How universities could cash in

By Mike Baker BBC education correspondent

The most bizarre education story this week was undoubtedly the revelation that universities in the USA are making money from allowing their logos to appear on the inside of coffins.

Apparently graduates of American universities are, like the Pharaohs or the Vikings, keen to take the symbols of their earthly life with them when they move on.

Such is the buying power of 'alumni' that you can put their alma mater's insignia on almost anything and sell it for a profit.

Even toddlers, who had not yet graduated from kindergarten, were dressed in U of M outfits

I have seen the T-shirts, baseball caps, miniature football helmets, and sweat-tops.

Indeed you cannot miss them if you stroll around any American campus - or city, for that matter - but I had never imagined this logo-mania would extend to coffins.

Is anything beyond the bounds of taste? When I spent some time at the University of Michigan I can recall seeing college tattoos, and even hair-cuts, incorporating the university's ubiquitous 'M' symbol.

Even toddlers, who had not yet graduated from kindergarten never mind high school, were dressed in U of M outfits. On Alumni Weekends, the campus was filled with 50 and 60 year-olds sporting outsize 'M's stitched to everything.

All this is in stark contrast to the United Kingdom where, if you find anyone wearing a university T-short or sweat-shirt, you can safely assume they are tourists, not alumni or students.

So, tastes are different either side of the Atlantic. What does it matter? Well it does make a difference in one important respect: university finances.

British universities could very much do with the money that institutions like the University of Michigan, never mind Harvard, Berkeley, or Yale, make from merchandising.

And it doesn't stop there. Gifts and bequests from alumni make a substantial contribution to college coffers in the USA.

A US company is selling headstones with university logos

Indeed philanthropic giving is vastly bigger in the USA than in Britain, where professional fund-raising by universities is still in its infancy. Not all gifts come from former students; local people tend to feel a stronger association with their state university than ever happens in Britain.

If British universities could get both their alumni and their local communities to make a life-long identification with them, they could be well on the way to meeting some of their funding shortfall.

This may not be the way university funding should go. But government rhetoric suggests that waiting for tax-payers' money to bridge the funding gap will prove fruitless.

Indeed, in the 'softening-up' process ahead of January's Strategy Paper on Higher Education, ministers have pointedly referred to universities doing more to tap their alumni.

So why is it so different in the USA?

It could be something to do with self-identity and the way Americans are generally more likely to wrap themselves in identifying insignia, be it the nation(the flag is saluted at every event), the state (the number plate on every vehicle), or educational institution (school and college regalia).

The symbol of the local university in the USA takes on a talismanic identity for the whole community

Yet, in Britain we often do something fairly similar. The old school tie and the college scarf may have been sent to the charity shop years ago, but union-jack waving increased during the Jubilee celebrations and replica football shirts have become almost a uniform at soccer matches.

And maybe sport is the key. For, while British communities ignore their universities but identify strongly with their local professional soccer team, in the USA the identification is frequently with the local university's football, basketball or ice-hockey team.

At the University of Michigan, every home football match is watched by a crowd of 110,000 people. Many more watch it live on television. Nowhere near all of them are students or alumni.

The coach of the football team is probably the highest paid member of the university and has the media profile of any top soccer manager in Britain.

Philanthropy

All this means the symbol of the local university in the USA takes on a talismanic identity for the whole community, graduates or non-graduates, sports fans or couch-potatoes.

Of course, one factor behind this is that state universities like the University of Michigan tend to take most of their students from within the state.

British universities have traditionally recruited from all over the country, although as costs force more students to live at home this is changing.

Before long, I am sure we will see replica Luton University football shirts, Thames Valley University coffins, and Oxford University tattoos

So, if British universities are to get serious about raising money from alumni, philanthropy and merchandising there are two things they should do.

First, they should work harder to forge an identity with the local population, by taking more local students or forging closer contacts with local schools and community groups, inviting them onto the campus to share facilities.

Second, they should start to recruit more budding professional sportsmen and women.

When 20,000 turn up to watch Birmingham University's football team or Bristol University rugby matches, then the merchandising route will open up.

After all, Team Bath (Bath University's soccer team) has shown the way with their good run in the FA Cup. The final match of their cup run was televised live.

So, the message to university admissions tutors is simple. Forget the usual discussions about quantum theory or the novels of Jane Austen and stick to just two questions: are you local? And can you catch/throw/kick a ball?

Before long, I am sure we will see replica Luton University football shirts, Thames Valley University coffins, and Oxford University tattoos.

The university funding crisis might be solved and the skies could fill with curly-tailed, pink mammals floating gently by.

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