For universities to improve ‘customer experience’, they must reform internal processes to improve communication, convenience and security

‘Universities don’t think of themselves as businesses, but it’s increasingly clear students think of themselves as customers’

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According to a recent Hepi-HEA survey, a mere 37 per cent of British students believe their university experience represents good value for money. There’s always a temptation to blame government austerity, declining course and teaching quality, or any of the other ‘usual suspects’. But in this case, it’s worth resisting.

Government policy and academic standards are obviously important; 53 per cent of students perceived their course to represent good value for money in 2012, but those surveyed weren’t subject to the tripled £9,000 a year fees. That we have seen a 16 per cent decline four years on is surely no coincidence.

Over two-thirds of complaints related to academic issues, many of which deserve attention: 54 per cent of students want feedback on coursework within one to two weeks, but less than a third actually get it within this timeframe. Only 16 per cent of students believe teaching staff demonstrate original, creative methods, and only 18 per cent demonstrate they improve their educational skills on a regular basis. This is surely cause for concern.

But for all the severity of government cuts - and for all the supposed academic deficiencies - students have other reasons to doubt their university experience provides good value for money. As 85 per cent describe themselves as satisfied with their course, it’s fair to say many of the reasons have nothing to do with the classroom - so what exactly are they?

Depending on who you ask, universities don’t think of themselves as businesses, but it’s increasingly clear to all that students think of themselves as customers.

Again, it’s possible to blame this development on tuition fee increases, but it can be more accurately described as a by-product of tuition fees as a concept. Pre-September 1998 - when they were first introduced - it was much easier to buy into lofty rhetoric about high-minded pursuits, scholarly rigor, and active participation in a vibrant intellectual community, because all you had to pay were low-interest maintenance loans. Even if the support team was useless, the lecturers inattentive, and the amenities unsatisfactory, they, at least, came at little or no cost to students.

For almost twenty years now, attending university has been a transactional experience. If students are unhappy with their end of the bargain, it’s because they expect a level of ‘customer service’ that corresponds with their level of investment and potential risk.

Tuition is only one part of this equation. The ‘university experience’ marketed to undergraduates is, amongst other things, a complex alchemy of academics, support, social activities, and technology. Value for money is about all of these things - and more.

WPM Education recently conducted a higher education survey of its own in collaboration with YouGov. The findings indicated a diversity of factors driving student satisfaction, some obvious, some less so. It won’t come as any surprise, for example, that some 79 per cent of students consider access to academic support either “important” or “very important,” nor that 67 per cent believe the same of financial support.

However, there’s also a clear belief university administrations have a duty to communicate simply and openly with enrollees: 75 per cent believe quality of communication on campus is “important” or “very important”, while 73 per cent think the same of access to information on campus.

Concerns about systems and processes were another recurring theme: half of students maintain ease of payments for services such as tuition and field trips is crucial, while 71 per cent value access to sufficient administrative support.

Seven out of ten of those surveyed consider compliance with data security legislation imperative - perhaps unsurprisingly, in an age where information is both valuable and vulnerable. The report also suggested vanity metrics such as league table rankings - which 31 per cent believe to be the most influential on their choice of university - were less significant than factors such as impact on employability, which was favoured by 36 per cent.

Again, none of this is meant to downplay the importance of solid tuition - simply to illustrate that “value for money” is a concept informed by many different variables. There are a number of reasons why students might feel like they’re not getting what they paid for, and all of them could have an impact on universities’ ability to recruit in the long-term.

While they can’t do much about tuition fees - nor will they be especially inclined to - if universities are to improve the overall customer experience and guarantee the continued recruitment and retention of students, they must think about how they can reform their internal processes to improve communication, convenience, and security.

Holger Bollmann is director at WPM Education