Undercutting remark

Sir John Hanson, director general of the British Council and after-dinner speaker at last week's Higher Education Funding Council for England gathering at the University of Warwick, did little for the audience's digestion by giving the assembled vice chancellors and college principals a wigging on overseas franchising and recruiting activities.

The British Council, he said, could not exploit the excellent export opportunities for British higher education unless they cleaned up their act. He referred to a few, often rehearsed, instances well known to THES readers with dark hints that there might be more.

It did not go down well, particularly with those institutions which have found themselves undercut in foreign markets when offering high-quality (but expensive) courses, by the BC arriving and offering cut-price package deals at other institutions.