IBT Partners has specialised knowledge in the education sector and provides financial, business and technical consultancy services.

The education sector has specific challenges that need appropriate expertise. Our know-how helps you achieve your international business and trade development goals. We offer you sector-specific knowledge, as well as our contacts and opportunities for networking.

Our services and solutions are tailored to the needs of each of our customers, please see Government and Corporate for more detailed information.

Read more about the education sector:

• Background
• Current challenges
• Opportunities

Education background information

Government spending on education varies enormously across the globe. Public sector spending on education in North America and Europe averages 6% of GDP. This figure is topped up by private sector injections. Lesser developed countries' spending on education is more erratic and ranges from 18.1% of GDP for Cuba to around 1% of GDP for certain African nations¹.

Current challenges in the education sector

Challenges that the education sector faces vary across two levels. On a global level, the main challenge is to give access to free education to all children in the world, to eliminate illiteracy, and to expand an educated workforce. While this challenge has long existed, resources are increasingly strained as population numbers soar.

In developed countries, such as the USA and Europe, where education is available to a broad public, current education issues range greatly: from implementing information technologies to schools in the most beneficial manner, through dealing with reduced funds and cuts in teachers' salaries caused by post-crisis belt-tightening, to the questions of school and university privatisation. University system transitions are common nowadays, as numerous governments look for a stable solution that would combine university tuition fees with manageable student loans. 

Opportunities in the education sector

In order to keep pace with developments in the education sector, it is important to have access to actual, accurate and complete information and in-depth expertise. We will help you to address all important issues, including trends, key success factors, advances and innovations, supply and demand development, operational and financial risks, benchmarking, as well as regulations and opportunities for funds and grants.

Some of the key opportunities and trends include:

• Use of IT in exams and assessment  

  → Information technologies have eased the workload of many teaching professionals in exam marking. IT resources include computer programs correcting multiple-choice-question tests, plagiarism detection programs, intelligent programs capable of basic essay marking (e.g. technology used for GMAT), taking into consideration structure and fluency of arguments.
  → Assessment is not the only part of an exam where information technology can help. Exams using a percentile as their evaluation method often use CAT (Computer Aided Technology) programs that adapt the difficulty level of a following question to a student's preceding answer. 
  → In some universities, for example in Denmark, universal access to technology is assumed, and students are allowed to use the Internet to gather information during exams, mimicking a real life experience. The tests are seen to focus on students' ability to obtain relevant information and use it appropriately, rather than memorising it.     

• Online classes

  → There is a fierce debate on the merits of online classes. Those in favour of online seminars emphasise positive features such as ease of lecturing for professors, global accessibility, encouragement of participation and question asking through a chat option, reduced costs (no need of physical premises such as classrooms). However, those against bring attention to the fact that online classes would destroy universities as social institutions and would not allow for discussions, group work and presentations, necessary for obtaining practical skills. A possible solution would be a compromise that would use the web format for big lectures and maintain the traditional approach for seminars or tutorials.   

• Distance learning and accelerated programs

  → Online classes as described above would certainly benefit non-traditional university students, such as distance students who can not afford a full-time program. For those working or with children, universities increasingly offer distance learning and accelerated programs². These programs are increasingly popular, and will demand learning resources that suit particular needs of participants, whose objective is to obtain a degree through short and intense studying.   

• Social media

  → Students are early technology adopters and use social media not only for their free time activities and interests, but also to organise their school groupwork, share information, and discuss topics for upcoming exams. Professors are therefore encouraged to build up strong communication with their students through engagement in social media, notably YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

• Personalised learning

  → Technology is increasingly used to assess a student’s knowledge base from prior learning and to adjust teaching methods to suit student's learning style and to fill in learning gaps³. Personalised learning is seen as increasingly efficient compared to the traditional uniform teaching.

• Student mobility

  → International exchange programs for both high school and university students are growing in popularity. In the past, these programs were expensive and funded largely by family. However, thanks to numerous EU programs (such as Erasmus - the world's most successful one, Leonardo da Vinci or Comenius) these programs have become more affordable, yet profitable in certain cases. The programs are seen as directly benefiting the labour force. Increased student mobility leads to higher workforce mobility and international trade. Over 213 000 students participated in the Erasmus program alone in 2009/2010, an increase of 7.4%. The EU invested €415 m in Erasmus in 2009/10⁴.



• Redefining the role of teachers

  → The traditional role of a teacher as a distributor of knowledge is being redefined to one of an instructional manager, guiding students through their personalised process of learning, identifying the most relevant learning sources, motivating students³.

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1) NationMaster. 2011. Education Statistics > Education spending (% of GDP) (most recent) by country. Online at: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp
2) Driscoll, E. 2011. Top Education Trends for 2011. Online at: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/02/03/education-trends/
3) Hawkins, R. 2010. 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education. Online at: http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/node/544
4) European Commission. 2011. Erasmus: Record number of students receive EU grants for study and training abroad. Online at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/news2958_en.htm

Contact us

If you would like to know more about our education sector expertise, please contact us at
edu@ibtpartners.com
for additional information.