Excellence Gateway
The aim of this toolkit is to help colleges increase the income they generate from fees. It covers both full cost fee income and income from co-funded programmes where the assumption is that customers’ contributions will rise to 50% of costs by 2010. The toolkit provides background information, checklists and modelling tools to help develop a local fees strategy. You can work through the toolkit yourself or use it as a basis for a group exercise.
The toolkit is built around the simple proposition that customers will pay more for goods and services that they value. Colleges will be successful therefore to the extent that they increase the value of what they offer as seen by customers. The website provides examples of ways in which colleges have increased fee income and reduced resistance to fee increases by redesigning what they offer and how they present it.
The toolkit is not a simple calculator but uses your judgements to help you and your colleagues to think systematically about setting course fees.
The best way to use the toolkit is to download the desktop application. A dialogue box should appear on the screen asking you to run or save the application. Click Save and an icon will be installed on your desktop. If you have a broadband connection the application can be downloaded in a couple of minutes. The application allows you to estimate the price sensitivity of a course and to investigate the impact of fee rises on income.
The Tools menu on the lefthand side of this page provides quick access to web based interactive tools with similar functionality to the desktop application. However, unlike the desktop application results cannot be stored and retrieved.
The guides on this website provides detailed information on developing a smarter fees policy, focusing on understanding value, price sensitivity, and increasing and promoting value. The resource includes useful background information such as case studies, check lists, references and data. First time users will find it extremely useful to work through these sections in sequence in order to understand the context behind the tools.
You can also download a PowerPoint presentation that covers the main points of the pack and includes the interactive tools. The presentation can be used for staff development events and team meetings.
Source: Learning and Skills Improvement Service
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/238430.
