As students pay more for their higher education, there is increasing focus — not least by students themselves — on what it is that they receive when in higher education, the quality of what they receive and the facilities that are available to them. This has led some people to speak — loosely and imprecisely — about “students as customers”, and some universities have even begun to offer students a guarantee of minimum amounts of contact with their teachers. What is it that students are entitled to expect of their universities? What can universities reasonably expect of students? And what can society expect from students in return for the substantial investment that it makes in them?
Speakers: Lord Young, Minister for Students (subject to diary commitments); Professor Les Ebdon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and Chair of the UniversitesUK Student Experience Committee; Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students