Projects that DJS Research has carried out within the education and skills sector includes course feasibility research. Essentially, the core aim of this form of research is to explore whether a particular university would find it viable to offer a new course. This must take in to account the level of demand there is for the particular course, whether the client university will be able to attract a sufficient number of students to take the course, whether the course will in fact attract more students to the university in general, and whether there are any competitors offering similar courses that would significantly detract from its chances of gaining a suitable number of students enrolled on their own course. Course feasibility research can also be carried out to establish whether a university would find it viable to offer a similar course on two separate campuses, and again whether one would significantly detract from the success of the other.

DJS Research has conducted course feasibility research for several universities in the past. For the example of a university offering a course at two campuses, it was important to ascertain whether the course could be identical at each campus, or whether it would be necessary for a few differences to be implemented in order to ensure that both courses remain attractive. Additionally, more detailed research would have to take place, to investigate the possibility of part time as well as full time provision, determine how much support there would be amongst the lecturers and relevant heads of department at feeder colleges and also to discover what the best marketing messages would be, and what profile of potential student it would need to be marketed to. A further aim of course feasibility research is to establish the appeal of competitor courses compared to that of the client’s prospective new course. It is also important for the university to find out views from potential employers as to how attractive graduates from the new course would be to them, as the course may not be feasible if job seekers with a degree from that course are not attractive.

Course feasibility research can be carried out mainly by qualitative research methods. DJS has used in-depth interviews with people who had enquired about the relevant course, and focus groups with school students were interested in studying similar courses at university.