Tuesday 5 April 2016

Blended or Single Malt Learning?

At £15,000 for a 70cl bottle the BOWMORE 1964 46 Year Old Fino Sherry Cask  42.9% Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (Distillery Bottling) is probably the most expensive single malt whisky on the Whisky Exchange website.  Compare this to the £12 - £15 blended whisky available through many UK supermarkets.  Blended is cheaper but, ahhhhh  the taste, rarity  and prestige of the single malt....

My family knows what I want for Christmas...

The same price disparity does not occur in studying for a degree.  Blended Learning is becoming more common on £9,000 a year undergraduate degrees from many providers  - but the single malt experience of, say, Oxford or Cambridge is priced at exactly the same level.

The error of effectively fixing prices is one that the last UK government must be blamed for but UK Universities are equally culpable for maintaining a high cost model of delivery and provision that now threatens their own solvency.

But is Blended Learning a low cost answer? Probably not.  However, the costs come up-front (that's called investment in the business world) and, what is more, require longer-term thinking and planning and staff with different skills.

So where will the investment in research of online and blended learning and innovative teaching come from to make UK Higher Education, once again, the leader in its field?

Answers on a Google form please...

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