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Institutions want to halt ads targeting students left 'to drift' by 'underfunded' universities. Phil Baty writes.
Universities are up in arms over a private tuition service that is targeting campuses with claims that it offers students the teaching and support that "overcrowded and underfunded" institutions fail to provide.
Senior university officials have been trying to stop Independent Colleges and University Tutors (ICUT) advertising on campuses amid fears that it exploits students and encourages them to breach academic rules.
ICUT, which offers one-to-one tuition, said this week that business was booming as its team of 70 private tutors filled a gap created by universities that leave students "to drift" without support after making "inflated promises" to get "bums on seats". The company advertises services including "proofreading" for dissertations and promises to improve essay "content" to raise grades.
The National Union of Students had been set to endorse ICUT, but it pulled out after its executive ruled that the union should not promote a business offering a service that universities should provide or one that "would almost certainly contravene the academic regulations of some institutions".
Vincent McKee, Director of ICUT, said his business was entirely legitimate and was being unfairly attacked because the sector was embarrassed about having its deficiencies highlighted.
"Universities maintain this pompous, windbag arrogance when they claim that they are providing for the needs of their students," Dr McKee said. "They are in denial about their quality."
Dr McKee, who holds a PhD from London Metropolitan University and has taught at London South Bank University, said the business, which operates in the Midlands only, had provided services to 1,000 students since its launch last year. It is about to expand into the rest of the UK and will shortly appoint a full-time national director. It expected to increase staff numbers to more than 100 over the next month.
ICUT charges about £30 for one and a half hours of personal tuition, and its tutors keep about £24 of that. Dr McKee said his employees - Jretired and working academics and postgraduate students - all observe universities' rules on unfair collaboration.
This year, Warwick University wrote to Dr McKee asking him to stop advertising on campus. Paul Greatrix, the Director of academic and student affairs, said in a letter that the services were "inappropriate" and "exploitative" and that the university met all its students' teaching needs.
In a robust reply, Dr McKee said: "We have a right to pursue our lawful business." He claimed that 123 Warwick students had approached ICUT in February and March 2006.
A Warwick spokesman said the university was "uncomfortable" about the services being offered and added that there were a number of spelling errors in the company's advertising posters. He said the university offered a multitude of additional support to overseas students, who had been targeted by ICUT.
Philip Walking, pro vice-chancellor (academic) at the University of Central England, also wrote to Dr McKee this year to ask ICUT to cease advertising on campus. He said: "We are simply concerned that students are not misled into believing that this service is in any way endorsed by the university.
We told him that if we find more posters we would put them in the bin."
ICUT is threatening to sue the NUS for damages after the union pulled out of a deal to advertise a discounted ICUT service on the NUS website. Dr McKee said he had printed 50,000 leaflets bearing the union's endorsement.
Andy Grant, NUS national director, told Dr McKee last week that the union's executive decided not to endorse the company because the NUS opposed privatisation of education and ICUT was "delivering services that ought to be provided to students by the further and higher education institutions they attend".
Coventry Evening Telegraph Article, Friday 1 September 2006
PRIVATE TUITION: University questions need for extra assistance with courses
Students’ union facing claim over advert row
A Coventry company which offers help to students is demanding thousands in compensation from the National Union of Students.
Radford-based Independent Colleges and University Tutors (ICUT) claims the NUS broke its contract after agreeing to an advert for the company on its website, then pulling it after 50,000 leaflets had already been printed by ICUT mentioning the web advert.
Dr Vincent McKee, director of ICUT, wants a four-figure compensation for the cost of the leaflets, which he says the company is unable to use because it mentions the advert.
Gemma Tumelty, NUS national president, said the advert was pulled because of the union’s policy against private tuition services.
She said: “We believe such services should be integral to students’ courses and should be provided to students by the further or higher education institution they attend, particularly given the fact that top-up feeds of up to £3,000 are being introduced this year.”
But Dr McKee, a former NUS president at Lanchester Polytechnic, now Coventry University, said the fees – averaging £30 for 90 minutes one to one – were fairly priced and filled a need not being met by universities.
