Student recruitment: Better together

In this guest blog, UCL’s Student Recruitment Marketing (SRM) team explain how they work closely with Faculties and departments across the university to recruit talented students from around the world. 

Catherine Thomson, one of the first co-leaders of the UCL Student Recruitment Community of Practice, described student recruitment as everyone’s business. One way or another everyone has a part to play, whether it has a direct or indirect impact on the recruitment of students.

But with so many players involved, how do we make sure that we’re not all pulling in different directions but instead achieve consistency? How do we balance the overall institutional goals with the Faculties’ and departments’ need to reach their targets of recruiting the right number and calibre of students?

Regular meetings

It’s easy to assume we all want the same things, but that’s not necessarily the case. Let’s take the example of China. We have a large cohort of students from China so there is no institutional incentive to drive numbers up as a whole, but yet there is scope for some degree programmes to increase enrolments from PRC. On the surface this creates a conflict between the big, overall picture and the nuance of Faculties and departments.

The key to solving the conundrum is to work together to understand the needs of all the stakeholders, and ensure the right tools are in place to meet those needs. The SRM team meets Faculty counterparts on a regular basis to discuss Faculty recruitment goals and target markets.

We work together to identify where we can consolidate or improve our performance in a particular subject in existing markets, and what activities may be best.

Sharing knowledge and intelligence

On the flip side, the discussions also present an opportunity to identify where the markets prioritised by SRM differ from those identified by a Faculty, and why that might be the case. For example, there may be subject areas which are particularly relevant or where UCL has built up a strong reputation in specific parts of the world where there is little or no wider institutional interest. Sharing knowledge and intelligence is vital, and means that we can dovetail activities to complement each other rather than clash.

Different stakeholders will take the lead at different stages of the student journey too. The diagram below illustrates broadly how prospective students experience UCL as they move from considering us to actively selecting us, and who leads on those interactions at each stage of the process.

In general the initial relationship is with the institution as a whole, and deepens with the specific programme or department as the journey progresses. Again, conversation and work between the centre, the Faculties and departments is essential to ensure that opportunities are maximised, the right tools are there and that we’re working to make the experience as seamless as possible for students.

There are always improvements to be made, but initiatives such as the recruitment activity and communications mapping exercises and the use of the Kano model to help clarify what needs to be done by all the players means we can see where we need to focus our attention.

If you have any questions about UCL’s student recruitment strategy and activities, please contact Neil Green, Head of Student Recruitment Neil Green at neil.green@ucl.ac.uk