How innovative technological support can help tertiary education sector cope with funding cuts and shore up student numbers

As competition replaces collaboration in the higher education arena universities must fight to retain and attract students 

Mohamad Djahanbakhsh, Group Chief Executive of Scientia Resource Management and Cyon Knowledge Computing Pty Ltd http://www.cyon.com.au/, providers of intelligent scheduling solutions for universities and colleges worldwide, looks at how the tertiary education sector in Australia and New Zealand is coping as funding cuts and uncapped student numbers force Higher Education (HE) institutions to compete like never before. Are third party partnerships with technology service providers the answer? Mohamad explores the options...

The challenge facing universities in the current economic climate

Unprecedented challenges have faced the Australian and New Zealand higher and further education sector recently. Foremost among these have been significant reductions in funding – most recently cuts totalling AUD12bn have been made across Australia.

In addition to this, as the cap on the number of government-funded places has been removed, universities now find themselves competing with one another to attract students, where traditionally they would have collaborated.  For example, in Australia individual institutions have formed various alliances according to their histories and visions, including the Group of Eight (Go8), the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) and the Australian Technology Network (ATN). While the different strengths of each university play an important part in these alliances, those same strengths also enable each university to compete against one another, creating quite a complex situation.

Although potential numbers are uncapped, student retention and acquisition is actually getting harder. The main reason for this is the rising Australian dollar - as currencies have been driven higher, it has become cheaper for students to study in countries such as the UK and the USA, which had traditionally been viewed as more expensive options.

Another factor has been the significant reduction in international students coming into Australia to study as a result of visa restrictions introduced in 2009.

A further international element of competition has arisen following technological innovation in education delivery methods. In particular, massive open online courses (MOOCs) delivered via the internet from foreign universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While economic pressures have been less severe in New Zealand, the country has had its own difficulties to cope with – specifically and sadly the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011, which took a massive toll on the sector. This affected several institutions, most specifically the local University of Canterbury which saw enrolments half almost immediately and has seen a permanent impact on student numbers since.

Impact on institutional growth

The biggest impact of the funding cuts has been on resources, particularly across most of the Australian higher education sector, which has experienced reduced availability of services and support across the board.

There has been a similar reduction in, and in some cases a complete lack of, investment. This reduced funding means that institutions now have to cope with greatly reduced, and sometimes non-existent, operational and capital expenditure. As a consequence resource renewal, updates and maintenance have all been adversely affected.

The result of this reduction in investment is that institutions have to maximise the value harvested from their existing assets – ‘sweating the assets’ as it’s sometimes known. A degradation of assets – be they physical or intangible – will always affect the quality of the education on offer, as well as the overall experience of an institution’s students.

A short term goal of institutional survival can have an adverse impact on the mid to long term goal of growth and prosperity. This may start to create a vicious circle. 

Again the international picture plays its part as what happens in other countries around the world impacts on the local situation – compare and contrast reduced funding in Australia and New Zealand with China’s spend on education now approaching 20 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Students demand more from their university experience

There’s a new consideration for universities when they look at ways of attracting and retaining students – student voice is now a huge factor in education. No longer passive receivers of information, fee-paying students have the ability to influence their university learning experience – essentially voting with their feet and also vocalising through student satisfaction surveys. If overall student retention takes a hit, then attracting new students in the first place becomes an almost impossible task.

Top quality resources are obviously important for students and therefore a real issue for universities, who due to cuts, are struggling to provide and maintain these to the required standard.

The well respected Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and other annual world university rankings may also influence where students choose to study. This annual world university ranking, published by British magazine THE, uses citation database information supplied by Thomson Reuters and includes both the overall and subject rankings. Universities in the USA and UK dominate the top 20. The highest ranking university in Australia is Melbourne at number 28, while for New Zealand it is Auckland at 161. There are only five other Australian universities in the top 100 (and only one other in the top 50) and no other New Zealand universities in the top 200.

Using timetabling technology to optimise limited resources

This is where timetabling can have an impact, more specifically the quality of timetables produced. With limited resources available, optimum utilisation of those resources becomes crucial.

The most recent ‘Student Experience’ survey conducted by Unitec, Auckland, placed flexible timetabling as the student’s most important consideration when choosing a university - second only to location and proving more important to them than course fees.

As well as helping to attract students, a combination of good timetabling and space planning can benefit the institution itself as it attempts to deal with often contradictory requirements. For example, a student may prefer classes on a Monday, while staff prefer Wednesday, yet the space available is best on Tuesday – only the most sophisticated scheduling systems can provide a service that considers everyone’s personal and life style requirements. 

Some institutions report that technological solutions have helped them improve optimisation of their resources by at least 10-30%.  As major institutions such as The University of Auckland face tightening resource availability, improved resource usage and overall utilisation has become a more crucial strategic target.

Space issues are not necessarily always the primary consideration.  Flinders University is using resource optimisation technology to overcome perceived wastage of resources so that they can achieve better delivery of programmes.   Flexibility in course delivery is one of the fundamental keys to institutions thriving in this new era.

Benefits of third party relationships as a solution

Partnerships with vendors can prove crucial in overcoming many of the issues and challenges facing higher educational institutions today, helping them to maintain a competitive advantage. Vendors can offer institutions a variety of safe and secure opportunities to improve overall success by, for example, reducing costs, performing functions on the institution’s behalf and providing products and services that the institution does not offer.

By undertaking joint research and development projects with third parties, universities across the Asia Pacific region have been able to make significant improvements and savings, helping them drive closer to achieving their strategic goals. Such projects, involving innovative technology, and in some cases adaptations of the technology, have helped universities identify proven solutions to many recent challenges.

Targeting and acquisition of students can also be improved by technology – end to end technological solutions have helped HE institutions increase student retention by between 20-40 per cent.  A recent case study by The Islamic University of Bandung documents a saving of AUD5million over the coming five years by way of optimizing their resources, and hence allowing additional students to study in places created by this new efficiency. These savings have also resulted in an improved overall student experience at the university.

By engaging with prospective students from the earliest opportunity, through multiple social media channels, universities can capture student’s interest and begin a dialogue to enthuse them about the institution and its offering of a quality educational experience.

The combination of timetabling efficiency, both from the students’ perspective, and for their university via cost savings, can be a winning one.

Conclusion

Whilst universities throughout the Asia Pacific region grapple with innovative and cost effective methods of organizing themselves to attract healthy student numbers, innovation is going to remain central to their success.

Forward-thinking education institutions which have embraced the idea of joint solution development with third party vendors are seeing the benefits.

The truth is that in future the most successful universities will be those using technological solutions to ensure optimal delivery of programmes and courses and thereby enhance the experience of their students. 

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