UK higher education challenges and solutions 1

Higher Education in the UK Challenges and Solutions

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 2

There has been ensuing conversation regarding the level of sustainability and survival of
universities whether these institutions of higher learning are collapsing or in the process of
reorganization to meet the demands of a knowledge-driven economy in the UK (Blackmore,
2002). Universities are profound institutions that disseminate knowledge, attitudes and research
for a long time. These institutions have however have complicated structures and cultures that
makes it difficult for management to expedite meaningful change that can spur growth of the
institutions of higher learning. Universities are higher learning institutions which are made up of
scholars and regulated by education authorities committed to the pursuit, dissemination and
preservation of knowledge to members of the society ((Coaldrake, 1999). These institutions are
facing threats from globalization, increasing demand for access to higher education, public sector
management frameworks and financial reform policies that requires resource allocation be made
on the basis of attainment of identified priorities that create productivity and excellence.

A survey conducted by UK based researchers on the status of the UK’s education system
reveals that Higher Education is primarily carried out in 130 Universities in England, 20
Universities in Scotland, 2 Universities in Northern Ireland, 11 Universities in Wales and one
private university (Chowdry, et. al. 2013). Higher education is also extended to colleges but at
sub-bachelor level. However, at the university level, a bachelor’s degree program takes a
duration of three years. Admission procedure is implemented using a centralized admissions
procedure which facilitates entry into higher education institutions. All prospective students
wishing to gain admission typically apply through this online Universities and Colleges
Admissions System. Once the entrants have made their online system applications, the discretion
whether they qualify to join institutions of their preference rests with the tutor in the relevant
university department.

Chowdry et al. (2013) reports that, offers are made on the basis of applicant’s merit and
achievement only, although sometimes, students are required to write supporting statements
accompanying the online applications which is considered by the admissions authorities in the
relevant department. After review of admission applications, a few institutions conduct interview
on the applicants except Oxford and Cambridge. According to a report on higher education
published by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (2010), student enrollment and
participation in Higher education increased dramatically in 2007. The massive increase in higher
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 3

education enrolment was due to elevation of polytechnics that used to offer technical training
courses into universities. The introduction of tuition fees in higher education in 1998 raised
concerns among policy makers in the UK because prior to introduction of fees, University
education was free at the point of use with a means-tested government support for living
expenses. The fees that was charged before was relatively low and students were required to
make fees payments before starting their courses due to fears that fees would create an obstacle
to accessing higher education especially for potential students from poor backgrounds
(Callender, 2003). Research evidence shows that poorer students in the UK complete their higher
education with outstanding fees arrears who initially appeared as debt averse (Pennell and West,
2005).

Despite the introduction of tuition fees in 1998, did not reduce student enrolment in
higher education for poor students (Universities UK, 2007& Wyness, 2009). This was because,
the fees imposed was a small percentage of the total cost of university enrolment or probably due
to future-oriented students who expected a return on their educational investment. In the year
2004, the UK legislation changed made an amendment to the Higher Education Act and
introduced higher fees charges that were unaffordable and varied from one institution to another
and also fees charges were different for each of the programs in higher learning institutions
(Crawford and Dearden 2010). In the year 2007-2008, and more recently, the UK government
announced significant further increases in tuition fees with higher education student support
making changes to student support in 2007-2008. The changes to the tuition fees were as a result
of the review of the funding of higher education in England by Lord Browne (Brown, 2010).

A report from a group of university vice-chancellors in the UK suggest that, reduced

government funding to Universities has forced universities to come up with creative ways of
survival in the globally competitive higher education environment by being more responsive to
the needs of business, government and the industry requirements. The vice-chancellor of the
university of Manchester argues that, universities fail in their mandate when they fail to protect
their core values thus, creating a gap creation of private universities because would public
universities would be perceived to have failed in providing adequate training, too expensive to
sustain and unable to produce employees who meet the job market demands. Blunkett (2000)
suggests that, universities need to create innovative ways of survival in order to gain an edge in
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 4

the current knowledge economy. Universities need to partner with corporations and other
corporate organizations and adopt the influences globalization as well as device new
technologies and serve local markets by providing quality academic programs that intellectual
growth and economic development. this will help university reduce reliance on government
funding for their operations (Blunkett, 2000).

UK DfES (2003a) white paper titled, the future of higher education, outlines three key
challenges facing the UK universities from within their jurisdictions; hiring and retaining of
competent academic staff that improve a sustainable teaching and research programs,
maintenance of infrastructure for conducting research and teaching and providing assurance to
the stakeholders that their investment in higher education is not in vain. Besides, competition
among universities to be emerge among the top ten in a global knowledge economy is another
key challenge that involves attracting and retaining the best academic staff and students. The
greatest global challenge facing UK universities emanates from the four best private universities
in the US.; Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Princeton universities. The source of the dominance of
the four US private universities comes from a large pool of resources that enable them acquire
and retain highly experienced researchers by offering them very attractive remuneration and
other employment benefits and also possession of modern facilities is another source of
competitive advantage for these four US universities. These universities can also afford to
provide scholarship opportunities to international smartest universities making it difficult for UK
universities to compete basically because there is only one private university in the UK (Bosetti
& Walker 2010).

