Top 5 Challenges Facing Professional Service Leaders in UK Higher Education Today
The UK higher education sector is facing a number of unprecedented challenges. As the sector is in flux, institutions are dealing with increasing complexities surrounding finance and funding, student numbers and the introduction of new regulatory policy. This includes frozen tuition fees leading to inflationary pressures, an ever-growing number of applicants predicated to reach 1 million by 2025, and increasing surveillance over student outcomes through measures such as the OfS’s B3 Conditions of Registration and the new Graduate Outcomes survey.
Professional service leaders play a vital role in helping their institutions to meet these challenges and ensure that they remain successful in the future. In particular, those working to enhance student outcomes and experience are central to ensuring both the short- and long-term success of their institutions.
In this article, we outline 5 of the major challenges professional service leaders and practitioners are facing today. With each challenge, we outline a series of ways that providers are responding, including examples from across the sector.
1. Financial Sustainability
The UK higher education sector is facing a number of financial challenges, including rising costs, reduced government funding, and Increased reliance on revenue from international and postgraduate fees. Frozen undergraduate tuition fees until at least 2025, combined with waves of inflation in the UK, mean that institutions are depending on a smaller pool of money in real terms to deliver an excellent student experience.
It’s also worth noting that some providers are struggling more than others, so specific challenges will depend on the institution. This can be down to things like resource inequality or due to the differences in the kind of students providers recruit; for instance, some may face difficulties reaching their recruitment targets, which could exacerbate dependence on international or postgraduate audiences. Linked to this is the fact that some providers were hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the pandemic incurred significant impacts on international student recruitment, which is a major source of revenue for some institutions.
Professional service leaders need to find ways to make their institutions more efficient and effective, while also generating new sources of revenue. Some of the ways that professional service leaders are addressing this challenge include:
Merging or consolidating institutions: This can help to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Developing new revenue streams: This could include online learning, corporate training, or research commercialisation. In fact, some institutions are expanding to new campuses and international offshoots, becoming more global than ever.
Investing in technology: Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), especially with its capacity for predictive analytics, can help to improve efficiency and productivity, and can also be used to generate new revenue streams.
Managing costs: This could involve reducing administrative costs, negotiating better deals with suppliers, or increasing efficiency in teaching and learning.
2. Student recruitment and retention
The UK higher education sector is becoming increasingly competitive, both domestically and internationally. In 2023, UCAS announced that it expected the number of applications to higher education institutions to reach 1 million by 2030.
With this projected growth comes both challenges and opportunities, whether it’s for marketing teams or student service providers, who need to find ways to attract and retain students, while also ensuring that they receive a high-quality education, in an increasingly saturated market.
Some of the ways that professional service leaders are addressing this challenge include:
Offering more flexible learning options: This could include part-time degrees, online learning, and distance learning, which we expect to become increasingly prevalent with the introduction of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) in 2025.
Investing in student services and support: This could include providing students with more academic support, career guidance, and mental health support, to ensure that increasing student numbers don’t mean that individuals get lost in the crowd.
Improving the student experience: This could involve investing in new facilities and services, such as student unions, libraries, and sports facilities.
Developing strong relationships with employers: This can help to ensure that students have access to job placements and graduate opportunities.
Focusing on international recruitment: Despite the government’s disdain for international students, many professionals working in universities will vouch for the benefits they bring – not only in the form of heftier tuition fees, but also in the breadth of cultural experiences and diversity. For further guidance on this, see UUK’s content exploring key focus areas for international recruitment and strategies for sustainable growth strategies.
This challenge is a particularly thorny issue because many of the solutions require financial investment, at a time when the sector is struggling in that regard. As a result, service leaders are having to respond creatively and find new ways to deliver excellent student experience.
3. Digital Transformation
The rapid pace of technological change is having a major impact on the higher education sector. One need only look at the launch of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and the ensuing debate regarding academic integrity to understand that the sector is deeply invested and interested in technological advancement.
The challenge for professional service leaders is to find ways to embrace digital transformation and use technology to improve the student experience, teaching and learning, and research. Some of the ways that professional service leaders are addressing this challenge include:
Using data and analytics to improve the student experience: This could involve using data to track student progress, identify students who are at risk of falling behind, and provide them with targeted support. For an example, read about how The Open University is using AI to enhance accessibility and support disabled students.
Using technology to improve teaching and learning: This could involve using technology such as online learning platforms, mobile apps and virtual reality simulations, to deliver lectures, provide feedback to students, and create more engaging learning experiences. For further examples, read about how AI might help to develop creative approaches to curriculum design.
Using technology to support research: This could involve using technology to collect and analyse data, and to collaborate with other researchers around the world. For example, a recent report by Demos found that artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly deployed in research activities and identified how wider training for staff could lead to further take-up and effective use.
