The great majority of new courses fail to attract viable numbers of students. This high rate of failure has serious consequences for institutional reputation and for financial viability.
The opportunity costs associated with the academic time devoted to the design of new programmes are substantial. Reducing failure rates can moderate these costs which inevitably impact on teaching and research.
The key to improving new course success rates is having a robust process in place covering all the steps from programme concept development through market evaluation to launching the course to the target market. Few HEIs have a well designed formal policy/guidance in place to manage course closures.
Having been the lead consultant for the i-MAP project that evaluated policy and practice across the UK higher education sector, The Knowledge Partnership is well placed to assess your approach to course development and provide advice and recommendations for the enhancement of your market assurance processes.
We have been working with individual clients for several years on new course development. This is underpinned by expertise in commercial product development – we are members of the international network for professionals in product development the PDMA.
Our consulting team also includes professionals that specialise in international HE markets and employer engagement enabling us to offer a rounded service.