Wrapping up for winter

It's a wrap

This time of year tends to be a time of reflection – we’re looking back, evaluating the cycle with the help of UCAS end of year data, which is due this week, and the National Clearing Survey (NCS), which has just been released. We’ve been listening to commentators and thinking about lessons learned.

The consensus is that the undergraduate market is changing and not just because of the increased competition amongst HEIs. Student behaviours are changing too.

Commentators tell us that 49% of our recruitment will be from direct applicants through Feb- Aug and that more students will enter through clearing in 2017-18 than ever before. The NCS tells us that 67% of clearing students hadn’t visited the HEI they chose before they went there, but that 77% had visited the website and, apparently, attendance at open days is falling across the sector.

What’s our lesson? That we can’t rely on past behaviours or be complacent about the recruitment cycle or confirmation and clearing?! This is evidenced in sector wide undergraduate applications for 2017 entry, which are currently 8.6% down and the likelihood that HEIs will experience the submission of 20% of applications just before the January 15th deadline.

It's a rap

We know that we’re operating in a shrinking market with fewer 16-18 year olds in the UK; a situation that is not predicted to improve until 2020. We also know that there are more alternatives to university on offer, such as apprenticeships. A buyers’ market clearly now exists for UG enabling the prospective student to wait until clearing before applying.

So how do we identify and engage our potential students? It’s challenging - we have to engage early, interact and make loyal, so that at the point of decision, the University of Bedfordshire is front of mind and a positive choice. Students need to have heard of us to consider us in clearing; the NCS states that 85% are aware of the institution they enrol at prior to results day.

Top motivations for students are still subject 1st, career 2nd and institution ranking 3rd, but students also want to see and experience student life. They want to know about the community that they could become part of, so the opportunities we have to engage with them have to create emotion and connection.

So in 2017 watch out for more storytelling from students, virtual open days, web chats with academics, web tools to ease decision making, interactive video to select the content that is relevant to the student (mature, international etc.), digital champions and social media across the University, user generated content, more use of alumni, social media engagement not broadcast, softer calls to action that lead and nurture relationships and communications that connect with segmented audiences; parents, mature students, teachers.

Oh to be like the film industry and have a party at the end of every project, but working in marketing we can never really say ‘It’s a wrap’ because relationships are on-going, they evolve, take new forms and provide us with new communication challenges.

It's a rapper