Although Chameleon Net have been working with higher education institutions for over 4 years, I have only started dipping my toes in this sector since August 2008. Fair enough, I understand the web and have an appreciation for all things digital, but as I get deeper and deeper immersed in the higher education sector, it’s evident to me that there are some gaps in my knowledge. It got me thinking: “How do I best serve the Higher Education sector over the coming years?” Hence, I signed up to attend a seminar titled “Introduction to Higher Education” which was run by CASE Europe and led by Peter Reader, Director of Marketing and Communications at University of Portsmouth.
In the 30 years since he attended university as a student, Peter has worked in six UK universities (Sheffield Hallam, Plymouth, Loughborough, Southampton, Bath and Portsmouth) in mostly externally-facing roles such as fundraising, marketing, communications, government and community relations. His professional interests include crisis management, communications and reputation management. These interests coupled with numerous presentations he has given around the world meant that I was keen to hear his views about the sector, including what’s hot and what’s not.
The full-day seminar which took place in London yesterday, Tuesday 12th January 2009, kicked off with welcome and introductions by Peter, and then dived into a session by Peter Reader on Current Issues in Higher Education.
Universities are split into two types – those who select and those who recruit. Selecting universities are those who have the privilege of receiving many more applications for a course than places available. An example of this would be the University of Bristol who have approximately 30 applicants per place on their English degree. Recruiting universities, in comparison, are those who have less applicants than course places available. These type of universities have to actively recruit for new students. Obviously most universities fall somewhere in between these extremes, where some of their courses may be heavily subscribed and they’d need to go through a tougher selection process, and some courses which are undersubscribed and require strong recruitment efforts.
Location of the university is becoming a greater factor in the decision a student makes about the institution they attend. Compared to thirty years ago when there were less universities than there are now, and even though students can travel a longer distance in shorter time, students are still opting to attend a university closer to home than halfway across the country. The rising cost of attending university and the difficulty of getting even part time jobs in this current economic climate has meant that students want to keep their weekend jobs to help pay for their education and want to choose a university which is easy to get back from at the weekends.
There are only three UK universities which are internationally recognised on a wide scale – Oxford, Cambridge and London (!) International students buy into the brand of a UK HEI, so this is why Northumbria University (whose students are 17% international) decided to rebrand from “Northumbria Newcastle” to “Northumbria”.
Data natives are those who were born with a keyboard in their hands while data immigrants are those who have had to learn about the web. As most of the staff at a university are data immigrants they are forced to think like data natives and build student recruitment campaigns from that perspective.
Some of the hot issues for HE in 2009 are the pay award and the recession. According to Peter Reader, if the 8% pay increase is not awarded this year then it may lead to industrial dispute, academic staff may stop marking papers, and students will end up suffering as a result of it. On the flip side, if the 8% pay increase IS awarded, then the money needs to come from somewhere – perhaps job losses are on the horizon for non-academic staff. Friction between academic and non-academic staff may be inevitable, although I sure hope not.
In a recession there are two things that always tend to get taken off the budget in the commercial sector: marketing and training & development. This is bound to have an impact on the number of employees being sent to university to do part-time courses. However, with a severe lack of jobs available, many job-seekers may opt to apply for higher education study to build up their academic credentials.
As for how higher education shapes up in the coming years, be prepared for larger and fewer universities (such as the successful merger of University of Manchester and UMIST), and new entrants into the market such as the University of Phoenix who are attacking the European post grad market by offering distance learning to 90,000 students across the globe.
Following a refreshment and networking break, it was down to David Rider, Director of Development at The Robert Gordon University, to open us up to what universities should use development and alumni relations for.
Philanthropy, popularised by the likes of Andrew Carnegie and Bill and Melinda Gates, is actually considered as all voluntary action for the public good which, based in values, includes giving, asking, joining and serving. People engage in philanthropic activities when their values align with the values of the organisation they are serving (financially or through other means). What this means is that to attract long term donor investment, your university must clearly tell the public what the values of your organisation are, allowing people to engage in philanthropic activities with your university and give towards something they feel strongly about.
Mission statements need to describe why the organisation exists (i.e. fulfilling societal needs) and not just describing its function. This is because as a university you’re looking for funding and support because you want to do something with that to change people’s lives, not just to reach the £100,000,000 goal!
