Well, I can't object to anything Budwisner said. Of course the optimistic answer has to be the correct answer, unless we just want to embrace cultural and economic suicide. Whichever scenario favors students and teachers will also favor the business in the long run. Cutting corners on quality is always undercutting oneself as well.

I don't quite see Aston as the brand of school that competes in preparing students to ace exams or get into the better schools, however. I see it as just a place for students to get the training at oral English that foreigners (with proper TEFL training) can provide and which the public schools usually cannot. And it's mostly for the kiddies. They seem to be targeting ever younger students, while not putting much effort into their adult program at all.

I agree also that some people would like to be career teachers in private schools teaching intensive English to small groups of students. But not in the framework that currently predominates of the "shared housing," low salary, and two weeks of paid vacation in a year.