within college campuses (Trowler, 1998). Providing opportunities for disable people is beneficial for the UK society and is a sign that universities are complying with social responsibilities just like any other business organizations in the United Kingdom. The workforce staff per student in United Kingdom universities doubled in the 1990’s in comparison with the previous decade (Trowler, 1998). Another impressive fact in the higher education market is overall growth in governmental spending into the system. In 1960’s the British government spend 219 million pounds in higher education, a figure which seems significant but in comparison with the 7 billion pounds the government spend in English universities in 1995 the number in reality was not that big (Trowler, 1998). Higher education in the United Kingdom has changed a lot during the last few decades. The biggest change is the size of the overall market. More students are getting the opportunity to obtain a college education. The government made a commitment to improve its human capital and the efforts have paid dividend. There will be more changes in higher education for years to come in the United Kingdom, but the most important element of any change within the system is the welfare of the beneficiaries of the system which are the students. References Kehily, M.J., et al. (2007). Youth in Context: frameworks, settings and encounters. London: Sage Publications. Independent (2006). The Cost of Change in Higher Education. London. Retrieved August 9, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20061102/ai_n16824335 Henderson, S. , Holland, J. , McGrellis, S. , Sharpe, S. , Thompson, R. (2007). Inventing Adulthoods: A Biographical Approach to Youths Transitions. Sage. Trowler, P.R. (1998). Academics Responding to Change: New Higher Education Framework and Academic Cultures. Society for Research into Higher Education. 10-30. 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