According to the UK higher education managers, the number of universities available in

UK is not enough to cater for the growing student demand for access to universities. Universities
that are ranked among the best safeguard their reputation by attracting the best researchers and
reward them for publishing in scholarly journals, supervising students to graduation and
conducting scientific enquiry. The implication of this practice is that, universities are compelled
to be apply selective admission criteria in order to admit the top best students (Bosetti & Walker,
2010). Another challenge facing UK universities is the shift of government’s role from being
provider of funds to universities to focusing on quality assurance. Blunkett (200) reiterates the
need for the UK government to create external regulation mechanisms for higher education to
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 5

enhance both qualities in research and academic standards. The reduction in government funding
for universities is seen by university leaders as an obstacle that reduce institutional independence
and indicates an aspect of state control in the university operation, direction and delivery of
higher education (Blunetti, 2020).

Foe effective discharge of their mandate, the UK government has to give the universities
the autonomous space to realize their vision and gain their space in the global higher education
competitive arena. The advent of knowledge economy and global competition for higher
education have seen UK universities creating innovative and strategic discourses of profit-
oriented corporations approach which entail developing ways of effectively marketing their
higher education programs (Altbach, 2002). Many UK universities have partnered with academic
institutions of other countries to address student demand for access to higher education with
market driven academic programs. In addition, the innovation of the knowledge economy has
seen many universities developing into organizations with professional management experts such
as financial and investment planning, human resource management and management of
information systems just like business organizations. In the current university, vice-chancellors
are regarded as CEOs with executive roles and decision making whereas, new administrative
officers and financial management transformations have led to reduction of administrative
hierarchies and easy of decision making to ensure quick responses to global challenges (Blunetti,
2020).

The global internationalization of higher education is another source of challenges to

higher education globally, where the role of government and universities have an expansive
ethical responsibility to address to the continuous global change in the provision of higher
education to the eligible members of the society. These modern changes in higher education
requires the university leaders to change the mindset of the staff and align their thinking to major
issues and future direction of the institutions (G. Davis, University of London). Challenges
facing universities in the UK can be further analyzed using institution’s operational efficiency.
According to Johnes (2006), institutions with higher operational efficiency have sound
mechanisms and strategic techniques of addressing the challenges and remain equally
competitive in terms of performance of their mandate.
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 6

The advent of the internet innovations has created many approaches to learning which are
evidenced in many types of e-learning (Shawar, Al-sadi & Sarie, 2007). The e-learning
approaches are fast phasing out traditional learning methods giving students an opportunity to
interact with their learning through web technologies supplementing face to face learning.
According to Asabere & Enguaah (2012), e-learning is a system that uses the internet technology
to deliver in formation to learners with interactions through computer interfaces. Before adopting
the e-learning technology, students must be involved first and accept to avoid system failure in
the event students reject its implementation. E-learning system was first introduced in Arab Open
University in Jordan according to Abbad et al. (2009). Since then Arab Open University has
extended collaboration to United Kingdom Open University which performs a critical role in e-
learning development in the UK. The primary intention of adopting the use of online learning
system by universities and other institution of higher learning is to improve learning experience
(Al-Adwan & Smedley (2012) and also supplement the traditional face to face learning, distance
learning (Concannon, Flynn & Campbell, 2005).

Research conducted by Moule, Ward & Lockyer (2011) on issues with e-learning in
nursing and health education in the UK reveals that, e-learning is at the core of educational
delivery in the field of nursing and health sciences. It involves creation an online management
system that facilitate student admission applications, monitoring admission and recruitment
progress and keep track of student class attendance. Institutions that offer e-learning platforms
provide access to e-learning resources including online library through a portal interface that
enable user access through a password and a username. E-learning provides a more teacher-
centered mechanism whereby the learner takes a more central role in accessing knowledge
provided by the tutor instead of taking an active role in generating knowledge and
comprehending. Examples of e-learning media include DVDS, CD-ROMS and online videos.
(Crook and Barrowcliff, 2001).

Over the last seven years, e-learning interactive technologies have been under
development with online blogs, and Wikis being the most used e-learning tools. Mobile
communication tools were not commonly used since they were only used to send short text
messages to nursing students (Young et al., 2010). Higher learning institutions mainly relied on
local staff ICT experts to implement the e-learning system. The ICT gurus were individuals with
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 7

passion for IT support and possessed a mix technological skills and expertise. They facilitated
institutional adoption of the e-learning methodologies. Technological specialists also played a
major role in the implementation of the online technology since many tutors lacked the
technological expertise to undertake e-learning. Another factor that facilitated the adoption of the
online learning system was the students’ high demand for technology and desire to offer high
quality education to part-time students and those off campus, including international students
who didn’t have face to face access to learning (Marsh et al., 2008).

