Britain

Abstract Britain’s case exemplifies how a market-oriented, vertically differentiated higher education system responded to broad skill demand in a service-based knowledge economy. The chapter analyses how business’ lobbying shaped an employability paradigm in higher education, which universities engaged with by branding themselves around graduate outcomes and work-readiness. Universities’ behaviour was shaped by vertical differentiation in a highly competitive higher education market and enhanced by steps taken by successive governments to increase the information available to prospective students on universities’ performance. The latter increasingly revolved around information on how universities ensure that their education offer is in line with labour market demand.