INTO University Partnerships

INTO University Partnerships is a British limited company that specialises in setting up joint ventures with universities. It focuses on the provision of foundation courses for international students, including English language, especially English for Academic Purposes.

History

INTO University Partnerships was founded in 2005 and is chaired by Andrew Colin, who had previously set up Study Group International, an education group he sold to the Daily Mail Group (which subsequently sold it on to Champ Private Equity), and Embassy CES, a chain of language schools. He is an entrepreneur who enjoys excitement and adrenaline, including heli-skiing. Colin has a background as a property developer . "We are not trying to make money out of the tuition fees.... INTO is going to make money out of the buildings.

Under the joint venture model, the university remains responsible for educational quality, while INTO provides the marketing and finance. This is in a political climate that favours public-private partnerships in general, and in which Bill Rammell, Minister of State in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, welcomed such innovation in higher education in particular, in response to a question from Essex MP Bob Russell.

INTO has so far set up joint ventures with five British universities: Newcastle, Exeter, East Anglia, Glasgow Caledonian, and Manchester. INTO's latest opening is the £30 million six-storey centre at UEA, with 415 en-suite study-bedrooms and classroom space for 600 students, due to open in September 2008.

Future plans

INTO is in discussion with several other British universities, including Essex, Goldsmiths and Queen's University Belfast.

In July 2008, INTO announced that it had signed its first agreement in the United States, to operate a foundation year programme for Oregon State University. OSU said that it had long wanted to expand the number of international students, and turned to INTO for its worldwide infrastructure and expertise in recruitment; some staff, on the other hand, expressed concerns over working conditions. The programme is due to start in autumn 2009. It intends to begin with 150-200 students. A local news source, OregonLive, states that the new venture will "replace the English Language Institute, a self-sustaining program that has helped international students learn English for 43 years", a move that fills its former director with concern.

Opposition from lecturers and conflict with UCU

Several British universities have been approached and declined, following staff protests. The University and College Union (UCU) has consistently opposed INTO's expansion into higher education.

The International Centre for English Language Studies (ICELS) at Oxford Brookes University strongly opposed INTO's approach , a campaign which succeeded . Bristol and Southampton have also been approached and decided not to go ahead with INTO. The University of Essex, following questions from UCU, has explained the benefits of working with INTO .

The guarantees that INTO offers to existing staff are under dispute. Andrew Colin rejects this criticism, saying in 2007 "Give me three years and I will show you it is possible to create secure, well-paid jobs in EAP, and more of them," and rejects the similarity of his business model to private finance initiatives (PFI).

In July 2008, INTO threatened UCU with a legal suit for defamation, in response to a union briefing entitled "Into the unknown" . The Guardian reports that the briefing, which appears to have been removed from the UCU website, stated that INTO would "damage the quality of education and would harm university reputations", has a "lack of interest in education and the way it operates" and is run by "ill-experienced people with no record in teaching international students and little understanding of English for academic purposes.

Accounts question

INTO reached the parliamentary record when MP Austin Mitchell asked why it had not filed financial records with Companies House, as it is legally obliged to do. Andrew Colin said in the Times Higher Education that the delay in submitting accounts was a "simple mistake. He also revealed that the first set of submitted accounts showed a loss of £1.7m, but stated that the company would be beyond the break-even point by the third year.

Aircraft

According to the Civil Aviation Authority's database on registered civil aircraft, the company (or a subsidiary trading as INTO Air) owns a Swiss-built Pilatus_PC-12 turbo-prop aircraft, with registration G-INTO . An article in General Aviation magazine quotes the cost of these aircraft at $4m and states that Andrew Colin has ordered a second aircraft for delivery in 2010. Colin credits the first corporate plane, which he had had for only a few months at the time of the interview, with transforming the way he and his UK team did business, removing much of the strain of travel. “In one week we attended meetings in Glasgow and Newcastle on the Monday, Oxford and London on the Tuesday, Exeter and Birmingham on the Wednesday, Glasgow again on the Thursday and Norwich on the Friday.

Notes

See also

• Business-education partnerships
• University Foundation Programme, a competitor system
• Foundation degree, a year-long programme to prepare British students for undergraduate study
• Kaplan, Inc., a competitor company
• English Language Institute, a common name for a university-based service that teaches English

External links

• INTO UK
• INTO University Partnerships