Despite the great optimism and desire by many students who expresses the demand for
technologically oriented-higher education approach, the e-learning system faced major
drawbacks which include; unavailability of resources, poor implementation approach of the
system that led to staff applications for training time and finances. These limited the scope of
development and affected and extensive integration of the system. Besides, some of the medical
students developed reluctance to the use of online learning system citing lack of IT skills (Boyle
and Wambach, 2001). Researchers suggest that for institutions to effectively implement the e-
learning platform, they must first train their staff and students to acquire critical IT skills
necessary to interact with the e-learning portal. They must ensure also that the students have
access to computing devices. Moreover, implementation of the system depends on the
availability of technological experts whose expertise is needed throughout the usage of the
system, hence institutions must ensure they have such professionals in order to succeed in
installing and using of the ne-learning technology.

A research by the NHS (2006) shows that another threat to e-learning implementation
was the provision of computers in the medical environment. Despite the availability of
computers in the National Health Service (NHS), that sought to increase patient care support, the
computers were not adequate. Whenever computers and access to the internet were provided,
competing user needs and priorities overweighed prevented students from accessing the
computers for e-learning purposes (Gerrish et al., 2006). Furthermore, resourcing issues limited
the scope of online system implementation and usage in teaching to support undergraduate
students and staff who were on the verge of completing their professional development
programs. In order to address the above mentioned challenges, institutions of higher learning are
advised to involve students in online personal development planning tools (Haig et al., 2007).
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 8

Advancement in artificial intelligence has opened a new window of opportunities and

possibilities that would basically alter the internal governance style and structure of the
institutions of higher learning. A superficial definition attributed to artificial intelligence defines
it as computing systems with the ability to engage in human-like processes such as learning,
adapting, synthesizing, self-correction and use of data to perform complex processing tasks. The
high processing speed of the artificial intelligence has an immense impact on the nature of
services offered in higher education circles (Deakin University, 2014). Artificial intelligence is
changing the approach and quality of service and the response time of requests and composition
of workforce within the universities that use artificial intelligence. Employees serving at
customer care desk risk losing their jobs because a supercomputer is able to provide quick
response at any given hour. Some Artificial Intelligence tools have the ability to learn patterns
and make forecasts and predictions and machine learning is also an artificial intelligence in
waiting (Gibney, 2017).

Artificial intelligence has the ability to fundamentally change the administrative services
within the university. Solutions offered by artificial intelligence are similar to those that can be
automated. The ability of supercomputers to detect humor and sarcasm is evidenced by various
attempts that are reduced to simple solutions based on algorithms that can search factors like
repeated use of punctuation marks, use of capital letters (Tsur et al. 2010). Solutions for human-
artificial intelligence and collaboration have been developed to help people with disabilities.
They can further be used by educators to apply them in education to aid learners and tutors to
engage in a more interactive manner (Mitcham, 2005). Invention of artificial intelligence is
likely to have a profound impact on universities. This is because, there are endless financial
pressures on universities with regard to the large number of students making enrollment for
higher education. The international student admission into international universities will be the
greatest reason for adopting artificial intelligence. The number of academic workers and their
tenure is waiting for replacement with intelligence systems and machines (Grove, 2015).

Besides, numerous jobs that depend on teaching staff in higher education will be taken
over by IA systems based on complex algorithms developed by programmers. Furthermore,
artificial intelligence provides the capacity to guide learning, track participation and student
engagement with the content hence customizing the absorption of information and materials into
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 9

the module in accordance with the needs of the learners and provides feedback and motivation
messages to learners. An embedded technology in IA called teacherbots would be an alternative
to traditional teaching staff (Mason et al. 2016).

A study carried out by Eser, Isin, & Tolon, M. (2011) on neurologists and marketing
professionals shows that, neuromarketing uses the latest invention in brain scanning to learn
about the mental activities that define customer purchase decisions. The study further reveals that
neuromarketing is does not manipulating a customer to buy unnecessary goods and services from
a seller but rather it is a process that is motivated by interest and participation, knowledge and
awareness and ethical requirement. These are three factors are regarded as the most significant
aspects of neuromarketing. Research by Eser, Isin and tolon (2011) reveals that neurologists and
marketing gurus have a divergent opinion about the nature of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing
is described as the application of neuroimaging techniques to understand human behavior with
respect to markets and marketing exchange of goods and services (Lee, Broderick, &
Chamberlain, 2007). Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience techniques to marketing
stimuli (Taher, 2006).

