This research, commissioned by Charity Business (providers of outsourced services to the charity sector) in the summer of 2008, looks at the potential use of outsourcing in the voluntary sector, particularly in light of the current economic climate.

This article explores the factors that have prevented parallel growth in education provision. It argues that the university as an institution, both in terms of its nature and its power structures, is one of those factors. It presents the story of the closing of the world's first voluntary sector course at the London School of Economics and concludes with reflection on the likely future of voluntary sector management education provision in the United Kingdom.