Value for Money in HE Careers: The Student View

Ahead of my presentation at the Graduate Employability Conference later this month, I’ve summarised my ongoing PhD research into student perceptions of value for money and the implications of my findings for careers and employability professionals.

Value for money is a curious thing. It describes a necessary exchange of funds for a product or service, but the monetary value of that exchange can range from infinitesimal to the infinite, with the perceived value operating on a similar spectrum of extremes for multiple parties. I’m confusing myself already, but what you can’t argue against is the presence of value for money in the current higher education discourse. It comes in different flavours, such as ‘mickey mouse degrees’, ‘poor return for the taxpayer’ and ‘students as consumers’, but all essentially stem from the same question: is a university education good value for money?

Sector and student perspectives

In 2017, the Higher Education and Research Act (HERA) established the Office for Students (OfS) as the sector’s regulator. Value for money is front and centre of their strategy, with their regulatory framework stating “all students, from all backgrounds, receive value for money”. The same document adds that the OfS themselves will provide value for money “to the taxpayers and providers that fund our work”. At this point, we’re in danger of descending into Inception-like levels of value, but the fact is clear that value for money is intertwined in all things higher education. With many stakeholders in UK HE, we hear a lot on value for money from the aforementioned regulator, political and media commentators and economic thinktanks but what makes less noise is student-centred research. Fascinated by this topic, I deemed it a worthy study for my ongoing PhD, which recently completed its second of three rounds of data collection.

With a target sample of UK undergraduates on three-year degrees at five North-West English universities, I’ve surveyed and interviewed students in their first and second years of study, with the final round of data collection planned for the end of their final year in May 2025. This longitudinal study of student perceptions of value for money is the first of its kind, and the differences between just two years of study is evident. The survey has been repeated by hundreds of students each year, and 21 participants have had a follow-up interview in both years of study.

Student concerns

From the two surveys conducted so far, elements of commonality across both years include:

Costs and financial strain: Consistent concerns about the high cost of education and the related cost of living expenses. Students find it difficult to separate the value for money of everyday living from their HE experience.
Quality of education and teaching: There is noticeable dissatisfaction with the perceived quality of teaching, support and organisation compared to what students felt they were promised at open days and/or before enrolment.
Course structure: There are varied perceptions of value for money overall, but practical experiences and placements are often seen as positive, while general teaching and student support are seen as lacking.

The survey findings also yield some obvious shifts over the first two years of study. There are more detailed complaints about the management of courses and tutor turnover impacting the value of education, but these exist alongside positive perceptions from other students who talk about ‘knowing more’ and ‘better relationship with professors’. Whilst placements are indicators of good value in the first year, second year students are increasingly discussing how ‘hidden costs’, such as clothing and transport, are lowering their value for money perceptions.

A changing picture

When thematically coding the interview responses, I noticed interesting shifts between the years. 34% of first-year participants defined value for money as part of an overall expression of their financial circumstance, but for second-years this decreases to 24%. What begins to emerge is a theme relating to ‘assumptions of spend’, where students define value for money based on the assumption that their tuition fee is being spent directly on them and their course. What is stark across both years of survey and interview responses is that over 90% of students don’t know how their tuition fee is spent by their institution. Curiously though, those who do feel they know how it is spent are over twice as likely to say that their university experience is very good or good value; around 75% compared to the HEPI average of 39% in their Student Academic Experience Survey 2024.

Value of careers support

One section of the survey asks students to rate (from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) whether various elements of their university experience are value for money, across three categories of academic, extracurricular and student support. Within the latter category, careers support is an option to rate.

In the first year, 57% of students across all five institutions strongly agree or agree that their careers support is good value for money, and this increases to 62% in the second year. This is above average for their overall perceptions of value for money. However, whilst the average is 57%/62% respectively in each year of study, there is significant variation between institutions, from 48% to 75%. Across both years of data collection, 29% of students ‘neither agree nor disagree’ that their careers support is value for money, indicating a potential lack of engagement. That being said, the majority still positively perceive the value for money of their careers support, which reflects well on the early undergraduate engagement activities of the institutions in this study.

The interview responses present a more nuanced view of how careers support is seen as value for money, and indeed career potential more generally. In the opening question around defining value for money in a HE context, one participant added “university is expensive, but will allow me to progress to my chosen career” with another saying it is value for money because of “what it’ll do for my career”. Direct engagement with student support services, including careers, drives positive perceptions of value for money, whereas a lack of engagement and/or knowledge can lead to negative perceptions rather than neutral responses.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this research develops further once the final year of data collection is complete next year, and I’m excited to discuss the careers and employability elements of this study in more depth at the Graduate Employability Conference later this month.

Paul Gratrick is a Head of Operations for Student Experience and Enhancement at the University of Liverpool, working with academic and professional service staff to enhance and add value to the student experience as a whole, including the careers and employability provision for students and graduates. He is the current AGCAS President, and also an independent member of the OfS Quality and Assessment Committee.