ARE CASH-STRAPPED UNIS PRESSURING CAREERS ADVISERS TO FLOG DODGY POST-GRAD COURSES?
Graduate Fog has heard disturbing rumours that some university careers advisers are being urged to ‘sell’ postgraduate courses that are under-subscribed – regardless of whether doing them is in students’ best interests.
Several careers professionals (who have asked not to be named) have complained that colleagues in their university’s marketing department are using increasingly aggressive tactics to pressure them to urge you to sign up for postgraduate courses they know have dubious value on the jobs market.
Since most students and graduates trust that your university careers adviser is working in your best interests, the idea that some professionals could have a hidden agenda is deeply troubling.
Especially if that agenda involves convincing you to part with thousands of pounds of your money, for what could be a worthless qualification.
I’m not an expert on university funding but it’s my understanding that money worries are at the root of this problem.
As higher education institutions face huge government cuts, they are more reliant on fees from students. They need to keep their application numbers up to make sure every seat in every lecture theatre is ‘sold’.
I first heard this worrying whisper back in June when David Winter, careers adviser at The Careers Group, University of London, wrote on Graduate Fog:
“We often spend time battling against university marketing departments who try to force us into promoting masters courses that we, as careers advisers, know to be of dubious resale value to employers.”
When I said I found this a shocking admission, Winter immediately back-tracked, claiming:
“I overstated the case for dramatic effect.
“We are not being ‘forced’ to recommend inappropriate post-grad courses. As professionals, we do insist on and exercise our freedom to give independent and unbiased advice and guidance to our students.
“But we don’t always get to see the students before they have been convinced by the marketing that a post-grad course is the way forward.”
Did Winter really exaggerate for ‘dramatic effect’?
Or did he just not realise the implications of his statement until after he’d written it?
I don’t know.
And I must stress that I am not accusing ALL university marketing departments of engaging in this sort of behaviour.
Nor am I suggesting that university careers advisers are crooked.
No doubt, the vast majority of university careers advisers remain ‘clean’ – and will be furious that I am bringing this to your attention for fear that it will undermine your trust in them and put you off seeking their advice.
However, I believe this matter is too serious to be ‘hushed up’ – for any reason.
I think it would be deeply patronising to suggest that this subject be kept from you.
You are not children and you have the right to hear about and discuss the issues that could impact the careers advice you assume is independent.
After all, this is your money we’re talking about.
Even if Winter’s statement was exaggerated – and if all my sources are talking rubbish – I still think the need to protect careers advisers’ independence requires urgent discussion.
Why?
Because I fear that universities’ increased desperation to get ‘bums on seats’ could create a situation where an increasing number of university careers advisers feel pressured to ‘do the wrong thing’ in order to keep their jobs.
I have no doubt that they will fight to remain independent.
(Whatever I’ve written about them in the past, ALL careers advisers I have met have been thoroughly decent people, including David Winter, who helped to write Dude?).
However, anybody working in higher education knows that things are about to get very ugly – as the funding cuts begin to bite.
Let’s say that there are redundancies planned in a university’s careers department.
One adviser is happy to ‘play the game’, subtly promoting the institution’s postgraduate offerings, regardless of whether the course is suitable for that student or graduate.
Another adviser isn’t.
Which one do you think is more likely to get the chop?
I know I’m about to get hate mail from those in the industry who are convinced I’m just rattling their cage for the sake of it – or to drum up publicity for Graduate Fog.
But I genuinely think that if there is even the slightest threat that this practice could become widespread, we need to start talking about it NOW, before any (more?) students sign up to expensive postgraduate courses that are not as beneficial as they were led to believe by those who they trusted to give impartial advice.
And by the way, none of these stories are run to ‘drum up publicity’ for Graduate Fog.
They ARE Graduate Fog!
Not writing about this story would mean failing Graduate Fog’s users – and that bothers me far more than a few ranty emails from the careers community.
So bring it on.
*Are careers advisers really being asked to flog dodgy courses?
