How are OPMs changing the UK’s online degree landscape?
Photo courtesy of Gratisography
If you work at a UK higher education institution (HEI), I wonder what you think is a good annual recruitment target for a postgraduate master’s degree? There is quite a range of cohort sizes for these degrees, with some institutions recruiting as little as five students annually and others over a hundred.
UK HEIs offer a wide variety of postgraduate degrees across different subjects, with a steadily increasing number of interdisciplinary degrees also being offered. Inevitably, demand for degrees across the spectrum can and will vary significantly.
However, the number of postgraduate taught (PGT) students at UK HEIs has been increasing significantly year-on-year, with consistent annual growth of 10% or more. This is, of course, representative of demand, but it’s also indicative of greater efforts being made to recruit postgraduate students.
It’s well documented that due to financial difficulties experienced by UK HEIs, more institutions have sought to increase their number of international PGT students, as there is a greater mark-up on international student fees.
Big postgraduate subject pools, such as business and management, have seen significant year-on-year increases in the number of new students, primarily due to more international students being recruited.
Hitting recruitment targets has always been important for HEIs because tuition fee income is the biggest revenue stream for them. However, it has become even more crucial due to the current financial climate in UK higher education.
Recruitment targets and the size of recruitment are inherently important parts of Online Programme Management (OPM) company and HEI partnerships. These partnerships typically work on a tuition fee revenue share basis and are ultimately geared towards achieving a certain scale of student recruitment. This is attractive to HEIs, especially at the moment, as online education as a means of diversified revenue is the main reason behind many of these partnerships being explored and initiated. It is also necessary for the commercial viability of these companies.
I’ve been researching and analysing OPM and UK HEI relationships and dynamics for many years now, documenting the ups and downs and the steady growth in the number of these partnerships being established. While my past focus has been on partnership trends and company dynamics, another dimension of this landscape is how these partnerships are influencing the online degree market in UK higher education, which is what I want to explore here.
Number and balance of online degrees
My most up-to-date research indicates that there are now nearly 600 online degree programmes under the umbrella of an OPM or other online education company partnership.
Despite this volume of online degrees delivered in partnership, the overwhelming majority are postgraduate taught master’s programmes. Just over 5% of these programmes are undergraduate degrees, and growth in this area continues to be minimal.
Despite the growth in the number of postgraduate degrees being far greater than online undergraduate degrees, and the far greater supply of online PGT degrees in general, there are still more online undergraduate students in UK higher education. As of 2021-22, there were 70,000 more online undergraduate students than postgraduates. As we gather more data this year and in the years to come, it will be interesting to observe whether there will be a change in this balance.
Expanding the online MBA market
Inevitably, there are some very common focuses in terms of subject areas, titles, and qualifications, as there are only so many areas across a spectrum of subjects where there is the level of demand to scale student numbers.
The most dominant qualification under the umbrella of an OPM or other online education company partnership is the MBA. These make up approximately 17% of the online degrees currently offered by these partnerships.
Not only is this the most dominant qualification, but it also appears that the majority of online MBAs offered by UK HEIs are under the banner of a partnership. In many ways, OPMs dominate the online MBA space in UK higher education, and this is undoubtedly one factor behind the significant increases in MBA students witnessed in UK higher education.
Although this may point to a saturation of the online MBA market, there is significant curriculum focus variety being seen as a way to attract and differentiate. Examples of different curriculum focuses include sustainable tourism, media leadership, hospitality management, finance, marketing, and cybersecurity, to name a few.
The other main means of differentiation is, of course, pricing. With a few exceptions, online MBAs under OPM or online education company umbrellas offer the majority of the lowest priced online MBAs, with some being offered well below the average at prices ranging from £6,000 to £9,000.
While the UK is home to five of the top ten online MBA programmes according to the Financial Times 2024 rankings—offered by Imperial, Warwick, Durham, Birmingham, and Bradford—some of which will set you back £50k. The UK also has an increasing array of online MBAs that sit in different positions and price points across the overall market, largely due to OPMs and other online education companies.
Where is there growth?
Although this is not exclusively due to the number of MBAs, the largest number of degrees supported by these partnerships are in business and management. However, it would be inaccurate to characterise these partnerships as being solely about master’s degrees in this subject area.
These partnerships deliver online degrees across a broad range of subject categories, even though the number of degrees in some areas is minimal. Healthcare, law, education, and psychology are areas with a good number of supported degrees, but outside of business and management, the biggest area is computing.
This reflects the fact that computing has been one of the fastest-growing segments in the postgraduate taught market in recent years. Further down the chain, increases are also being seen, with UCAS reporting a 7% increase in applications for computing courses in 2024. In line with that trend, there have also been some recently launched online undergraduate degrees in this field.
Online degrees focused on computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity are increasing in supply both through partnerships and by HEIs offering them online independently. This trend is likely to continue, and partnerships will play a significant role. Currently, partnerships account for over half of the online computing-focused degrees, and this ratio will be one to watch going forward.
I suspect the subjects mentioned thus far present no major surprises in terms of emphasis and focus, particular in areas where there are regulated or licensed professions requiring continuing professional development (CPD). However, one interesting area where the number of supported online degrees has been increasing is the creative industries.
This may be surprising to some, but it is refreshing as a whole given the negative narrative presented by the previous government around what they termed “rip-off” degrees, which was widely perceived to include some degrees in this category.
Despite the increasing number, it is fair to say that there are yet to be online degrees supported by these partnerships across the full range of the creative industries, and that is likely to remain the case for a while. However, there are now online degrees in design fields, fashion, photography, film, and animation, and a greater confidence that there is a market in these areas.
The effect of more entries and volatility
The overall dynamics in UK higher education, in terms of both these partnerships and the resulting online degrees, have been characterised by growth. This growth has been accompanied by some expansion in the breadth of subject focus for online degrees.
However, the picture is more complex than a simple upward curve. This growth has been fuelled in part by UK HEIs' desire to enter the online education market, feeling either that they lack the capability to do this themselves or that they lack the capability to deliver a strategy aligned with significant growth and income.
This desire is not exclusively driven by a perception of a sizeable opportunity in a new market but also by the need to operate in more existing markets due to the financial position they find themselves in.
However, it is unlikely that the increasing number of partnerships will consistently deliver for both companies and HEIs. The company space has experienced turbulence, and financial difficulties have, in some instances, forced companies to back away from degrees and partnerships that have proven to be financially unviable.
There continues to be some volatility here that may, in time, impact the online degree landscape in a notable way. However, for now, these partnerships are continuing to grow and, to a lesser extent, broaden the online degree landscape in UK higher education.
