Chapter 8: The Challenges of Measuring Work-Readiness and Evaluating an Intervention to Address Differential Outcomes: A Critical Analysis

A philosophical view underpinning the marketisation of higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom is that increased market competition leads to better outcomes. Market competition based essentially on student choice since the 1980s has shaped how HE has developed and how providers support students once enrolled. Of course, the ‘free market capitalism’ of UKHE is one that does not really operate as a true market, as demonstrated by the wide-spread market response to the inflationary upgrading of the fee cap originally imposed by the government in 2006 of £3,000, resulting in almost all providers setting their tuition fees at the new maximum of £9,250 in 2017.