While Coventry University and City College are still running prospectus adverts for ICUT, other Midlands universities, including Warwick and the University of Central England (UCE) in Birmingham, have both demanded ICUT stops advertising its services to its students.
Peter Dunn, Warwick University spokesman said: “We were very uncomfortable with the services they were offering. They were offiering additional support for spelling and grammar but the poster had two grammatical errors.
“They also claimed to help with the content of essays and we would prefer our students’ work to properly reflect their own merits.
“The idea we don’t offer enough services for our students is insulting. We would prefer our students to come to us for help, considering they pay for it already, rather than go elsewhere.”
Dr McKee said: “During February and March 2006, ICUT received 141 inquiries from UCE students and 123 inquiries from Warwick students – from all departments and at all levels – seeking extra assistance with their courses.”
Article by Kerry Beadling.
The result of ICUT's battle with the NUS was that the National Union of Students paid out a total of £3,300 damages to ICUT in an out-of-court settlement, October 2006.
Coventry Evening Telegraph Article, Saturday 2 September 2006
UNIVERSITY: £10,000 paid to unhappy postgraduates
Students win cash payouts
More than £10,000 has been paid out to disgruntled students at a Coventry university in the last three years.
The cash was compensation to postgraduate students unhappy with teaching and assessment at the University of Warwick.
Since autumn 2003, there have been nine complaints from students which university authorities agreed were justified.
They resulted in a total of £10,429.50 being paid to the students who complained.
All nine complaints were about postgraduate degrees at the university in Gibbet Hill Road., Gibbet Hill. Several of those who complained said they weren’t getting adequate supervision.
One person said there was a delay in their doctoral thesis being examined and they weren’t given the right advice when they decided to submit it a second time.
Another said examiners appointed to assess a PhD thesis didn’t know as much about the subject as they should have. Two others criticised the way their work for postgraduate degrees was assessed.
University spokesman, Peter Dunn said: “Warwick is one of the top five universities in the country. The standard of teaching and research here is very high.
“We have a complaints procedure and when we screw up we try to make amends.”
Costs of postgraduate courses vary between subjects but typically cost about £9,000 for a year.
No complaints from undergraduates were upheld.
At Coventry University no compensation has been paid to students over the last three years.
Article by Lucy Lynch, Education Reporter
Coventry Evening Telegraph Letters Page, Friday 15 September 2006
Students need ICUT tutors
Your report (Evening Telegraph, September 1) featured a scathing attack by Dr Peter Dunn of the University of Warwick on Independent Colleges and University Tutors. We are accused of exploitation, facilitating cheating and general impropriety, but most galling was his claim that Warwick provides all necessary academic support to its students.
By any chance, was this the same Dr Dunn who later (Evening Telegraph, September 2) admitted that his institution had “screwed up” on obligations to Warwick post-graduate students and repaid £10,000 in refunds?
Nothing I say here could make a better case for ICUT than this latest debacle. It is now to be hoped that Warwick will cease its obstructions and pompous denials of inadequacy, and co-operate with the competent and affordable team of ICUT tutors.
Dr Vincent McKee,
Director, ICUT
…Warwick University denied that the university is failing to provide adequate services for all its students (Evening Telegraph, September 1). Peter Dunn of Warwick University is attempting to suppress a tutor-providing service, ICUT, from advertising to its students.
Surely the demand for this service proves the university is wrong? As a university student myself, originally from Coventry, I have often found tutors unaccommodating and limited in their teaching ability and would gratefully accept the help of private tutors such as Dr Vincent McKee when my university fails me.
In addition, Saturday’s report, the day after the article on ICUT vs. Warwick, outlined how Warwick University was forced to pay £10,000 compensation for “screwing up” their education system – to paraphrase Mr Dunn. Clearly, Warwick University doesn't offer enough services for its students - is that not a contradiction on Mr Dunn’s, and Warwick’s, behalf? Surely this indicates a two-faced response: Students can expect compensation from a failing university, but don’t seem to be allowed to be help to remedy their problems. On the matter of “students’ work properly reflecting their own merits” as Dunn put it – as long as a tutoring company operates within the law there is no problem.