Neuromarketing has been perceived as useful research tool that provides modern business
marketers with motivation into the human thinking processes and how it works in different
scenarios (Taher, 2006). Research findings by Lee, Broderick, & Chamberlai (, 2007) further
reveal that academicians have a low perception about neuromarketing compared to neurologists
and other professionals. This is because neurologists are more familiar with the application of
neuroimaging techniques than professionals from the field of academia. Academicians may not
support the use of neuromarketing because they usually take into account the technicalities
involved in neuroimaging including lack of their knowledge on how neuroimaging works, costs
involved and participant attitude may not be encouraging. However, this problem may be
overcome by the cooperation between academicians and neurologists so that neurologists can
explain the functioning of neuroimaging to bring about neuromarketing.
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 10

The collaboration between academicians and neurologists may help academicians

understand how to apply neuromarketing principles and techniques to expand their market
segment because academic institutions are poised to learn and understand the needs of their
customers who are the students and know how to serve them better. Academic institutions
further would be able to understand the reasons why students prefer to seek admission in some in
institutions and not others. This way academic institutions especially learning institutions would
re-engineer their processes to meet the demand of the market and address the key issues
underlying the quality of goods and services that offer. Therefore, neuromarketing would better
place the academic institutions at a better position of gaining an edge over their competitors
despite the cost involved and the unforeseen behavior of students during the interviews.

One of the biggest challenges of conducting neuromarketing is about protection of

various individuals whom may be harmed in the processes of doing neuromarketing and
protection of consumer independence based on the results obtained from neuromarketing
experiments (Murphy, Iles & Reiner, 2008). This concerns puts the ethical conduct of
neuromarketing in question because it cannot answer the basic questions emanating from its
credibility. Further issues arise as to the extent to which marketing experts, and advertising
personnel be allowed to intrude into the privacy of consumers and how they will use the results
from testing neuroimages to design an improvement strategy that would correspond to the needs
of the consumers (Lewis, 200). In addition, schools may not implement neuromarketing strategy
as a way of looking into the demands of students because it may lead to student unrest and
mainly because learning institutions are not profit-making enterprises unless they are private
institutions.

Advancement in cognitive science is gaining popularity in the recent past among

education stakeholders around the world. There is a growing demand for information regarding
the functioning of the brain. On the other hand, teachers are trying to gather information
available on the same to help their students understand the whole discipline of neuroscience. In
the neuroscience laboratories, scientists are carrying out research to find out the scientific
principles underlying the neurocognitive development of crucial skills taught by tutors such as
numeracy and literacy skills. In the past a conference was held in Cambridge university in the
UK, at the center for neuroscience whereby tutors reported to have received mails encouraging
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 11

them to attend seminars on brain-based learning and the same has been reported in other
countries around the world (Goswami, 2006). Neuroscience helps teachers and parents to
identify children’s learning styles which may either be visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. And then
this identification helps to group learners based on a badge labelled as either V, A or K. the
importance of this classification of students is to enable the teacher understand their learning
capabilities and plan for their lessons. Learners are also able to be identified as either left handed
or right handed using the science of neuroscience. This is important also because the left brain
dominates in the processing of language, logic, mathematical formulae, numbers, sequence
analysis and unrelated factual information. Whereas, the right brain dominates in the processing
of patterns, rhythm, images and pictures and daydreaming (Goswami, 2006).

A research conducted by Goswami (2006) helps uncover the underlying importance of

neuroscience in academic institutions whereby, it helps teachers to understand with scientific
advice that their classes should comprise of a balance between left-hand and right-handed
students automatically to avoid scenarios of imbalance between learner preference and learning
experience. Neuroscience has taught the world of science and society two main lessons; one is an
immense goodwill and optimism that tutors and educators have for neuroscience., teachers have
the motivation and positive attitude towards neuroscience and they feel given the opportunity
they can make significant discoveries about human learning and they are ready to contribute
positively to the scientific discoveries and suggestion, two is the

In conclusion, private students in the UK learn virtually through distant learning and e-
learning. Both methods have supplemented traditional face to face interaction between the tutor
and the students. Challenges with e-learning include lack of internet resources and limited
interaction between the tutor and the learner raising quality concerns for the distant learners.
Artificial intelligence has the ability to fundamentally change the administrative services within
the university. Solutions offered by artificial intelligence are similar to those that are provided by
systems that have machine learning capabilities that and are likely to replace most of the
academic employees in universities in the future. Neuromarketing is described as the application
of neuroimaging techniques to understand human behavior with respect to markets and
marketing exchange of goods and services. Neuromarketing helps corporations and other
institutions to assess customer behaviors regarding choice of products and the selling company.
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 12

The greatest obstacles of neuromarketing are the ethical concerns that arise due to the nature of
the manner in which its conducted.
 UK higher education challenges and solutions 13

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