The proportion of business and management students who complete their course has fallen to a record low, with experts warning that universities are prioritising financial gains over quality.

?the Office for Students (OfS) show that?only 82 per cent of full-time first-degree business and management students from 2019-20 graduated four years later ¨C down from 86 per cent the year before. This was a record low for the decade and 10 percentage points lower than medicine students.

A record low proportion (80 per cent) of these students continued their courses into a second year,?only 65 per cent achieved good outcomes 15 months after graduating and just 70 per cent recorded a first or a 2:1 in 2023-24.

These results were the lowest across all subject types recorded in the data and were even worse when only international students, who study business and management in large numbers, are included.

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Just 69 per cent of overseas students in these courses achieve a top degree, compared?with 86 per cent of their UK peers who study humanities and languages.

Universities have long relied on business schools for cross-subsidy and the data show this funding source is seen as the priority, according to Martin Parker, professor of organisation studies at the University of Bristol.

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¡°The desire that universities have to ensure that they¡¯ve got a well-functioning cash machine means that they¡¯re very often more interested in the income than they are in the qualifications of students or the likelihood that they¡¯ll manage to get something out of their degree.

¡°The generation of this income is pretty much the only game in town in terms of serious money to make sure that universities can keep replacing the windows in the chemistry building.¡±

The OfS data show that over a fifth of business and management students are from overseas ¨C the highest proportion of all subjects by some distance.

Business and management courses also often tend to be among the largest departments in a university, with higher student-to-staff ratios ¨C which is seen as a factor that makes learning particularly challenging for overseas students.

Parker said the only way to improve these outcomes is by trying to reduce class sizes, but that would involve ¡°spending money that universities don¡¯t have¡±.

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¡°Institutions just don¡¯t have that kind of cash now, which is why they are teaching at scale, and very often why that teaching at scale is a pretty alienating experience for lots of the students involved.¡±

The OfS?has investigated a number of universities?over concerns around?poor-quality business and management courses, with those that have been franchised out to external providers coming under particular scrutiny.

Parker said more detailed figures would likely show substantial differences between the top business schools at some of the older universities and some of the newer business schools at ex-polytechnics.

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Stewart Robinson, chair of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), said business schools attract a substantial number of students from low-participation neighbourhoods, which may impact completion rates.

¡°These students may face challenges balancing study commitments with work and other responsibilities, such as caring duties, and often experience additional financial pressures,¡± he added.

To improve outcomes, Robinson, also dean of Newcastle University Business School, said the government must address the financial strains that universities are facing to ease the ¡°intense pressure¡± that business schools are under from their parent university to recruit students.

He also called for business subjects to be added to the ¡°priority¡± courses eligible for the new maintenance grants for domestic students ¨C which business schools will be ¡°effectively subsidising¡± through the international student levy.

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com