HESA Closes WillISeeMyTutor site!
WillISeeMyTutor Statement
The purpose of WillISeeMyTutor was to allow prospective students to make better informed choices when deciding where to study. We wanted to provide a comparison by subject discipline, and institution, across the UK university sector by staff-student ratios (SSR's) thereby allowing an objective measure of the likely quality of education any prospective student would receive.
Most students are not aware of SSR's and only belatedly discover them after they enroll and actually go to university (i.e. when it's too late). Our contention was that the lower the student-staff ratio the better the education a student will receive, and consequently the better they will flourish academically in achieving their full intellectual potential. This is because the key resource a university has to offer is its academic staff, not simply the buildings, the campus or the institutional name. We believe that regular contact time with academic staff is highly influential in determining a quality university education.
Everyone knows that not all universities are the same, and that all institutions are facing an ever expanding student intake. In particular, different courses across different universities show marked variability in staff student ratios, and whilst all universities now market their institutions aggressively, few publish their SSR's! We think that prospective students not only have both an interest in, but also a right to know this information.
This was what WillISeeMyTutor was trying to achieve, empowering prospective students by telling them the staff-student ratios for their desired course of study. We were also hoping this new market mechanism might act to lever change amongst universities themselves, refocusing their attention on improving the educational experience for students.
This enterprise has effectively been prevented by HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency) who have refused to provide WillISeeMyTutor with any data.
HESA are a public body (paid through general taxation) who collect a range of statistical information on university activities and hence constitute the single central source for UK higher education statistics. What is less well known about HESA is that they operate a company (HESA Services Limited) which then sells this data (under license) to interested parties.
WillISeeMyTutor wanted to buy data from HESA in order to statistically derive (as HESA do not collect direct information on SSR's) student-staff ratios for subject disciplines across institutions, thereby allowing meaningful comparisons to be made by anyone contemplating a university education.
HESA Services Limited executive board has refused us this data, initially they expressed some concerns about WillISeeMyTutor but when these concerns were fully addressed, they just told us 'No' and refused to explain their decision. Furthermore, HESA Services Limited executive board operates (in their terms and conditions for the supply of data) an 'absolute discretion' on who they sell data to. This means that there is no accountability mechanism to appeal to, no independent oversight or scrutiny body; rather the board's decision is final and binding.
WillISeeMyTutor feel that this outcome is unacceptable! Not only because HESA Services Limited are effectively a public body (their activities are paid for through general taxation) but we feel that their board is operating in the best interests of their relationships with academic institutions and to the detriment of prospective students.
We also feel that it is no coincidence that board members (as has been the case with previous board members) have been themselves very senior members of UK universities (including the current chairman who was a Vice-Chancellor).
In their press release (9.12.03) for the then new Chairman of HESA (Professor David Melville) HESA state that:
'Higher Education is facing more and more scrutiny and the need for accurate and concise statistics is increasing. Our aim will be to ensure these whilst minimising additional burdens in institutions.' (HESA_Press_release_69)
We couldn't agree more, but this principle should be broad and binding. It should include better information for prospective students rather than simply government departments and universities own tick box targets, after all, public bodies are supposed to be working in the public interest.
Furthermore, we believe that HESA (in all its manifestations) should be publicly accountable for their actions and decisions, and that they should have to justify them to independent scrutiny - rather than operating with total impunity. It is in this spirit that this statement has been written.
WillISeeMyTutor 21st February 2008