Guessing in the Dark: Competitive Tendering in Institutional Management Available to Purchase

This is the second in a series of three linked articles describing the major changes which are taking place in English public sector higher education as a result of the Education Reform Act 1988. The new Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council had introduced a radically different system of competitive tendering, which although it was being brought in incrementally, was already having a significant impact on institutional management. This article examines the tasks facing such managers, trying to compile crucially important bids against a background of changing ground rules, insufficient and inadequate information and very little market knowledge.