Simon C
Leeds
Coventry Evening Telegraph Letters Page,
Saturday, September 23, 2006
University Failed to Support me.
I was intrigued by your report of September 1 on the dispute between the University of Warwick and the private educationalists, ICUT.
I noted with particular incredulity claims by Peter Dunn that Warwick University provides its students with adequate academic support.
As a Warwick social sciences graduate, such was certainly not my experience in the 1990s. I was a mature student with dyslexia and that I managed to scrape a pass was due to help from other students, not the university. Moreover, I know from friends that such failings were/are not confined to Warwick.
Significantly, I noticed that Warwick University has since paid out more than £10,000 in refunds to students whom it admitted having short changed.
Might I suggest to Peter Dunn that instead of making attacks on a legitimate educational provider (which I only wish had been around last decade), he accepts that the private sector is offering a service that Warwick University lacks.
It is time for Warwick academics to be more willing to serve the community from whose taxes it is funded. Good luck ICUT; you are long overdue.
Mrs L A Sioson,
Chester Street, Radford
Coventry Evening Telegraph, Tuesday October 3, 2006
(Letters page)
Private tutors fulfil a need
It is not very often that I agreed with Dr Vincent McKee, but Warwick University’s press officer Peter Dunn is way off target when he criticises private-sector help for undergraduates.
Private –sector coaching has been available to undergraduates for more than 100 years, be it cramming schools, personal tutors or Scullion Scholars. The reason for the resurgence of this market is simple – the falling standards of A-levels.
Many of the former polytechnics, which still retain a lot of the high-quality teaching ethos of local authority-run colleges, have had the political honesty to recognise that growing numbers of undergraduates need extra help. This comes from extra A-level tuition in the first term, links with technical colleges or using the services that Dr McKee offers.
Warwick University would do far better if it clarified just how few marks are required for the award of a First (under 65 per cent in some cases) and adopted the “gold standard” of real universities of requiring at least 80 per cent.
Chris Youett
Spencer Avenue
Coventry
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Lecturer admits role in tutor firm
Phil Baty
Published: 20 October 2006 - The Times Higher Education Supplement
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A part-time lecturer at Coventry University this week outed himself as a key force behind a company condemned by vice-chancellors as an "inappropriate" and "exploitative" business that could land students in trouble for cheating, writes Phil Baty.
The firm offers one-to-one tuition to students and promises to improve their grades.
Sean McGeogh, a politics module leader at Coventry, told The Times Higher that the business, Independent College and University Tutors, is a legitimate response to the poor-quality teaching offered by overcrowded and underfunded universities.
Dr McGeogh, who holds a PhD from Birmingham, where he taught for five years and was a widening participation and student-retention officer, is providing consultancy and helping to recruit £30-an-hour tutors.
"I'm not happy that there is a gap in the market for organisations such as ICUT," he said. "Everything that they provide should be provided by the university system.
"But as one who works in the sector, I know all too well that there is no money to offer the kind of remedial courses and individual tutorial support that today's students vitally need."
The Times Higher revealed in August that vice-chancellors were angry that ICUT had been targeting university campuses with advertisements.
The company offers private tuition, "essay support", proofreading services and, more controversially, promises on its website to give "advice on improving essay content and presentation, so as to raise grades".
Dr McGeogh said the company did not help students to cheat and should be embraced by the sector. "I know the failings of the university system, and I'm doing something constructive rather than just moaning," he said.
A Coventry spokesperson said: "While part-time members of staff are free to undertake other contracted employment, the university would undertake a full investigation where such activities resulted in a conflict of interest."
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The Birmingham Post 26 February 2007
Tutoring row suggests more serious problem
By Shahid Naqvi
Education Correspondent
A Coventry-based private tutoring firm that targets struggling students claims a university could put it out of business.
ICUT is pursuing legal action against Coventry University, which ordered its student union body to remove a paid-for advertisement by the company from its website.
The firm has already clashed with Warwick University and Birmingham’s University of Central England, both of which have banned its advertising leaflets on campus.
But ICUT founder Dr Vincent McKee claims the business – which typically charges £35 for a two-hour session – is a legitimate enterprise and a response to “widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching and academic supervision” at universities.
