First profit-making company to award degrees
A private for-profit company has for the first time been given the go-ahead to offer its own degrees, in a landmark decision which could open the door to increased privatisation of higher education.
BPP College of Professional Studies is a private institution with colleges in London, Leeds and Manchester and is owned by BPP Holdings plc - which is listed on the stock exchange.
Shares in the plc went up 13% overnight following the announcement yesterday that the privy council had approved the application to allow the college to award its own degrees.
In the first year the college intends to concentrate on its post graduate law students - allowing them to study additional modules to top up legal practice and bar vocational courses to masters degree level. Students studying for its graduate diploma in law will also have the chance to top it up to an honours degree.
From next year the college, which has 5,000 students, intends to offer new full and part-time masters degrees in accounting, marketing and finance.
But from 2009 it plans to move into the undergraduate market, targeting overseas students who will be expected to pay annual fees of around £10,000 to study at one of its UK-based colleges.
Peter Crisp, a qualified barrister and chief executive of the college said today: "We are a subsidiary of BPP Holdings and have become the first private sector company to be allowed to award our degrees. It opens up a potential £6bn global market in postgraduate and undergraduate degrees."
He had little doubt about the impact the college may have on the income from overseas students that public sector universities increasingly rely on.
He said: "It is an extremely lucrative market and [public sector] universit ...