Setting institutional standards around the use of new technologies. Many universities are considering how they can use AI safely, effectively and ethically. For further guidance on this, watch this HE Professional webinar, which explores how the University of Cambridge is creating guidance for staff on how to use AI.
Building staff and student digital abilities. Many universities are considering how they can ensure their staff and students are digitally fluent, to ensure delivery of an excellent student experience and enhancement of graduate outcomes and skills. For further guidance, see Jisc’s resources on building digital capabilities.
4. Delivering Graduate Outcomes
Graduate outcomes and employability are becoming a touchstone issue in the higher education sector. Combined with an ageing workforce and skills gap in the UK economy and a generation of young people who are increasingly concerned with career opportunities, there is more pressure than ever on providers to develop skilled graduates in a challenging labour market. This is especially true following the introduction of new touchstone measures, such as the Graduate Outcomes Survey, which has augmented the ways in which institutions are judged on the employment opportunities they deliver for their students.
While careers service leaders will be largely responsible for finding solutions to this challenge, it’s clear that a whole-university approach to employability is vital. Some of the ways that professionals are addressing this challenge in their institutions include:
Embedding employability into the curriculum. This involves professional services teams working with academic staff to develop and embed employability skills and knowledge into the curriculum. This can be done through a variety of methods, such as introducing compulsory modules on career development and employability, or by providing training and support for academic staff to integrate employability into their teaching. For a more in-depth discussion, Gemma Kenyon (AGCAS, City, University of London) and Stefan Couch (Queen Mary, University of London) discuss how to engage academic colleagues in the employability agenda.
Enhancing the support and guidance offered by careers services. This could include providing bespoke support for different demographics, such as postgraduate students or autistic students, or focusing on particular areas of employability, such as enterprise and entrepreneurship or skills for hybrid working.
Connecting students with employers. Careers professionals are seeking ever more creative ways to help students network and engage with potential employers. A great example can be found a Brunel University, where the careers team developed a series of industry challenges to support student employability and networking.
Offering opportunities to gain work experience within the university. This not only helps to support student employability, but also can support professional service teams within the university itself. For a great example, see the University of Birmingham’s Graduate Internship Programme.
As the issue of supporting student employability runs through the sector, a university-wide approach will be most effective in delivering impact. For further details of how providers are working on this, see Edinburgh Napier University’s Graduate Employability Project and the Huddersfield Business School’s case study on a whole-curriculum approach to employability.
5. Quality Assurance and Regulation
The quality of higher education is under increasing scrutiny from students, employers, and government. As measures such as the Office for Students’ (OfS) Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and B3 Conditions of Registration put increased regulatory pressure on providers, professional service leaders need to ensure that their institutions have robust quality assurance processes in place.
Some of the ways that professional service leaders are addressing this challenge include:
Developing new internal quality assurance frameworks. These frameworks should be designed to ensure that all aspects of the student experience are of a high quality. Many providers work to align internal frameworks with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education by QAA, which is not regulatory but can support institutions in their approach to quality assurance.
Working with external agencies to ensure that their standards are met. This could involve working directly with organisations – for example, through membership to organisations such as QAA – to help maintain, deliver and review internal frameworks and metrics for quality assurance.
Collecting and analysing feedback from students. Student voice is a vital tool that can help providers understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to quality. This year, the TEF 2023 included a student panel, indicating the importance of student feedback in delivering an excellent student experience.
Investing in staff development. This can help to ensure that staff have the skills and expertise to deliver high-quality teaching and learning. It could include the delivery of professional development opportunities for staff across academic and professional services departments.
Using benchmarks and data analytics. By using insight to inform strategy, providers can deliver a risk-based approach to quality assurance, which focuses on identifying and mitigating potential risks to quality.
While quality assurance and regulatory pressure poses a challenge to professional service teams in higher education, thankfully there are plenty of resources out there to support professionals in this area. For further support, see HE Professional’s guidance to the OfS’s regulatory framework and top tips for future TEF submissions from the University of Exeter.
The Road Ahead for Professional Service Leaders
While many of the issues outlined in this article present challenges for service leaders across the sector, there is also plenty of scope for opportunity. With the sector in flux, professionals are becoming more creative in their approaches to supporting excellent student experience and outcomes. In this way, these teams are playing a vital role in shaping the future of the sector.
To stay up to date with the latest developments and insights for professional service leaders and practitioners, subscribe to HE Professional’s free newsletter to receive fresh content to your inbox every week. You can also take a look at our roster of upcoming events, which explore the challenges faced by professional service teams, from marketing and admissions, to widening participation and employability.
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