As David Rider put it, “It’s not the bricks and mortar you’re telling people to invest into, it’s what comes OUT of the bricks and mortar.” Therefore, when building your fundraising campaign, consider which of the following causes your campaign addresses: reducing human suffering, enhancing human potential, promoting private equity and justice, providing human fulfilment, supporting experimentation and change, supporting pluralism, and building community.
There are three groups you can receive donations from: Individuals, Trusts and Foundations, and Corporates.
Donations from Individuals: Staff tend to have an association with their own institution, especially if the university is their own alma mater – so start here. In the USA, a letter goes out to parents asking for donations. Alumni including honoraries (a.k.a. Celanthropists / celebrity philanthropists) are a good source of donations so long as the institution’s values align with their own values. Other sources of individual donations are governors, affluent ‘friends’, and philanthrocapitalists. With individuals, you go through a cycle of identifying who they are, informing them about the university and causes, involving them by inviting them to the university, getting them to invest in the cause, and communicating with them how their investment has impacted the cause.
Donations from Corporates: Donations for a specific campaign at a university can often give a company good PR. Other ways companies can pump money into universities, is through workforce scholarships, up skilling (to gain a competence advantage) and through research (to gain a competitive advantage).
As for reaching out to “Generation Y” alumni, David gave a brief overview that Generation Y are under 25s (born 1983 onwards), they tend to have helicopter parents who fly over their heads and swoop in to clear away any challenges their child faces, they are digital natives and technology dependent, and demand immediacy of information and feedback, and from everybody!
Next... lunch: CASE held the seminar at the Etc Venues near Moorgate station in London – a truly exceptional choice of location for one thing if nothing else – their catering facilities! Lunch was absolutely delicious and catered for my vegan palate. I was served stuffed green peppers with some type of potato and a salad on the side. They took almost as good care of me as the chefs at the resort in St. Lucia took care of my wife and I on our honeymoon 3 weeks back – well done!
Back up in the seminar room we were challenged with a post-lunch practical exercise. Facilitated by Peter Reader, the interactive session gave us an opportunity to explore student choice in the ever-changing Higher Education market. In groups of 5 or 6, each group were asked to select one of the fictional universities. Our group chose ‘The (private) University of Windsor’ which had a striking resemblance to (the very real) University of Buckingham which is the only private university in the United Kingdom, was founded in the 1970s, and whose Former Chancellor was Margaret Thatcher.
Each member of the group were assigned a role (prospective student, parent of prospective student, school or college careers adviser, HE course tutor, Vice-Chancellor, or Students Union President), and during the role play were asked to to list why students would be attracted to our institution, why they would not be attracted to the institution, and which roles have the greatest influence on student choice. What became clear was that in all the groups, the choice of higher education institution was less about academic results and was more about location of the university. Also, depending on the type of university it was, the role which had greatest influence over student choice was different. i.e. the VC has greater impact at the private University of Windsor, but less so at the New University of Thames Gateway.
We were then asked to list who we would market the university to and communications channels we would use to market to them. Although all the groups shared a whole variety of communications channels, not a single group mentioned prospectuses. Isn’t it amazing that a university often spends £100,000 each year on producing and distributing prospectuses, and that wasn’t even a comms channel that was considered? It turns out that prospectuses are usually for the benefit of the prospective students’ parents rather than the students themselves.
Following the practical exercise and a short break, Alison Steel, Director of Marketing and Communications at Glasgow Caledonian University delivered a session on challenges faced by senior higher education marketers and how to overcome them.
It turns out that on the whole, university marketers tend not to have much authority with university management, especially the Vice-Chancellor, and it is often very hard to fight institutional inertia. Budgets are set and then the marketing ideas are set around the budgets. However, if you wish to make any progress with academics, the phrase to use is “evidence based” – try it out and see if you get any buy-in from academic staff as a result of it.
So there you have it – all in all a very information-packed day which offered a good foundation for anyone starting a career in higher education.
It’s important to note that Alison Steel, David Rider, and Peter Reader are all very well established in the higher education sector and volunteered their and resources to present at this event. Kudos to all three of you, and CASE Europe, for giving us “freshers” such a good foundation within this complex yet welcoming and caring field.
You’ll be pleased to hear that Helen Aspell, former Head of Digital Marketing at University of Southampton will be gracing our own seminar on Tuesday 24th February 2009. Keep the date in your diary for Digital student recruitment: macro strategy, micro issues which is free to attend for senior higher education marketers and student recruiters.
You can also check out our education portal at www.chameleonnet.co.uk/education for details of our web solutions for HEIs.
Remember Me
