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Is Higher Education value for money?

By on May 16, 2013 in Academic Libraries, Public Policy, Research, Society, Trends and Statistics

The UK’s Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the consumer organisation Which? has published the 2013 survey of the student academic experience at English universities.

The first survey, in 2006, coincided with the introduction of HE fees and the surveys aim to discover whether students are getting a ‘better’ academic experience in the light of increased fees.  The report concludes that there is “no apparent relationship between the fees students are being charged and what they receive”.

Background

  • Although students are paying more, universities themselves are not receiving additional money – student fees are simply filling the gap left by reduced centralised government funding.
  • Student fees trebled in 2012.  The average fee charged is now £8500+
  • Contact with academic staff has hardly increased, despite higher fees
  • Diverse student experience in terms of teaching format and contact hours and the perceived gap in helpful upfront information to help students choose the appropriate course

Key findings – choosing the right university

  • 32% of students might have chosen a different course if they had known what they know now
  • 21% of students thought information provided by their institutions was ‘vague’; 9% thought it was ‘misleading’
  • 29% of first year students think their course is ‘poor value for money’

Student workload

  • The average weekly workload is 30 hours per week
  • Women and mature students study more than men
  • 14% of the 10,000 students who said their course was worse than they expected said the course had not been challenging enough

Contact time

  • No significant change in the amount of contact time or proportion of small group teaching
  • Students paying less than £8000 received same amount of contact time as those paying more
  • Other factors important to students include their satisfaction with the quality of teaching as well as they amount of face-to-face time
  • Significant differences in contact time between subject areas and institutions
  • Students recognise the importance of small group teaching and the amount they receive contributes to their satisfaction levels
  • Contact time has risen by just 20 minutes per week since 2006

The report is available for free download from the HEPI website.

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The (Australian) university of the future

By on October 26, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Post, Trends and Statistics

The Australian university of the future

In a report by Ernst and Young, Australian universities are described as being on ‘the cusp of profound change’, with current models unlikely to remain viable over the next decade and beyond.

The report discusses five ‘mega-trend’ drivers of change in the academic sector:

  • Democratisation of knowledge – access and availability of knowledge growing globally (especially in emerging markets)
  • Fierce competition for both students and funding
  • Digital technologies transforming the way people access education
  • Globalisation – opportunities for global mobility and partnerships and the emergence of global, elite university brands
  • Integration with industry – driving innovation and research via deeper relationships and new partnerships

If they are to be successful, universities need to respond by creating new lean business models (which involves reducing the ratio of ‘support staff’) and becoming more ‘corporate’ in the way they work.  This may include the streamlining of the number of subjects/programmes offered and taking decisions to focus on specific sectors.

New business models

The report describes three potential business models (while acknowledging that there are other models open to universities):

  • Streamlined status quo –in which established universities maintain broad-based teaching and research but transform the way in which these services are delivered and administrated
  • Niche dominators targeting customer segments and refining their services
  • Transformers  - new entrants, new market spaces, new sources, new partnerships

Research

The report also explores future scenarios for research within university

  • Research will  become concentrated on universities that can demonstrate research impact and excellence
  • Smaller universities will focus on narrower range of research programmes, and build links with partners

The report is free to download.

10,000 students have their say on textbooks

By on September 13, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Content, eBooks and eReaders, Post, STM Publishing

This summer the e-textbook publisher Bookboon.com surveyed nearly 10,000 students in Europe and the US about their use of printed and e-textbooks.  (The results for the Netherlands, the UK and the US have just been released – further results for Denmark and Germany will follow).

The findings are of interest to publishers, librarians and academic staff – and highlight some differences between students in the US and the rest of the world.

The results show that students in the US are further down the line in accepting and using e-textbooks.  Price continues to be a barrier for students everywhere while another issue that drives purchasing decisions is whether only a portion of the textbook is required reading.

Key findings US

  • More than 75% of students do not buy required textbooks.
  • Over 90% of students feel textbooks are too expensive
  • 58% prefer digital textbooks
  • On average US students spend $655 per year on textbooks
  • The majority are buying second hand books

 Key findings Europe

  • In Germany, Netherlands and the UK only 30-40/% prefer digital textbooks
  • In the UK 83% do not buy required textbooks
  • 95% say textbooks are too expensive

You can read more about the survey, and see some interesting infographics, on the Bookboon blog.

