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The need for institutions become more customer-focused might be a new idea for universities, but further education colleges offering higher education courses have struggled with this for years.

With many colleges seeing a drop in the number of higher education students as they compete with universities pursuing vocationally oriented courses and with the growth of foundation degrees, this trend is set to continue. While all institutions should strive to raise the quality of teaching, universities need to focus on what value they could add to their courses, possibly through professional qualifications, which could act as an incentive to potential students but could reduce employers' investment in training of graduates. Maybe universities should look closer at further education for inspiration.

Steve Lambert
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