“We provide an ethical service of retired academics or post-graduate students at affordable rates,” he said.
“We try and offer them a good service to prevent them going to unscrupulous services on the internet. We have had 416 students from Coventry contact us between last September and the end of January and 323 from UCE.
“The figures speak for themselves. This is what the universities don’t like,” he said.
“This is the first year all the universities charge £3,000 for tuition fees. Clearly they are not doing their job.”
Dr McKee claimed the issue had become a test case for the right of private business to provide an educational service to students.
He said: “We believe the university is trying to drive us out of business.”
And he claimed universities wanted to maintain a “monopoly” on higher education, fuelled by an “innate prejudice against the private sector” regardless of what was best for their students.
“The private sector is there to fulfil needs for providing education and back-up support for students who clearly universities are leaving behind,” he said.
“Many overseas students are not clear about accessing research methods for British universities. These are the kind of things universities claim to provide, but are not.
“Their glossy literature makes preposterous claims that aren’t borne our in reality.”
Dr McKee claimed 70 per cent of students using ICUT were from overseas and were being let down by universities that failed to live up to promises of support.
Solicitors acting on behalf of ICUT, which stands for the Institute of Independent Colleges and University Teachers, have issued a legal writ against Coventry University. They have given it 14 days to restore the company’s advert on the student union website or face court proceedings on grounds of breaching the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
Coventry University said in a statement: “The University does not support the advertising of any external agency offering educational support of this kind or similar to its students on campus.”
Chris Smith, president of Coventry University Students’ Union, said: “We are working closely with the university and ICUT UK to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
On its website ICUT offers help with pre-exam revision, essay/assignment support and proofreading, graduate support, as well as help for foundation degree and sixth-form students.
Created in 2005, the organisation also sets out a mission to challenge the “increasingly dubious claims by British universities to be providing ‘quality teaching’ to students” and confront a culture of “arrogant elitism displayed by the state universities”.
A spokeman for Warwick University said it judged posters advertising ICUT services were “inappropriate” and therefore removed them from campus.
Professor Mary Caswekk, pro vice-chancellor of UCE, said: “We are very aware of the availability of such services but do not allow anyone to advertise or promote such services on campus. We have also been working closely with our Students’ Union to warn students of the consequences of being tempted by such services.”
The Coventry Telegraph 26 February 2007
Private tutors furious over advert ban
A row has broken out between a firm of private tutors and Coventry University.
Bosses at Independent College and University Tutors based in Tower Street, Coventry city centre are at loggerheads with the university.
The firm’s director, Vincent McKee, is angry that Coventry University Students’ Union will no longer take his adverts.
University bosses asked the union to turn them down. University bosses have also asked ICUT staff not to hand out leaflets on university premises.
The two sides are now exchanging solicitors’ letters.
The issue at the hear of the row is whether students need to pay private tutors as well as going to lectures, seminars and tutorials run by their university.
ICUT employs academics who offer extra tuition at £35 for two hours to university students worried they’re falling behind.
The service is most popular with overseas students although British students are also among the customers.
But university bosses don’t think it’s right that private tutors should advertise on university premises to students.
Dr McKee said: “ICUT is a legitimate enterprise providing an alternative service.
“We don’t go on to the campus but we stand outside handing out leaflets.
“The problem is that the university resents the fact that there are a large number of students taking up our service.”
Chris Smith, president of Coventry University Students’ Union, said: “We are working closely with the university and ICUT UK to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
A Coventry University spokeswoman said: “The University does not support the advertising of any external agency offering educational support of this kind or similar to its students on campus.”
STOP PRESS -
ICUT STANDS UP TO UNIVERSITY BULLIES
In January 2007, ICUT's website advertisements were curbed by Coventry University - egged on by neighbouring universities - all of whom resented ICUT's popularity among students and its growing profile. As a result, ICUT served notice of intent to challenge the University's actions in the High Court, and instructed legal counsel accordingly. At the last minute, Coventry University backed off from a High Court battle; ICUT's website advertisements have been restored and the Students Union (who never wanted the dispute in the first place) have sought a restoration of normal working relations. Conclusively, events show ICUT to have been totally vindicated. In the future, ICUT will continue to champion the rights of the independent educational provider, and will not be deterred by threats, poisoned whispers, negative innuendo or any other forms of bullying by such institutions as Coventry University, University of Warwick, UCE and their like. ICUT stands for good teaching standards, provided by competent tutors on ethical terms at affordable rates.
