Higher education services

Tender description

The University is seeking to appoint an organisation to provide student recruitment services to deliver significant growth in the number and diversity of suitably qualified international foundation students to its international undergraduate pathway programmes. This is to support the University’s strategic ambition to grow and diversify its international student body. Subject to the provisions of the contract agreement, the University will initially place a contract for a period of 5 years, with the option to extend for a further 2-year period. The University is seeking to appoint an organisation to provide student recruitment services to deliver significant growth in the number and diversity of suitably qualified international foundation students to its international undergraduate pathway programmes. This is to support the University’s strategic ambition to grow and diversify its international student body. These programmes are delivered in-house through the University’s Birmingham International Academy (BIA) which has a prime on-campus location and is already well established and well respected in the market with a reputation for high-quality delivery and excellent student experience, as evidenced by the BIA’s student satisfaction and progression rates. The programmes currently include 3 pathways (noting there may be scope to expand the programme portfolio and intake points in the future). These are: — arts, social sciences, business and law pathway (September and January intakes), engineering and physical sciences pathway (September and January intakes), — medical, life and geo sciences pathway (September intake). There are 2 tender options for services to be provided as follows: — Option 1: services limited to soliciting applications from prospective international foundation students on behalf of the University and screening them to ensure they are suitably qualified before submission through the University’s standard admissions processes (managed by the University’s admissions office), — Option 2: services which also incorporate the admissions process, employing the University’s established admissions criteria for its international pathway programmes and admitting students through the service provider’s admissions function. Subject to the provisions of the contract agreement, the University will initially place a contract for a period of 5 years, with the option to extend for a further 2 year period.