"I was always looking at like Vogue..[I'd} be really good in the ad. world" Student Choice And Vocational Degrees

In the context of an increasing marketisation of Higher Education, where students may come to see themselves as consumers, this paper examines the process that undergraduates go through in selecting universities and courses and examines an apparent focus on peripheral rather than core aspects of the Higher Education service offering and of students making ‘safe’ choices. The experience students go through is examined with reference to the literature on decision-making for services and using a qualitative phenomenological approach with students encouraged to focus on their actual experiences. Other key findings are: evidence of satisficing and of avoiding risks and choosing options which ‘feel right’ rather than following a more systematic decision-making process which might be expected for such an important decision. We also note a tendency to defer the decision to others. We then briefly consider the implications of these findings for universities and their marketing, as they may assume that a more considered process has taken place

The Uncomfortable mix of seduction and inexperience in Vocational Students' decision making

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the process that undergraduates go through in selecting universities and courses in the context of an increasingly marketisated higher education (HE) where students may see themselves as consumers. Design/methodology/approach – The process students go through is examined with reference to the services marketing literature and using a qualitative, phenomenological approach with students encouraged to focus on their lived experiences. Findings – Notable was the reported inexperience of students who suggest an apparent focus on peripheral rather than core aspects of the HE service offering and therefore aim to quickly make “safe” choices. Also there is evidence of “satisficing” and of avoiding risks and choosing options which “feel right” rather than following a more systematic decision-making process which might be expected for such an important decision. Also noted was a tendency to defer the decision to others, including the institutions themselves, and their increasingly seductive marketing approaches. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on a vocational university with a focus on subjects for the new professions (marketing, journalism and media production). Further studies might consider how far the findings hold true for other types of subjects and institutions. Practical implications – The paper considers the implications of these findings for universities and their marketing activities, and invites them to both re-evaluate assumptions that an informed and considered process has taken place, and to further consider the ethics of current practices. Originality/value – The paper's focus on the stories provided by students provides new insights into the complexities and contradictions of decision making for HE and for services in general

The Lack of Systematic Decision-Making by Chinese Students Applying to UK MA Programmes

This study explores how Chinese students chose a university to study a taught Masters programme. It includes an examination of the criteria they use and the process they go through, focusing on the ‘information search’, and ‘evaluation of alternatives’ stages of decision-making. Qualitative individual interviews were undertaken with 10 Chinese students. Findings suggest that decision-making was not as rigorous as might be expected for such an apparently complex, high involvement ‘service’. Reasons for this include: a lack of perceived risk; the amount and complexity of information to be processed, (particularly in a foreign language), and the use of agents and league tables as reassurance for the decision. There is also evidence of satisficing and evidence to support image-based processing. Tentative recommendations are made which focus on the need to achieve the right match between potential students and the chosen programme and institution by trying to increase student engagement with the decision-making process

The Utility of Deep Divergence in Applied Creativity

If applied creativity seeks the generation of novel and useful ideas for a real-world goal, wish, or challenge, then my concept of theoretical creativity can best be described as the generation of ideas that are novel and not yet useful. I assert that the employment of deep divergence is the best tool for producing ideas within a theoretical creativity framework. Deep divergence is defined as divergent thinking to its most extreme levels, far beyond what is probable, beyond what is possible, and into an unplumbed realm of what is currently impossible and unknowable. However, for this project, my aim was to determine if there is utility in exploring deep divergence in matters of applied creativity and, in particular, within the construct of a creative problem-solving ideation session. What follows is 1) a foundation of the considerations and precautions one must address prior to the implementation of deep divergence in an ideation session, and 2) a proposed methodology for exploring deep divergence, including tools, facilitation prompts, and suggestions for establishing a productive creative climate

Managing to play: the everday lives of adult videogame consumers.

Against a backdrop of videogame producers keen to promote themselves as a 'serious' adult entertainment industry, and persistent media reports on the 'dangers' of videogame play, this research examines the lived experiences of adult videogame players. I start with aconsideration of the nature of play and of consumption in order to assess the ways in whichour consumer society may be seen as becoming more playful, or experiential. I also consider the development of key discourses on videogame use and in particular the problematic waysin which we understand real, virtual and digital spaces. These theoretical contexts provide a background against which I consider a phenomenology of adult videogame consumption. Drawing from extended discussions with 24 adult videogame players I review: the biographical and domestic contexts in which adults play videogames; the various practices that they develop relating to buying, owning and using videogames, and; the nature of experiences produced through play. Adults may have started playing videogames as a result of an educational agenda, or peer pressure whilst as school, but may have continued playing intermittently into adulthood and now find that friends, and especially family influence how and what they play. As a result they have developed a variety of practices that I describe in detail including managing the amount of time and money spent on games and negotiating spaces to play. Within these contexts players aim for 'ideal' experiences of skill and achievement, of escape though the management of their imagination, and of social interaction with family and friends. However these largely positive experiences need to be carefully managed against a risk that their behaviour may be seen as childish, and against the potential for play to cause disruption to work or domestic life. Following these detailed first-person descriptions I consider the 'discourses in practice' during the use of videogames. I note the persistent framing of videogame play as frivolous, but also the way in which games are used to manage everyday life by providing a space that is an escape from routines of work and family life and in particular a space in which the imagination may be actualised. In doing so I also consider the transformatory potential of videogames, concluding that although they may be seen to serve a conservative role, and may be critiqued as part of an over-experienced, yet'futile' life, their ability to aid the management of everyday life is significant

Engaging students and MOOC learners through social media

This paper reports upon an initiative to integrate the Digital Marketing MOOC we produced with FutureLearn into an introductory module for MSc Digital Marketing students at the University of Southampton. We are currently drawing upon the lessons learned from this experiment to integrate more of our MOOCs and their related face to face modules in creative ways. We begin by reviewing the role of social learning before presenting the feedback received from students of their MOOC participation experience. On the whole the feedback was very positive, although we initially received some unexpected criticism for asking fee-paying students to participate in a free online course. These results provided us with an interesting opportunity to discuss the changing nature of value and consumerism in higher educatio