Once operational, the partnership is largely self-funding. Outside of the core technical and support expenses, key administrative and operational costs there are few built-in expenses. International tuition fees are the chief source of income for the partnership in the short and long term. UK university partners earn 80% of new tuition fees. These are new and ongoing income streams to participating universities and their educators. Additional international student applicants can be enrolled each year and new online degree programs can be added from the UK university partner as international student academic needs are identified. Jane Addams Institute is paid 20% of tuition fees from the partnership for program administration and help in the conversion of existing resident courses into quality, active learning, fully distance and online graduate degree courses.
Students are recruited primarily from international students who have already applied to the resident university partner and were not accepted for lack of space. All UK universities turn away international students every year, although international students bring in the highest tuition fee revenues. The smaller UK universities turn away over 500 students a year and the larger universities turn away over 50,000 students annually. Providing international graduate degree opportunities to these under-served overseas students is a critical and timely consideration and would provide a strong international student foundation for the partnerships to build upon.
Existing distance learning and online degree programs form the starting curriculum for the partnership initiative. Four postgraduate programs would be offered for piloting the initiative in the first year. Additional distance learning and online degree programmes from UK partners are expected to be added to the partnership offerings going forward. Existing resident courses can be converted towards fully distance learning and online graduate degree courses where the needs and opportunities are indicated. Jane Addams also brings expertise in both online instructional design and curriculum conversion. Each UK university’s course management system, already in place and well supported, allows for the delivery of university course materials.
The initial financial projections are built upon the UK partner and the partnership offering four graduate programs through distance or online learning in the first year. The projections are based upon 2022/2023 international tuition fees from the University of Nottingham. The projections use a base of 150 students per graduate degree program in the first year. Outside of core administrative infrastructure, people, and processes already in place at the UK university for recruiting, enrolment, and tuition fees, the partnership administration would use an academic shared-governance model with UK university partners and Jane Addams Institute of Higher Education participating in the Academic Advisory and Technical Advisory boards.