Page 7 - General Cases 1

Students are facing increasing demands on their time and as

a consequence seek more appropriate teaching materials
and systems. Undergraduates in particular, more often than

not, have part time and often full- time jobs which manifests

in less preparation time for tutorials. Long case studies of the

traditional Harvard type of twenty to thirty pages may not
now engage the concentration span of today’s students

whether they are first year under graduates or participants

on an executive programme.

As the U.K. Quality Assurance
Agency for Higher Education

noted

“as developed economies moved

towards the provision of ‘mass’

higher education, they inevitably attracted many more

working-class students who did not necessarily have the

family income support that has for generations sustained

many middle-class students through their university years.”

An outcome of which is that more and more students take

jobs to pay for their tuition. (6) One manifestation of these

changes, particularly in the U.K. is the general diminution in

course contact for students as universities are driven by

‘bums-on-seats’ with volume and student retention being

the keys to their financial success.