Sales pitch for Scots export

Industry has teamed up with higher education north of the border to market its distance-teaching skills worldwide. Olga Wojtas reports

Scottish Knowledge, a unique venture to export Scotland's education and training expertise, has brought together industry and higher education to the tune of almost Pounds 2.5 million. Its shareholders, including 20 colleges and universities and 20 corporate members such as Ernst and Young, General Accident plc, Shell UK Limited and the Bank of Scotland, see distance learning as ripe for investment.

Scottish Knowledge has in its turn been channelling funds to boost distance-learning developments in Scottish higher education institutions, while setting up partnerships to market these in the Middle East, Malaysia and North America. It is already helping plan five specialist training and research institutes in the United Arab Emirates.

Chief executive Stephen Beere said: "Our first year was very much about identifying markets and distance-learning courses for those markets.

"This year is very much about investing in the products and selling them. Much of my job has been to sell to the universities here as much as to the customer and the only credible way I can do that is to give them concrete examples of opportunities, such as 'I have 50 students who are interested in a masters programme in mechanical engineering'."

Mr Beere was headhunted from Australia, where he was inaugural chief executive of an innovative college with a keen interest in distance learning, particularly for the Southeast Asian market.

"It's hardly surprising that the Scottish Knowledge chief executive is Australian," said Mike Thorne, depute principal of Napier University, which is a founding member of the company.

Professor Thorne believes the United Kingdom compares unfavourably with Australia in marketing its universities and colleges. And he blames the British Council for being "too low-key".

The Australian government has invested in marketing higher education in the Pacific Rim, particularly through its International Development Programme (IDP), he said.

"Australia has come from virtually nowhere to an astonishingly strong position in teaching and learning activities. The IDP has gone out there and sold the concept of study in one way or another with Australian institutions. I'm afraid that at the moment that is not what the British Council does. The role of the British Council for me is not clear and probably doesn't reflect current higher education priorities in terms of marketing overseas," he said.

"If the British Council were doing what IDP is doing in Australia, there would be no need for Scottish Knowledge."

But a British Council spokeswoman retorted: "Professor Thorne is woefully ignorant of the British Council's contribution to the marketing of British education and is a victim of believing IDP's hype."

Britain had a far greater market share of foreign students than Australia and the British Council was working with institutions and other government departments to develop that share.

"Witness for example the emergency scholarship scheme for Asian students," she said.

"Even in countries much closer to Australia than to the UK, the British Council has led a UK education promotion effort which has defended the UK's market share. In Brunei, for example, we have 75 per cent market share. In Taiwan, we now run the United States a close second, with a growing share of this market and we have done much better than Australian institutions."

Ian Graham-Bryce, convenor of the Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals, said: "The British Council has played a valuable role in supporting Scottish higher education institutions to promote their expertise abroad and in attracting students to Scotland."

Sir Graeme Davies, principal of Glasgow University, who was instrumental in attracting higher education support for Scottish Knowledge, insists that the company is "very complementary" to the British Council.

"Sometimes its activities have grown out of links institutions build with the British Council with institutions abroad. It was driven very much as a commercial opportunity that can draw on the resources of higher education for commercial advantage. Merchant banks and individuals are not going to invest in a venture like this because of the British Council, but because it's a good commercial idea."

Scottish Knowledge sprang from industrialists seeing distance learning as of commercial importance, Sir Graeme said. But higher education institutions said their focus was on generating teaching materials.

"We said: 'If we have a difficulty, it's marketing.' They said: 'Marketing's our business. We would help if we could put a commercial company together.'" And Stephen Beere adds: "The thing that IDP doesn't have, to my knowledge, is this corporate backing. I think we can claim to be absolutely unique in the world."

Sir Graeme also chairs Scottish Education + Training, a Scottish Office initiative to promote Scottish education abroad. Its secretariat is supported by the British Council Scotland and the export development agency, Scottish Trade International.

"Scottish Knowledge was set up to close contracts on behalf of Scottish institutions. We wouldn't go closing contracts," said SE+T's education promotion manager Sheila Lumsden.

"SE+T's remit is much more the generic promotion of Scotland, so we give the platform on which others can build. We hope that by forging strategic alliances there will be more academic links between Scotland and other countries that can help to stimulate research, the commercialisation of research, the potential for consultancy, student recruitment and distance education."

Launched less than two years ago, SE+T is targeting China, Russia, the Gulf States, India, China, South Korea, South Africa and Argentina: Scottish Knowledge is now contemplating moving into South Africa and South America if institutions wish.

"SE+T's remit is to raise awareness of Scottish education capability in the overseas market. We're very much looking at developing markets for Scotland where there hasn't perhaps been a lot of activity to date," said Ms Lumsden.

She stresses that distance learning should not be equated only with new technology. It frequently means tailoring conventional courses, backed by Scottish academics who go in person to the overseas institution.

"It's a continuum of opportunities," agreed Stephen Beere.

"Many people begin with the mind-set that distance learning is electronic on-line delivery. Mainly the products I've found are high-quality paper-based programmes. We might have a good paper-based course where a third has to be delivered face-to-face in the Middle East, and the rest supported by email, fax and videoconferencing. There is probably going to be a mixed mode of delivery, not 'if it's a distance-learning programme, it will have to be converted to electronic form'. The world isn't demanding that."

Distance learning is still a very small part of institutions' overall work, he said, but individual staff are enthusiastic about the prospects. Their problem is finding the time and money to tailor their work.

"The challenge is to find courses and programmes from Scottish universities and customise them. That's where Scottish Knowledge's investment role comes in," Mr Beere said.

"A BEng in mechanical engineering in South America would need some customisation that was slightly different to Malaysia or Thailand, but I think the fundamentals are the same."

Selling the quality of the product is not a problem, Mr Beere insists, with UK higher education held "in very high regard" internationally. He reassures home institutions that Scottish Knowledge will uphold quality and standards by dealing only with organisations that are directly linked to overseas governments, or have very strong government support.

Sir Graeme said both Scottish Knowledge and SE+T have a crucial advantage in that Scotland is recognised worldwide for its historic commitment to education. It is also recognised for the flexibility of its system, which has been a model for many other countries.

"What is unique is the way that Scotland can get a team to sit around and not indulge in partisan debates," he added.