Economic Determinants of Higher Education Demand in the UK Assignment

Economic Determinants of Higher Education Demand in the UK - Assignment Example Advancement of new technologies and globalization has created complex high competitive environments in businesses. Thus, contemporary graduates commonly find occupations as programmers, journalists, primary school teachers, marketers, and retail managers. Higher education sector not only contributes to the development of country’s human resource, but also it provides a profitable business venture and a prominent source of export income to the UK (Universities UK, 2011). Therefore investigating the determinants of the demand in this sector can be beneficial to country’s economic growth. This study is focused on identifying the impact of students’ demographic characteristics on demand for higher education. It also examines the types of occupations in which graduates are significantly employed. The higher education sector in the UK comprises of universities, university colleges, specialist higher education institutions, and other higher education colleges. According to the statistics, there are 115 universities and 50 other higher education institutions in the UK. The demand for higher education derives from labor markets in UK, EU countries, and non-EU countries. The United Kingdom has a competitive advantage in providing higher education to the world due to its global reputation, elite higher education brands, historical trade and political links, the popularity of the English language and culture, and post-study employment prospects (Universities UK, 2012). These can be considered as â€Å"pull† factors (Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002). There are also â€Å"push† factors contributing to the growth of this sector. The push factors are largely generated based on the socio-political environments in the home countries of international students (Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002). Thus, changes occurring in those countries can affect the growth of higher education sector in the UK.