NUS was responding to a new report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)’s sub-committee for Teaching, Quality and the Student Experience, which describes the information currently available to applicants as “often hard to find” and “difficult to compare”.
The report recommended that a review is needed of publicly available information provided by higher education institutions (HEIs) to meet the needs of students, parents, advisers and professionals
An NUS / HSBC survey, also published today, has found that while two thirds of students use university publications in order to make choices, they often view them as being “sales brochures, presenting only the positive side of an institution”.
NUS Vice President for Higher Education, Aaron Porter, said:
“Institutions should be more strictly held to account for the information they provide to applicants. We would like to see a more structured system, whereby applicants can compare the genuine merits of different courses and institutions much more easily.
“It is in everyone’s interest that students end up choosing the course and institution that best suits their skills, potential and interest. We need to move away from the idea that universities are competing with each other to produce the most attractive, glossy brochure, and start offering applicants some proper, comparable information.”
The survey also reveals that students at Russell Group or 1994 Group universities are much more likely to cite the academic reputation of the institution as a reason for their decision to apply, whereas students at Million+ or Alliance universities are more likely to have based their decision on a specific course or on the institution being close to home.
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