We shall continue to promote our services, while also monitoring the universities' performances in the near future. This coming Summer ICUT will be publishing a report on the attainments of universities in the English Midlands. Our report will comment on teaching provision, student access to resources and the real levels of pastoral support to students experiencing difficulties, most particularly overseas students.
Watch this space for more!
We invite you to note the articles which follow.
The Birmingham Post Thursday April 12th 2007
University caves in over ad for tuition
By Shahid Naqvi
Education Correspondent
A private tutoring firm has forced a Midland university to back down from a ban on asserting its "legitimate" right to offer extra paid-for tuition to students.
Managers at Coventry University told their student union to remove an advertisement by ICUT from its website and magazine at the beginning of this year.
However, ICUT founder Dr Vincent McKee threatened to take the university to court claiming it was illegally attempting to stifle private sector competition.
Coventry University's student union has now reinstated the firm's advertisement after finding no legitimate grounds for the ban. The university's managers are also not opposing the move.
Dr McKee, who says his Coventry-based company is providing a much-needed service to students in the face of poor teaching standards, hailed the U-turn as a victory for private sector involvement in higher education. "The private sector is here to stay. We are offering a service that is legitimate, ethical and affordable," he said.
"I welcome the initiative by the student union president Chris Smith to end this unnecessary and highly unpleasant rupture in relations. I entirely accept the rupture was not the union's doing and appreciate the work of Mr Smith and his colleagues in restoring the relationship."
ICUT was created two years ago and typically charges students £35 for a two-hour session.
The company insists it does not do coursework for clients but helps them get to grips with subjects they are falling behind on. Dr McKee said the firm was inundated with requests for help and blamed sloppy teaching by universities for the demand.
A banner advert and a directory listing for ICUT was removed from Coventry University's student union website in January on instruction from the institution's vice-chancellor, Professor Madeleine Atkins.
The university said it "does not support the advertising of any external agency offering educational support of this kind or similar to its students on campus".
Last month, Dr McKee gave the university 14 days to restore the company's advertisement or face court proceedings on grounds of breaching the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
The university capitulated in the face of the legal threat and the union has agreed to carry the advert.
A spokesman for Coventry University said: "We understand that Dr McKee has a contract with the students' union and they are prepared to honour this."
Chris Smith, student union president, said: "We have successfully resolved this issue with ICUT."
Coventry Telegraph Wednesday April 18, 2007
University caves in over private tuition ads
The boss of a private tutoring firm has won his battle to advertise his company on the Coventry University Student Union website.
Dr Vincent McKee, director of Independent College and University Tutors, has forced Coventry University to back down and allow the advert on the student website.
The row broke out in January when Coventry University bosses asked the student union not to accept the ICUT advert. They said they didn’t support external companies advertising academic help to students.
But Dr. McKee threatened legal action and the university and student union have now decided to let the adverts go ahead.
Dr McKee said: “I respect Madeleine Atkins’ [the university vice chancellor’s] right to run Coventry University in the public interest but, equally, she must respect our right to offer our services to students who are struggling with courses.”
ICUT, based in Tower Street, Coventry city centre, employs academics to offer extra help to students worried they’re falling behind. A two-hour session usually costs £35. The service is most popular with overseas students but British students are also among the customers.
SEE ABOVE for the history of this dispute.
RESULT
Game, set and match to ICUT !
In respect of Coventry University's latest battle with ICUT over our right to advertise tutoring services to students, we can confirm that between 25th September 2006 and 4th April 2007, a total of 621 students contacted ICUT from Coventry seeking our help. A further 412 contacted ICUT from UCE, 307 from the University of Warwick, 91 from Birmingham University and 68 from Aston University. Those figures speak for themselves!
