Company Offering Its Own College Degree
Pearson will charge £6,500 a year for a basic three-year university course. Students are expected to be eligible for government loans to cover the fees and Pearson will also be offering “performance scholarships” to help its brightest recruits pay their fees.
Ministers believe a vibrant private sector charging less than the maximum £9,000 fee for their courses could put pressure on existing universities to reduce their fees.
Here’s something interesting from The Independent: Pearson, a FTSE 100 company (meaning part of the London Stock Exchange) and the owner of Penguin and The Financial Times, has decided to recruit 100 undergraduates and start a three-year business degree course, and start handing out its own degrees. David Willets, a member of the British parliament and the Minister of State for Universities and Science, is encouraging more companies in the private sector to start their own degree programs.
In the U.S., private, for-profit colleges are pretty terrible, but this appears to be something entirely different (based on the comparatively affordable price tag alone, and the fact the the government is using this to pressure existing universities to lower fees), and if the program can be designed to transition students from the degree program to start working for companies like Penguin and The Financial Times, even better. I’ll be very interested in seeing how this unfolds.
If Government wanted universities to charge lower fees, then perhaps they shouldn’t have increased the cap on fees to £9,000 a year, slashed funding and forced unis to charge the maximum amount. This isn’t the way to improve education.
@cmcm What’s interesting to me is that for-profit colleges in the U.S. run by private companies recruit thousands of students, force them to take out loans, and spit out half who leave without a degree in four months. The degree program by Pearson is limiting enrollment to 100 students, and £6,500 isn’t cheap, but it’s way better than what the for-profits are doing here. I’m interested in seeing how Pearson handles this.
@Mike Dang Yeah, I guess the thing is it’s just SO hard to compare because the history of and attitude towards university education is just SO different here. I mean, until 1998 there were no tuition fees at all and they’re still (fully? I think? I don’t know) government financed.
I hope they offer phone hacking, at least at an elective.