More Porter Vice Chancellor? (4)

In this fourth look at Porter's model I consider the power of suppliers. Again, that's Porter terminology for those relied upon by the industry to supply its raw materials and other resources.
In the case of undergraduate Higher Education that's:

• Breweries
• Accommodation
• Support staff
• Teaching staff
• Alumni
• Researchers
• Debt funders
• Schools / Colleges (remember students are raw materials in the HE process - involved, engaged and not mere consumers).

Picture of Bar Steward by vectorolie at freedigitalphotos.net

Like Porter's buyers we look at things that give suppliers power to impact competition such as:
Control over their own prices; ability to group together; uniqueness of product supplied; generation  of high switching costs; credibility of forward integration; importance of product to the HE market (in this case) and importance to the supplier of the HE market.

Rather than try to devise a matrix as in my last post on Porter I'll just lok at Teaching staff and Researchers to try to estimate the level of power they hold:

Researchers exercise some mild power, not by virtue of any benefit they bring to undergraduates but by virtue of their ability to win funding bids (in some disciplines).  They can influence prices by REF transferability (soon to end) but derive most power from the fact that Universities crave the acolades that they can bring.  The constant threat from Researchers in many STEM fields is that industry not only craves but also rewards their innovative output too.

Oh.... and research begets Professorial status - and, of course, Professors can do anything, including running Universities, managing staff, walking on water, teaching (well some can).

Teaching staff (lecturers if you like) have absolutely no power at all.  they accept the "going rate" and either regret or avoid joining a Union.  They are viewed by HE providers as interchangable with other Teachers / On-line education and with Research staff and their ability to market themselves to private industry is very limited.  Teaching is, however, important to the HE sector, but this must not be confused with Teachers, themselves.

The outcome?  Dico quod si quæritis circumspice*.


In the final Porter review I try to sum all of this up and consider "rivalry" within the market, wondering if it should simply be confined to the Boat Race.


* if you seek evidence of what I say look around you (Google Translate)