Blogging from the train today (thank you national express free wi-fi) and just needing to note a piece in today’s Guardian. A supplement on ‘How to Save Money’ includes a section by Tony Levine – the Guardian’s ‘consumer champion’ who remarks on the latest trend for students to demand refunds over what he describes as ‘non-delivery’. Levine notes the difference created by the abolition of student grants – students now pay a small fortune for university tuition, and as such are paying for a service. Don’t get the service you think you paid for? Get your money back.

The Guardian cites a Freedom of Information disclosure showing that universities have refunded over £100,000 over the last four years to students who complained about ‘unsuitable, badly labelled or poorly taught courses.’

So – worrying trend in our acceleration to a ‘compensation’ culture, or a natural progression of the Higher Education as a business culture the UK seems to be pursuing. If students are to be consumers, then they have a right to expect to receive the service they have paid for – and if that service is the tuition of the skills and knowledge they need to get a good job in their chosen industry.

Responsibility becomes an issue – after all, at Skillset we endorse institutions and courses that provide this service – but I don’t imagine that every single student form every course gets the job they want, we work with very competitive industries.

So where does this leave us – ‘badly labelled’ I think is the key point. If a course is advertised as offering something – be it skills for a job, or an all round knowledge of art history, if it doesn’t deliver then students should be entitled to question their need to pay for it. Clear (and honest) titling, and clear advertising and marketing, and honest recruitment practises would likely mean that there would be no need for this situation to arise barring exceptional circumstances.

Students would have all the information they needed to make informed decisions about courses before handing over their student loans. In particular regard to ‘practise based’ courses that Skillset endorses, our Academies and Accredited courses can confidently assert that they do prepare students properly for a career in the Creative Media Industries.

A course or institution stating that it can deliver the skills needed for a career or a job, and then fails to deliver these – is going to see the effects of the student refund movement a lot sooner.