Further to the above figures we have to add that from May 1st 2007 to 31st December 2008, a total of 1654 students contacted ICUT from Coventry University, 934 from the University of Warwick, 215 from Birmingham University, 184 from Aston University, 1853 from Birmingham City University, 571 from the University of Wolverhampton, 89 from Staffordshire University, 154 from the University of Leicester and 593 from De Montfort University, Leicester.
Problems with BT and Hotmail
Coventry Telegraph, Saturday, November 24, 2007
ROW: City MP backs complaint by tutorial services boss
Blocked e-mails ‘crippling business’
By Michael Corley
A COVENTRY businessman says a dispute between rival internet giants has forced him to axe staff.
Dr Vincent McKee, who runs a tutoring agency for university and college students, ICUT (UK), in Jesson House, Tower Street, city centre, insists that a rift between BT Broadband and Microsoft’s Hotmail has brought his business to the brink.
The problem appears to have been created by a new Hotmail software system that’s designed to block junk e-mails or spam.
Instead of rooting out mail, the system also seems to be stopping hundreds of ICUT’s messages getting to clients – with the effect of crippling the business.
Dr McKee says he has already had to lay off two workers, and put another on short time, after more than 30 per cent of the company’s e-mails were bounced back by the filter system in the past fortnight.
And he fears things could get worse.
Dr McKee, who employs six people and has more than 300 freelance tutors on his books, said: “It happens to us all every once in a while, e-mails bouncing back or not landing where they’re supposed to, but this has started happening with alarming frequency.
“BT said they’ve got to the bottom of it and admitted there’s been a dispute between themselves and Microsoft, the parent company of Hotmail. As a result all BT Broadband e-mails going to Hotmail accounts are being blocked, and there is no framework for a resolution.
“We’re extremely concerned.”
To combat the problem, Dr McKee says he’s in the process of setting up a new e-mail account to divert messages to the proper address, and has lodged a complaint with the communication industry’s watchdog, Ofcom.
Labour MP for Coventry South Jim Cunningham has also backed Dr McKee’s campaign for action with a strongly-worded letter to Ofcom.
A spokeswoman for BT said: “This is not a problem that’s been created by BT.
“Microsoft Hotmail implemented a new spam filter system without consulting us.
“We’ve informed Hotmail about this to make them aware.”
She added that she was not aware that any other BT customer was suffering in the same way.
Microsoft has promised to investigate the matter.
Birmingham Post, November 22, 2007
Email problems an expensive lesson for tutoring firm
By Steve Palin and Rhona Ganguly
A West Midlands private tutoring firm has criticised BT because of problems with emails which executives claim have cost it tens of thousands of pounds in business.
Dr Vincent McKee, founder and director of Coventry-based ICUT – the Institute of Independent Colleges and University Teachers – said for the past four weeks emails sent to students using Hotmail accounts had been bouncing back.
His company is a BT Broadband customer and typically charges students £35 for a two hour session. It operates through some 350 tutors all over the country.
But despite complaints to BT, an angry Dr McKee said nothing had been done to resolve the problem, which has hit about a third of his firm’s emails.
As a result, he said, two members of staff had lost their jobs with hours cut for a third.
In addition, he said the company had made a loss of £60,000 in a month.
He believed it was due to some form of long running “dispute” between BT and US software computer giant Microsoft, operator of the Hotmail service.
“I am really not bothered about the reasons for this dispute. But BT has failed to inform us of this problem, which is not being treated as a priority. There has been no explanation,” he added. “We have lost business worth thousands of pounds.
“I have recruited a guy to reroute our whole email system to salvage some of our lost business.”
When contacted by the Birmingham Post Microsoft and BT said they would look into the claims by ICUT, which was formed in January 2005.
However, they insisted that there was no dispute between them involving Hotmail.
A Microsoft spokesman suggested that ICUT’s problems were more likely to be related to anti-spam features – in particular spam filter settings – which could block incoming Hotmail messages.
A BT spokesman however said it was possible Dr McKee’s problems had been caused by Hotmail introducing new spam filters.
“In the meantime, we apologise for the difficulty he is experiencing, and would reassure him we are liaising with Hotmail about what more can be done,” she added.
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News items about ICUT in the Press