Pru Jones ISC Head of Research

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Pru JonesISC Head of Research
The importance of benchmarking
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Why benchmark?
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This session

• Benchmark to lobby
• Benchmark to progress
• Principles of benchmarking
• Benchmarking in the future

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Benchmark to lobby

• Know your audience

• Know their misconceptions

• Make it personal

• Slow burn

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Benchmark to lobby

• Fee inflation

• Journalists

• Inflation busting increases

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Benchmark to lobby
Fee inflation

• Comparing fee inflation with CPI inflation is
  disingenuous

• Education inflation is measured by National
  Statistics
• Its weight in the CPI basket is only 1.9

• Official education inflation is 13.7
• This includes ALL paid for education
• ISC school fees account for less than a third of
  this total

• All other paid for education costs are rising
  faster than ISC school fees

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Benchmark to lobby
Higher Education

• Independent school pupils
• have an unfair advantage in admissions
• underperform at university
• drop out

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Benchmark to lobby
University entrance

• Challenge existing research
• Conduct new research
• Know your opponents
• Be persistent

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Benchmark to progress
Using elasticities to understand our market

• How does demand for independent schooling respond
  to changes in fees?

• Price elasticity of demand
• change in demand
• change in price

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Benchmark to progress
Boarding

• An increase in fees leads to a fall in demand
• BUT, demand is inelastic
• Elasticities vary significantly by Association

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Benchmark to progress
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Benchmark to progress
Day

• An increase in fees does not always lead to a
  fall in demand
• Demand is inelastic
• Again, elasticities vary by Association

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Benchmark to progress

• Brand loyalty
• A service worth making sacrifices for
• The difference between day and boarding

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Benchmarking for progress

• What is the relationship between day and
  boarding?

• Cross elasticity of demand
• change in quantity demanded of good X (day)
• change in price of good Y (boarding)

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Benchmark to progress

• They appear to be substitutes
• A rise in boarding fees leads to rise in day
  pupil numbers
• BUT, demand is inelastic
• Elasticities vary significantly by Association

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Benchmarking for progress

• What is the relationship between household wealth
  and demand for independent schooling?

• Income elasticity of demand
• change in quantity demanded
• change in income

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Benchmark to progress
DAY

• A normal good an increase in income leads to
  an increase in demand
• But, a fall income will lead to a fall in demand
• Not a luxury good

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Benchmark to progress
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Benchmark to progress

• Similar messages to price elasticity
• Income measures?
• Looking more at day and boarding
• Looking more at single sex Vs co-ed

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Principles of benchmarking

• Know your audience
• Know their misconceptions
• DATA
• Rigorous research
• New ideas

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Benchmarking in the future

• Census benchmarking on line
• Public perceptions ISC Annual Conference
• Economic impact ISC Annual Conference
• Special Education Needs
• Ethnicity
• International links
• Research links
• Ideas stream

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Benchmarking the future