New teaching and new learning – universities in 2020

By on August 22, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Mobile Devices, Post, Public Policy

Higher education is as susceptible to technology disruption as any other information-centric business.  Communications technologies mean that knowledge transfer need no longer be tethered to a physical university campus.  Simultaneously steadily increasing fees mean that customers are questioning the value for money and quality of higher education while the current economic climate means that a college degree is no longer a guarantee of future employability.  New competitors are entering the market – and not just in the US.

The Pew Research Center has released a report on technology disruption and higher education.  The research presented two future (2020) scenarios to which selected invited experts and members of their trusted networks responded.

Scenario one presented a future in which higher education was not significantly different to today, although some new technologies such as teleconferencing, personal wireless smart devices were more widely adopted (39% broadly agreed with this scenario).

Scenario two presented a future in which higher education was transformed.  This transformed landscape includes a significant move to individualised learning activities;  hybrid classes; mass adoption of teleconferencing to leverage expert resources (60% of respondents broadly agreed with this scenario).

Several key themes are discussed in the report including the need for universities to be highly adaptive and innovative if they are to thrive. Several respondents referred to the slow rate of change in the current system.

New teaching

  • less demand for traditional lecture based courses
  • increased demand for individualised learning
  • increasingly connected student body
  • more hybrid education – a blending of online and offline
  • improved virtual environments
  • face to face for ‘the privileged few’
  • increased focus on employability
  • a move to competency based education

Technological innovation

  • web based delivery to meet growing global demands and provide value for money
  • more ‘tele-education’
  • distance learning integrated with social networking

New business models

  • structural changes to coincide with retirement of baby boomers
  • increasing corporate involvement
  • open research
  • push for value for money by consumers

New learning

  • collaborative education and peer to peer learning
  • a focus on how to learn and lifelong learning and self education
  • and, of particular interest to information professionals, an examination of how tools can enhance students critical thinking and information skills acquisition skills

The report is available, free of charge, from the Pew website.

 

Top priorities for European librarians

By on August 15, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Public Libraries, Trends and Statistics

A report published by OCLC describes the changing priorities of librarians in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK.  This is the first time that an OCLC survey has focused solely on European librarians.

The report explores some of the changes that librarians are anticipating in the way their libraries will be used.  A separate report is available for each of the participating countries.

Top priorities for academic libraries

Germany

  • Licensed electronic collections/e-books
  • Future of higher education and the library’s role
  • Visibility of the library’s collection

Netherlands

  • Licensed electronic collections/e-books
  • Digitisation projects
  • Visibility of the library’s collection

UK

  • Licensed electronic collections/e-books
  • Future of higher education and the library’s role
  • Facilities issues

Top priorities for public libraries

Germany

  • Addressing literacy
  • Access by mobile devices
  • Access to new technology for the library

The Netherlands

  • Visibility of the library’s collection
  • Forming community partnerships
  • Demonstrating library value to local government

 The UK

  • Demonstrating library value to funders
  • Forming community partnerships
  • Addressing literacy

The reports are free to download and feature interesting visualisations and figures.

 

Measuring the value of e-books in academic libraries

By on July 4, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Content, eBooks and eReaders

How should academic libraries determine the value of e-books?  A Springer White Paper (Scholarly eBooks: Understanding the Return on Investment for Libraries) explores why libraries should measure value – and how they should go about it.

RoI is a complex issue and different institutions are using a range of measures.  Factors that may be considered include:

  • Effect on research output
  • Time saved by library staff and researchers
  • Space saving
  • Cost saved on content acquisition
  • Usage figures per e-book (vs usage figures per print copy)
  • Use of e-resources can lead to increased number of citations – which can influence grant applications

Key lessons for librarians

  • Stay current with relevant RoI research – and be ready to refer to it in discussions with University administrators
  • Partnering with publishers to promote e-resources encourages efficient searching and usage
  • Enhanced discoverability of e-books encourages multi-disciplinary work
  • Usage statistics vary between publishers
  • Additionally, e-book users tend to read chapters not whole books, but most usage statistics do not reflect this
  • Libraries will continue to have to prove value for money – librarians need to focus on having comprehensive RoI data available.
  • Learn from the lessons of e-journals – consensus about usage figures will emerge, just as they did for e-journals
  • There is much work to be done in collaboration with publishers – including developing usage measures and deepening understanding of user needs

The White Paper is available (free of charge) at www.springer.com/eBooks

Students – leading the way or falling behind?

