How Universities are Increasing their Student Enrollment

According to the BBC News more students in 2013 have enrolled into UK universities and colleges than ever before. With tough economic measures needing to be taken, universities are now finding ways of expanding their profit margins for the short and long term. The most common method is by building new departments and other facilities to attract as many enrolees as possible.

Though Buckingham is a private university it goes through the same economic challenges as other universities, more so because they don’t have the safety net of the government for shortfall of cash. Therefore the emphasis of student retention/graduation and enhancement has become more important than ever to institutions in terms of accountability and rankings and recent national initiatives have focused on collegiate academic outcomes. (Radcliffe, 2006) We've seen this as the University of Buckingham have made it a priority year after to finish number one overall in student satisfaction.

One of the methods of retention and enhancing the student population is to invest and establish world class intramural sports complexes. In a report done by the National Intramural Recreation Sports Association of America in 2011 predicted that US universities had projected to invest $3bn (£2bn) in sports facility upgrades. Seeing that there are approximately 2,680 accredited university and colleges that spreads out to be $1,119,403 (£738,806) of investment per school. In the US, university intramural complexes are one of the more frequent and busiest spots on the campus. Normally exercising and gyms turn most people away, but with finding ways of using different colour schemes, layouts and other designs, what normally is looked upon as a gym is not seen as an entertainment ce...

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Another area which this facility can expand is helping employ students which can increase their post-schooling employability. (Ehrenberg, 1987) or even better the school can offer a program on community management or sports management. But as this maybe a good idea one of the issues that isn't being address is the expenditure of such facilities. There's not only the cost of construction and maintenance, there's utility expenses, insurance of building and those who use it expenses, as well as the potential cost of salary or wage for those who manage it.

The University of Buckingham being a registered charity must in some form offer its facilities and services to the community in order to avoid certain taxes. Therefore if the university goes this route it must find a way of marketing these facilities for the betterment of the community. (Charities Act 2011)