COMMENT: University has to prove it offers value for money

On the one hand the University of Portsmouth has spent more than £800,000 on a new logo and rebranding; and the salary of its vice-chancellor has increased by £46,000 in four years.

On the other it is having to make savings to offset a drop in income of £4.5m caused by a freeze on undergraduate tuition fees and an increasingly competitive market hitting recruitment of new students.

With tuition fees at £9,000 a year, students are racking up debt which they will pay off over much of their adult lives.

But, families are told, they are gaining an education for life, and a degree, which with luck, will provide them with a career and maximise their earning potential.

That is the theory, at least.

Universities are respected seats of learning intended to help young people maximise their potential and give them the opportunity to succeed.

All very noble. But what is increasingly clear, is that universities are now a business just like any other — a supermarket, say, or a garage, or even a bookie’s.

Branding is vital in this commercial world, to project the right image, and to attract new customers.

But an outsider may well ask what was wrong with the university’s old logo?

It was established, recognisable, and did the job of identifying the University of Portsmouth.

So is this money well spent?

Those students racking up all that debt, and those parents, with such high hopes for their futures, might wonder.

If universities must act like any other business, then, like them, they need to show the customers they are providing value for money.