Competition Plan for Universities

So the Universities White Paper has been published. Words like “Competition” on news feeds instantly make me sit up and take notice. As my Year 12s embark on their odyssey into market structures and ever more close encounters with efficiency, I think this might just be the case study of the moment. After all its subject matter is foremost in many of their minds.

These articles here from the BBC provide some useful stimulus.

University shake up calls for more competition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13939525

Private Universities to Expand

Students to get Best Buy Facts and Consumer Rights

Who is Charging What?

So what do we have? A consideration of the overall market for university education, the nature of provision (private or state-aided), partial removal of caps on numbers of students (quotas), increased information for consumers and will this work any better than the utility markets?

Analysing the impact of the issues on the market should prove fruitful. The link to who is charging what demonstrates the large number of institutions charging the full £9,000 a year for courses. What does this tell us about the market and can we use Game Theory to investigate the pricing strategies most have chosen? Finally, there is lots of talk of deregulation, how might this affect the market in years to come? If there is a price ceiling is deregulation a myth? How much flexibility do Universities actually have in the short run to expand their courses?

There are some interesting points raise in Mike Baker’s article on the cost of US University courses over past 25 years. Is this what David Willetts has in mind?

I am pretty sure that I am just scratching the surface of the possible applications to the A2 Microeconomics course, I look forward to seeing what my soon to be Year 13s make of it.

Just to update here are a couple of extra links that might prove helpful:

Threat of Opportunity

Is the student customer always right?