By on June 7, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Digital Publishing, E-books, eBooks and eReaders, Mobile Devices

Two interesting pieces of research look at how students are interacting with digital information and e-resources.

A recent CourseSmart survey finds that more students are bringing laptops to class than a print textbook.  Only 5% said that a print textbook was the most important item in their bag.  90% of respondents said that the use of digital devices, e-readers etc helps them to save study time.  68% estimate they are saving at least two hours a day by using technology.

On average, students are using three devices per day – and 40% of them claim they can’t go for more than ten minutes without using some form of digital technology.

Easybib, a service which creates citations, has analysed the websites that students use most frequently – and discovered that four of the top ten are user generated sites including YouTube, Answers.com and Wikipedia.

Easybib has created an infographic (available here) which shows the key role of librarians in helping develop students information literacy skills.  The company will also work with the American Library Association to spread awareness of the importance of digital/information literacy.

Research libraries in the 21st century

By on May 22, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Research

Although the purpose of academic and research library collections remains the same – to support the creation and dissemination of new knowledge – the nature of collections is moving away from ‘local’ to collaborative and multi-institutional.  New forms of scholarship are transforming user expectations for broad, barrier free collection discovery and access.  Libraries must transform their approaches to meet new user demands.

The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) briefing paper for research library leaders sets out to draw a ‘big picture’ of the future of research library collections.

Key findings – the research environment

  • Publishing output will continue to increase
  • Global/interdisciplinary research will grow
  • The value of personal collections will increase
  • Open content will proliferate

Key findings – the future of libraries

  • Researchers must understand intellectual property frameworks – libraries can provide support
  • Other new roles for research libraries include: digital preservation and data management experts and as supporters helping researchers collaborate even more
  • There will also be roles to support the open content movement, for example as publishers as well as IP rights advisers
  • Metrics about value to the research community must be improved
  • Research libraries will need to maintain linked, digital content in order to enable discovery and future use.
  • Resources will increasingly be allocated to the development of tools, an activity well suited to inter-institutional collaboration.
  • There will continue to be moves to providing just in time services rather than building just in case collections

The report is available to download from the ARL website.

Student attitudes to e-books

By on March 28, 2012 in Academic Libraries, E-books, Post

What is the truth behind student attitudes to e-and print books?  A report first published last year (by eTextbook provider CourseSmart in collaboration with Wakefield Research) and receiving some attention recently in a number of blogs, suggests that students are ‘technologically dependent’.

85% of the 500 students surveyed reported that technology saved them time when studying.  63% of students who owned a device said they had read an e-text book this way at least once – and 46% said they would be more likely to complete their reading if it was in a digital format.  61% said that e-books are easier to search.

A more recent study in the US (by the Pearson Foundation and Harris Interactive) found that tablet ownership amongst students was rising dramatically.  The survey found that more students are reading digital texts and that 63% of college students believe that tablets will replace textbooks within five years.

Meanwhile, a BML survey of UK undergraduates also found that the majority of students are now using e-books and online journal use is increasing but that printed books remain the most used resource.  48% of students are using the library to access printed books and 38% are borrowing e-books from the library.  Only 9% are buying e-books and price remains an issue.

The Cost of Knowledge versus Elsevier

By on February 19, 2012 in Academic Libraries, Information and Publishing Industry, Open Access, Post, STM Publishing

There has been much coverage recently of the website petition launched by Cambridge mathematician Timothy Gowers, winner of the Fields medal, to encourage academics to publicly declare that they will not support any Elsevier journal. According to The Cost of Knowledge website, more than 6000 academics have currently signed up. Robin Peek takes an in-depth look at the issues in this ITI Newsbreak.