Students and graduates – have you ever felt a uni careers adviser was ‘selling’ you a postgrad course at your institution? Do you find this idea troubling? Careers advisers – have you ever felt pressure from your university’s marketing department to boost the number of applicants to certain under-subscribed postgraduate courses? If this isn’t happening at your uni yet, do you worry it could happen in the future?
In my experience careers advisors have been nothing but helpful and have always had what’s best for me at heart. Whilst I have been told about post grad courses at my Uni through a career advisor, they’ve only put forward the idea as it genuinely may have benefitted me and it’s never been rammed down my throat. I’ve only ever recieved one e-mail message about it which, as you’d expect as the institution owns both the careers advisors and the courses, the courses were portrayed in a positive light and showed me the benefits rather than the negatives of post grad study.
It’s not hard for anyone with common sense to work out that the University is unlikely to tell you that their post grad courses may not be worth the expense. I know my Uni offers £1,000 off if you select to stay their for post grad study but even so they’re hardly cheap and I doubt anyone would select to do it based exclusively on the opinion of their career advisor. As long as they’re not pushy or mis representing the benefits of studying on such a course I see no problem with it, as long as what’s best for the student is the number one priority as opposed to lining the University’s pockets.
@Kayley
Thanks for this! While I agree with many of your points, I’m concerned that the economic troubles that are about to hit universities are going to make it more difficult for them to remain objective about where the line is between ‘suggesting’ and ‘selling’. This is already a grey area, even now. How much murkier is it going to seem when careers services’ budgets are slashed and redundancies are threatened?
I fear there is nothing in place to help careers advisers protect the independence that it is so vital for them to have if they are to maintain (and deserve!) the trust of the students who seek their advice.
Also, your point:
…worries me a little. Are we going to see more of these ‘money off’ deals in future? Perhaps I’m a dinosaur (aged 30!) but something about this sort of cut-price sales tactic does strike me as rather crass when applied to university education.
That said, we all know that times have changed – and that charging students for their university education has turned education into a commodity, to be bought and sold.
It has turned students into customers (something i think is a good thing, on the whole, although I do worry about the ethics of creating more course places for the most popular subjects (like media), when there simply aren’t the jobs to match).
But it has also turned universities into businesses.
This is what I’m worried about – because we all know what business values the most – and it isn’t its customers’ wellbeing… : (
Hi
I don’t really have time at the moment to engage with this more fully, so I will just repeat (in full) my earlier comment:
Yes, you can’ trust your university careers service to provide you with impartial and unbiased advice.
David
A provocative article but as David has retracted his statement I don’t see that your argument that Careers Advisers (admission: I am one) are pursuading students to take inappropriate courses holds any value, unless you can quote some more sources.
And I can’t think of any other industry that actually pays people to tell customers NOT to spend their money!
HOWEVER: Buyer beware: universities are businesses, and they want your custom. They are generally very reputable and ethical businesses, but nevertheless, students bear some responsibility to check out the service they are buying. And Careers Advisers help students to do precisely this. We don’t tell people what to do – we help them to talk over their options.
We rarely get the opportunity – even if we wanted to – to ‘sell’ postgrad courses to students. More likely we see students near the end of the process, when they bring in a personal statement they have spent some considerable time on for us to review. You can imagine then, that they don’t tend to listen when we gently suggest that they consider whether the course really is appropriate for them. Their hearts are set.
My top tip: most people will only ever have one chance to do a Masters in their lifetime. Are you really sure you want to use up that chance right now? Totally, 100%, bet-your-life-on-it sure?
@ John King –
I take your point re my sources but remind you that Graduate Fog is a blog, not a research paper – and I’ll continue to write about anything I think is important for Graduate Fog’s users to know about!
; )
I also don’t understand how you can say this:
…while denying there is any risk that university careers advisers could be put in a compromising position as universities become more desperate to keep their numbers up, as funding drops.
It strikes me as being naive / head-in-the-sand to insist that this could never happen!
And re your point:
… But what if it was their employer who was asking them to ‘Play the game’? Where would the disciplinary action come from?
