Cambridge Education Group (CEG) was bought by a private equity firm in 2007. Since then, it has been busy growing its high school, foundation and English language brands. Fergus Brownlee talks about the FoundationCampus brand and shares his thoughts on the global business landscape.
The PIE: I was reading that CEG apparently had the very first university foundation pathway. You don’t seem to be promoting your “Foundationcampus” brand quite as much as some of your competitors. Is that a position you’ve taken on purpose?
FB: No, not necessarily. As you rightly state, we were the pioneers of foundation programmes for international students under the Stafford House brand, which has since changed to become CATS College [high school brand], while Stafford House focuses on English language provision.
We launched FoundationCampus in 2008 and we have focused our energy on delivering high quality student support and outcomes; building a strong welfare and support system and importantly, ensuring our students progress to their intended university. In fact, this strategy has seen us growing faster than any of our competitors.
The PIE: Do you see the university foundation sector as continuing to grow very rapidly?
FB: Absolutely. We have plans for it – in terms of more partnerships and perhaps more importantly putting more students through the existing partnerships.
The PIE: What percentage of your foundation pathway students progress onto mainstream courses?
FB: The number varies enormously between different courses and different nationalities. But overall our progression rates are as high as 80%, which, we believe overall, is sector leading.
The PIE: To what extent do you think the market demands onwards progression and is that healthy? Are students being funnelled onto degree programmes before they’re ready to make their decision?
FB: That’s a very good point you make. Our students receive individual counselling from either a member of our qualified team or their trained education agent, which normally identifies their academic strengths and desired career outcomes. We then recommend the most appropriate pathway according to their goals, which then opens up a range of degrees they can progress to. They are fully supported all the way.
The PIE: Do you have a different client profile between your foundation and high school (CATS) brands?
FB: Not that different. There is a huge overlap in student profile, but selling our high school brands is slightly more complicated – because what we’re also selling is the opportunity to get to the very best universities in the UK or USA. If a student aspires to the best universities, it’s very simple – they have to come into an A- level or an IB programme really [at a high school], to be able to get through, because institutions won’t accept them otherwise.
“That is a huge part of what we are actually selling – it’s an outcome as opposed to qualifications”
So we set our CATS colleges brand up to be absolutely premium-end in terms of getting students into the best possible course at the best possible university for them – that is a huge part of what we are actually selling – it’s an outcome as opposed to qualifications.
The PIE: Are you selective about intake?
FB: We are actually non-selective and proudly so. Of course we get students into Oxford and Cambridge [universities] and some of them do spectacularly well there. Almost as satisfying is the kid who hasn’t got that chance when we get hold of them but they get two Bs and a C [at A-level] and get into a really well-ranked university. In fact, we have a reputation for helping students to achieve two grades higher than they were originally predicted.
The PIE: Is the demographic quite different per sector in terms of nationalities?
FB: Good question. I’d say the demographic is slightly but not hugely different. In our colleges at the end of the last academic year, we had about 56 countries represented. In all our foundation programmes, more like 40-something. [more>>]
The PIE: Which are your top nationalities?
FB: FoundationCampus is for non-EU students and therefore the nationality make-up is biased towards Asia, Africa and the Middle East. At CATS Colleges and Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Art, we have a much greater proportion of British, Europeans, Latin Americans, Central Asians, Africans and Russians in addition to the Asian countries.
The PIE: What proportion of your business comes via agencies?
FB: Around 90%
The PIE: What has feedback been like from agents in terms of access to work in the UK – is that something has made a definite impact to your partners [since rules were tightened]?
FB: It depends on the source market. Many students from southern Asia; Indian, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladeshi students .. quite a lot of them have been reliant on working when they come to this country. When the changes were announced 6-9 months ago, the first signs from local media in India, said, “The UK is closed for business”.
The PIE: Did Cambridge Education Group notice a drop-off for September 2011 start as a result of changes to work rules?
FB: Yes and I believe our competition did too.
The PIE: Where are they going instead?
FB: There’s no question about what happening. In my analogy, the UK has pulled up its drawbridge, and said it’s going to be much more difficult to get into our castle, whereas at the same time, America has been – since the Obama administration got in – lowering the drawbridge. Post-Bush, they are being much more welcoming. With the financial hits that everyone is suffering and in America too – America has just over 4,000 universities and community colleges – they desperately need more students.
“So the US government is doing what I would suggest is the right thing”
So the US government is doing what I would suggest is the right thing. And of course, Australia is poised to be making it a lot easier for international students [to enter/work] so the UK is bound to be impacted.
The PIE: As well as ability to work part-time while studying, what about the fact that it is harder to find a job and [gain a visa to] stay in the country? How important is that?
FB: I think its hugely important for everyone at any level, whether you are an Oxbridge graduate or coming out of college with a fashion qualification – for all of them, the word employability is huge.
The PIE: Can you foresee the UK government moving position in the short-term?
FB: I think they’d be totally and utterly mad not to. The rest of world is doing that. There are already battlelines drawn amongst ministers on this. It’s a v simple clash, between politics and business.
The PIE: I think anyone in this industry would agree…
FB: I think we need to re-address the way in which we define the term ‘migration’. Penalising genuine students seeking a UK education seems at odds given the huge benefit to our economy and the greater reliance universities are going to have on international students in light of the drop in UK and EU student applications.