Despite the shift from an elite to a mass higher education (HE) system in the UK, participation between students with Business Technology Education Council (BTEC) and Advanced-Level (A-level) qualifications remains unequal. The data presented here is taken from a longitudinal narrative inquiry funded by the Economic and Social Research Council…

This paper analyses the student decision-making model for international postgraduate (PG) students with a concentration on consumer service marketing principles. Using a grounded theory approach and exploratory techniques (focus groups), it investigates qualitatively why the UK is the destination choice, the rationale for the programme of study…

Universities in England are now paying more attention to the Vietnamese student market for purposes of campus diversity and recruitment. The primary purpose of this paper is to have a better understanding of Vietnamese students' motives and drives to study abroad. More specifically, this study targets students studying in a public research…

Politicians regularly cite an expected individual economic gain (the 'graduate premium') as a justification for greater private contributions to the cost of higher education, most recently as part of the rationale for the increase in England of the cap on Home/EU undergraduate fees to £9000 from 2012 (e.g. Willetts 2011a). However, the choices…

The new student funding regime introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act in England is predicated on the accumulation of student debt. Variable tuition fees, repaid by student loans, will increase average student loan debt on graduation. This article examines how fear of debt and financial constraints affect prospective students' choices of…