Universities under investigation
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is looking to implement stern measures to counteract deceptive claims by universities with regards to their academic standards. Stricter guidelines are due to be issued by the Committee of Advertising Practice to resolve the concern.
ASA is expected to identify universities that have breached the advertising code by falsifying their intellectual accolades. Meanwhile, the following universities have been contacted by the agency to clarify their marketing materials:
- University of Bedfordshire. The institution faced a complaint after it claims to have “gold standard” teaching quality despite only attaining a silver award in the latest teaching excellence ratings.
- Liverpool John Moores University. The university alleged to be “university of the year” after acquiring the title in this year’s “Educate North Awards”.
- University of Reading. The institution was told to remove its statement to be in the top one percent of the world universities. According to the new QS World University Rankings, the university was among those which has dropped in ranking, falling from 175th to 188th place.
The highly competitive marketplace within the higher education sector came about after the lifting of student number controls in England in 2015. This has been said to be the reason for universities to now act like businesses, looking to increase their proceeds by maximising student recruitment.
Source: The Telegraph