Leader: Students make more demands

A new voice can be added to the chorus of academics concerned about dumbing down and the decline of undergraduate standards: that of the students themselves. One of the most startling findings of the first Times Higher -Hobsons UK School Leaver Recruitment Review is the low opinion many teenagers have of their abilities. Fifty-six per cent predicted to get above-average Ucas scores say they have no maths and numbers skills; 54 per cent say they have no essay-writing skills. But this self-doubt is the sole blemish on a portrait of an otherwise confident new breed of student. Despite some confusion about precise costs, the next generation of students is coming to realise that undergraduates will have to pay more for higher education. Understandably, they expect more in return: about two out of three demand better teaching quality; 40 per cent expect better computer and library facilities; and roughly the same proportion think accommodation charges should be rolled into the £3,000 tuition fee. Only three in 100 will accept universities offering more of the same.

Priorities are changing. Students will not pick a course just because they have an A-grade A level in the subject. Far more will make their choice based on what they expect to enjoy and what they think will unlock the career they want. Signs of the rising consumer culture in higher education are apparent. The penalties universities face for disappointing students are all too well illustrated at Oxford Brookes University. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator is set to order the university to pay about £250,000 to osteopathy students who complained that Oxford Brookes had failed to secure professional accreditation for the course to enable them to practise.

Today's teenagers look certain to hold universities to the promises they make. Clever marketing will be no substitute for tangible improvements in the fabric of campus buildings and facilities. This generation will expect higher academic pay to translate into better staff-to-student ratios.

Indeed, the covenant between ministers and vice-chancellors when the Higher Education Bill was going through Parliament was that higher fees would bring higher standards. Ministers always saw the additional revenue for universities from tuition fees as doing more than just closing a funding gap - even if, in fact, a chasm remains. Failure to manage and meet the expectations of the next generation of undergraduates is a price no university can afford to pay.