FindAUniversity: The Story So Far
It’s been an eventful few years at FindAUniversity. Since partnering with Keystone Education Group in 2021, we’ve been moving onwards and upwards with a company rebrand, new collaborations across the sector, and much more. Having recently celebrated our annual company away day, or ‘FAU Day’, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the FindAUniversity journey so far!
We ask co-founder Andy Pritchard to reflect on the evolution of FindAUniversity, and what has kept it ticking for over two decades.
Nearly 25 years is a long time for most businesses – for a web business it’s an eternity – FindAUniversity was there pre-iPhone, just a couple of years after Google. Whilst the technology and websites have developed and grown over that period, we’ve remained focussed on higher education in general and postgraduate education in particular.
Origins
FindAUniversity began with FindAPhD.com in 2001 – The BBC called it ‘Simple yet effective’ – that’s back when the BBC had its own search engine and reviewed every website they included. They were right too! The advertisers page just said ‘Call the Andys to find out more’ – and it was effective. From day one, potential students were finding research supervisors, and universities were recruiting students they would have previously found very hard to reach.
In 2003 FindAMasters.com was launched and quickly became the premier UK website for choosing Masters programmes.
Technology
The very first iteration of FindAPhD.com was ground breaking – until we discovered that it crashed when more than one user was on the site. Since then, we’ve built all our websites in house. This really helps when we want to react quickly to changing customer needs or the occasional glitch.
People
People are what makes this company special. Over the years there have been many members of the FindAUniversity family, and our ambition has always been that people are able to grow with or grow through us. Most of our senior leaders had their first job with FindAUniversity and other former staff now have senior roles in universities and marketing agencies. We value our team and the culture we’ve created here. It’s a culture that doesn’t take itself too seriously – yes we’re professional, yes we’re efficient, but most of all, we’re human.
Face to face
We always love attending student fairs. Meeting students informs what we do and how we do it, but fairs also give us the opportunity to meet with our colleagues and clients in universities. After many years as the lead sponsors of the UK’s biggest PG student fairs, we began running our own in partnership firstly with the Russell Group and then with a whole range of institutions around the country. It’s such a brilliant opportunity for a digital business to show its face and prove how much we care about the higher education sector and our role within it.
Insights
The FindAUniversity Postgraduate Marketing Conference kicked off in Liverpool in 2016. Another chance for us to show we care and to bring the best speakers in HE Marketing together. Nowadays our insights aren’t just limited to the presentations at our conferences – Masters Compass and Pulse bring up-to-the-minute behavioural insights straight to your desktop.
Evolution
International education is a changing and growing sector of the world economy and FindAUniversity needed a partner to help build its international reach. In 2021 we joined forces with Keystone Education Group to become part of the world's largest network of study choice websites. Not only does this help grow FindAUniversity’s reach, it also adds depth to our insights and expertise. We’re excited to see what the future will bring!
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