The Business Studies University: Turning higher education into further education

Abstract

This paper argues that changes to both further and higher education that are already well underway are clarified by what can be called the model of the Business Studies University (BSU). The BSU elevates undergraduate student choice of equivalent level modular courses to the 'heart of the system' (DBIS, 2011). This is rejected by those few institutions not part of the current competition to cram in funded students; instead, they adhere to traditional academic disciplinary knowledge. As a result, at one pole of a bifurcating hierarchy higher turns into further education, with 'cramming' for academic higher education at the other.