Through a SWOT analysis and following the order of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, I will begin to conduct the analysis by identifying and listing the strengths of my project (in no particular order).
Audience size
There is a significant population size for my project, which can be, in short divided into the stakeholder categories of higher education home students, international students, higher education institutions (HEIs), and those looking for freelancers, all in the UK.
- Home students: In the year 2019-2020 there were 2.53 million students in HE. (HESA, 2021)
- International students: In the year 2020, 20.7% of the total student population was an int. student, amounting to nearly 539,000 int. students (UUKi, 2021).
- Higher education institutions: In the year 2018/19, there were 165 HEIs in the UK that reported data to HESA plus the University of Buckingham.
- Freelance Employers: According to yourMoney, the demand for freelancers in the UK has increased by nearly 50% between 2003 and 2017. In addition, 60% of businesses said that they were planning to increase their usage of freelancers in 2021, a 10% increase from 2020.
Support from student campaign experts
When I decided to run a campaign as the main intervention for my project I began reaching out to campaign experts, and I was lucky to be introduced to Arts SU’s Campaigns Officer. She was really sweet, willing to help me, and has helped me work along with Arts SU to create awareness for my campaign. Arts SU can also help me reach out to SUs around the UK to increase the impact of my current survey and the petition for the UK Parliament that is to come.
Universities need overseas tuitions
A recent The Guardian article explored the current reliance that UK HEIs have on international student tuition. With UCL as the primary example, as it recently became UK’s largest mainstream university, the article states that “Tuition fees from British students alone fail to meet the costs of undergraduate courses at University College London, its provost has revealed, forcing UCL and other universities to rely on fees from international students” (Adams, 2021).
Universities Resist Border Control also brought up an interesting data point on the issue, stating on Twitter:
This is evident when simply looking at the tuitions. Keeping UCL as an example, according to their Student Numbers by Fee Status 2010/11 to 2020/21, in 2020/21 home students were 60% and international students 40% of their total student population. In year school year starting 2021, most home students paid £9,250 for tuition, while oversees tuition for a programme such as BSc Physics was £31,200, that’s 3.4x the home fee. Using the percentages mentioned as an example, out of 100 UCL students, 60 home students would contribute £555,000 to the university and 40 international students would contribute £1,248,000.
(Or, in my personal MA course at UAL Central Saint Martins, where I’m unsure of the home/international student ratio but know that there are more international than home students, international students pay £22,920 and home students £11,220 (UAL, 2021).)
Based on data points such as the ones mentioned above, the reliance on overseas fees for UK HEIs is evident. Brexit, however, has pushed away several EU students, who used to be classified as home students but will now be international students unless settled. This has led to a drop in students from the EU applying to UK universities and such universities fronting a negative financial impact. As Forbes covers, “Universities are forecast to lose an estimated £62.5 million ($85.9 million) per year in tuition fees as a result of Brexit, according to new analysis. And the number of European Union students at U.K. universities is predicted to slump by more than half”(Morrison, 2021).
Increased career opportunities for many EU students who will now face overseas fees students is a great incentive for such students to continue enrolling in UK universities and support themselves while studying. This may not cover their tuition fee spike, but with all the other opportunities that the UK offers to its students it could be a decision maker or breaker when deciding to study in the UK, and it also applies to international students from outside the EU.
Diversify UK talent
The University of Warwick put out a report in 2015 that seems just as relevant today. A statement that stands out, among many other important points of the report, is
the voices, experiences and talents of the UK’s population as a whole are not being expressed, represented or developed within the Cultural and Creative Industries. This has both social and economic consequences. It means that too few of the population have access to as rich a culturally expressive life as might otherwise be open to them.
(…)
Widening participation and diversifying the workforce will not ‘solve’ the problem of a socially and economically stratified society. However, the Cultural and Creative Industries, together with education, play a crucial role in building an ecosystem that is representative and expressive of all sections of society.
(The Warwick Commission, 2015)
The report points out that diversity in the arts is crucial if it is to remain a appropriate reflection of what the creative industry in the UK is supposed to consist of. Which makes me question how the UK could promote the diversity of freelancers in university age if they are largely all from the same background, that is, all UK citizens and in settlement status.
Match Australia’s & Canada’s competitiveness
As stated in a previous blog post, Australia and Canada allow for their international students to engage in independent work as long as they comply with tax laws and the rest of their student visa policies, such as a 20hr/week work limit (Pathway to Aus) (Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection).
Both Canada and Australia are in the top 5 countries to study abroad along with Germany, the US, and the UK, with the UK at the end of such top stops according to Educations.com. Since GOV.UK stated that the UK seeks to increase their international student population by 2030, it is a good incentive to match the professional opportunities that Canada and Australia (the top 2 spots on Educations.com’s list) give their students to avoid missing out on potential people interested in in the UK for their studies.
References
Adams, R. (2021). Tuition fees from UK students fail to cover costs of undergraduate courses at UCL. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/11/tuition-fees-uk-students-fail-to-cover-costs-undergraduate-courses-ucl.
Dedman, S. and Rigby, N. (2021). Universities see EU students halve post-Brexit as non-EU numbers rise. BBC News. [online] 9 Oct. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-58846563.
Educations.com (2021). Top 10 Places in the World to Study Abroad – 2020. [online] educations.com. Available at: https://www.educations.com/top-10-lists/top-10-places-to-study-abroad-global-18096.
HESA. (2021). Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2019/20 – Student numbers and characteristics | HESA. [online] Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/27-01-2021/sb258-higher-education-student-statistics/numbers.
Home Office News Team. (2019). Fact sheet: Graduate Immigration Route. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/14/fact-sheet-graduate-immigration-route/ [Accessed Day 7 June 2021]
Morrison, N. (2021). U.K. Universities Face Financial Loss As Brexit Hits E.U. Student Numbers. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2021/02/09/uk-universities-face-financial-loss-as-brexit-hits-eu-student-numbers/?sh=3d88e4aee2a8.
Richardson, T. (2021). 25 Interesting UK Freelancer Stats & Trends (2021). [online] Lumio | Your Money. Available at: https://yourmoney.lumio-app.com/uk-freelancer-statistics-trends/.
Pathways to Aus. 2021. How To Apply For An ABN For International Students. [online] Available at: <https://pathwaytoaus.com/general/abn-for-international-students/> [Accessed 22 June 2021].
Starting a business in Canada as an international student. 2020. Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection.
UAL (2021). MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. [online] UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/business-and-management-and-science/postgraduate/ma-applied-imagination-in-the-creative-industries-csm#fees-and-funding.
UCL (2021). Student statistics. [online] Student and Registry Services. Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/student-statistics.
Universities UK. (2021). International student recruitment data. [online] Available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/universities-uk-international/explore-uuki/international-student-recruitment/international-student-recruitment-data.
Universities UK (2021). Higher education in numbers. [online] Universities UK. Available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysis/higher-education-numbers.
The Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value, Belfiore, E., Firth, C., Hart, N., Perrin, L., Brock, S., Holdaway, D. and Woddis, J. (2015). Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth. [online] Warwick, The Future of Cultural Value. University of Warwick. Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/research/warwickcommission/futureculture/finalreport/warwick_commission_final_report.pdf.