No doubt, knowing universities, this would first require a formal complaint from a student (you would probably insist on letter form, hoping the student would never get round to it), followed by a six-month investigation, and some dubious ‘ruling’ that would let them off on a technicality… and the practice would continue.
I know university careers advisers are good people, but it seems extremely naive to be unable to even imagine a world where you could be asked to recommend courses you’re not sure are in your students’ best interests. Especially as I’m saying there is a strong indication that this is already happening!
On second thoughts, I don’t know why i’m surprised to get this reaction from a group who is still insisting that graduate careers advice is working fine… ; )
I can only speak for myself – not a group – and I don’t insist that graduate careers advice is working fine. There are many issues with it, and there are many people, myself included, who are working to improve it.
People who have spent time working within higher education will understand that Universities are not homogeneous organisations. You can’t just tell another department what to do: you have to persuade them. This is annoying. It takes a long time: the private sector can move much faster, as there is a command-and-control culture.
But it also provides a strong degree of protection against Careers Services being used to influence recruitment. The Careers Service culture is one of independence, and this will be difficult to change. We have our own umbrella organisation, AGCAS, which maintains standards, and services can be reported to AGCAS if they do not meet those standards.
Your motivation, I think, is the same as mine: to improve career choice, career progression, and to help people lead more fulfilling lives. Careers Services are only one part of this equation, but they are the part I can most easily influence. I’m finding it easier to criticise them than to change them – because changing them requires persuading individuals, often one at a time, taking one issue at a time.
Criticising Careers Services’ independence, on hearsay and unattributed comments, is not likely to help the situation. Any Careers Service who behaves as you suggest has no right to exist. And then the only people left to talk to about the course will be the marketing department…
@John King
Great – I’m glad to hear it! : )
Actually, it’s YOUR job to improve services. One that you’re paid to do.
The problem is that while you guys faff about working out a) whether a re-think of your role is necessary (I’ll save you some time – Yes it is!) and b) how to do this on a national scale, hundreds of thousands of uninformed, overwhelmed young people are graduating into a dire jobs market.
They need help NOW.
So I wrote Dude? and created Graduate Fog, in an attempt to fill the gap for those lucky enough to hear about what’s happening here.
(Your colleagues have refused to help me publicise the book and website).
I disagree. Before I set up this website, I spent two years being very nice to universities and their careers advisers.
It got me nowhere – and changed nothing for graduates.
You may not like my style – I’m aware I can come over as a little abrasive! – but at least Graduate Fog gets people talking about the issues we should have been discussing YEARS ago.
“at least Graduate Fog gets people talking about the issues we should have been discussing YEARS ago.” This hits the nail on the head! This blog is doing a great job of exposing problems which nobody wanted to believe existed, problems which universities wanted (and want) to cover up and make disappear and problems which many students and graduates are not aware of until it is too late! It’s very important that this space exists to question the status quo regarding the graduate job market and university careers services and to ask the questions that nobody else is brave enough to!
@Christopher
Thank you – you’re truly one of Graduate Fog’s star contributors! It’s so nice to get these comments : ) x
For what it’s worth, the careers advisor I spoke to (at King’s) almost put me OFF postgrad study and encouraged me to think long and hard about it and decide what would be best for me. I was very impressed with the whole service.
BUT… I can see how this might be an issue, especially at places/courses which might be desperate for the extra funding. On the other hand, I might speculate that it is the overseas students which the universities would be more desperate to get their hands on, since they often pay astronomical fees for both under- and post-grad education. For each new Masters programme, proposers will put into the business plan the numbers of “high fee” and “low fee” students they expect to attract… and they may not last very long if they do not attract the requisite numbers of “high fee” students.
Even if it isn’t the Careers Service (and I think, largely, it isn’t), there’s certainly something in this. I live in a city with two large universities, at least one of which is in major financial difficulties. And they’ve definitely been increasing the marketing of post-grad courses hugely this last year. No question. And a lot of these graduates won’t seek professional careers advice before applying, anyhow. Personally, the individuals I know who work in careers advice show great integrity. To universities, though, it’s all numbers. They’ll decide how many more postgraduates they needs, and try to adjust marketing accordingly.