Postgraduate Forum: June

Postgraduate Taught Courses in a falling market

Yesterday I was in London for the latest PG Forum, 'UK PGT in a falling market - how to reverse the trend'. The event saw delegates from over 25 universities across the country gather to discuss the downward trend in PGT applications and the ways in which we, as marketers and recruiters, might be able to change things.

It was a very interesting day of discussion, and the willingness of delegates to share experiences and ideas was really heartening. Though I'm not sure we got anywhere near figuring out how to reverse the downward trend in PGT applications, some really great ideas were discussed.

Useful considerations to come from the day:
1. Widening Participation
This was a big topic of conversation throughout the day; lots of Universities, like us, seemed to be doing fairly well at converting their undergraduates into postgraduates but the general consensus was that this won't be enough in the future. There was lots of discussions about the accessibility of PG and how we can encourage applications from students based on experience rather than a UG qualification, in order to attract those who might not consider themselves capable of PG study.
2. 'The Postgraduate cliff '
This phrase rather ominously came up on multiple occasions throughout the day. Almost everyone in attendance is worried about what happens when the first £9,000 fees UG cohort reaches their final year; how will they react to PG, and will their already substantial debt put them off? If it does, how do we react?
3. University Systems vs. The Student Experience
During a fascinating student panel, we heard that one current PG student dismissed lots of possible universities based on not being able to pay fees in installments and also the request for her UG transcript before she had received it from her current university. Although it was widely accepted that university processes are in place for good reason, it was interesting that students are dismissing universities because their processes make it too difficult to apply.
   
Other updates

• While we're nearing the print phase of the UCMK 2015 prospectus, the proofing of the PG 2015 is still in full swing. Everything seems to be on track and we're seeing lots of progress being made with each set of proofs that comes in. 
• We're working hard on promoting the upcoming June undergraduate open days, and numbers are growing steadily. 
• You might have noticed the new, large Postgraduate Information Point stand that is now in Park
  Square campus. We hope you'll agree it's looking really good, and we'll be making sure the screen is live and the stand fully stocked by the time our undergraduates are back on campus after summer. 
• I've been spending lots of time filming staff and students, creating content in the form of one minute long mini-lectures ('PGTips'), continuing to film Q&A interviews, and videoing our very own Recruitment Team for the newly launched CRM system, Belong at Beds. 

As ever there's loads of smaller jobs going on alongside those big ones so we're all being kept on our toes.

I'm sure we'll catch up soon!

Clare