The research will take place in the following stages:
Initial mapping through collation of lists of providers and establishing key contact points. This stage will be undertaken by the project team based on existing lists of privately funded providers. However, to ensure your organisation is included, please contact Tristram Hughes at CFE (tristram.hughes@cfe.org.uk, 0116 2293300).
Privately funded provider data return. BIS is requesting that all privately funded providers of HE operating in the UK complete a standard data return, providing information on the nature of their organisation and on their student numbers. The data collected will support comparisons across the UK HE sector, including with data from publicly funded universities and Further Education colleges providing HE. The data return will be distributed to the providers identified in the initial mapping exercise and will take the form of an Excel spreadsheet template. If your organisation has not received the data return template by 1 May 2012, please contact Tristram Hughes at CFE (see below for contact details).
Privately funded provider telephone survey. The research team will contact a sub-group of privately funded providers to ask them some follow-up questions in a telephone survey. If your organisation is contacted, BIS encourage you to participate in this 15 minute interview.
Online survey of students at private providers. As well as collecting data from providers, we also wish to understand more about students at privately funded providers, their characteristics and experiences. We therefore request that privately funded providers distribute a short online survey by email to their current students. Providers that are able to achieve a minimum number of responses (50 student responses, or 50% of their student body, whichever is smaller) will receive a summary report of their students’ aggregated responses. The project team will contact providers following the data return stage to provide a link to the survey that can be distributed by email.
Remember, we can only include your organisation in the research if we are aware of you! To ensure you are included in the research, please register your interest with:
Tristram Hughes at CFE, tristram.hughes@cfe.org.uk tel: 0116 2293300