2024: A Year of Pivoting and Re-Focusing
I’m not sure any of us were ready for a certain streaming service’s summary of our year (what even IS a Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop season?!) but I think we’re all ready to wave goodbye to 2024! But not before we’ve taken stock of what a year it’s been.
We’ve had policy changes, visa fee increases, elections, number caps, the continued economic crisis, and the value of postgraduate study scrutinised. . .
But, there’s also been a lot of opportunity around myth busting, undergraduate conversion and the development of events.
For our final webinar of 2024, we had a chat with Ewan Fairweather (The University of Edinburgh), Hannah Goodwin (The University of Manchester), Marianthi Dalkidou (University of Portsmouth) and Charlotte Frater-Oakes (Manchester Metropolitan University) about the challenges they’ve faced this year and the opportunities they’re looking forward to in 2025. I’m happy to report, it was a fairly positive conversation!
For those who tuned in, you’ll remember Ewan’s mic drop acronym moment (RAF – Relevance, Affordability, Flexibility) so I’m going to borrow it for this blog! For those who missed it, you can catch up on demand!
Relevance (and focus)
Focus was definitely a buzzword during our chat, whether it was doubling down on content creation, plugging the shortfall for international recruitment or re-focusing the discussion on the affordability of postgraduate education.
One focus that came out was on the current undergraduate cohort and converting them into postgraduate. Manchester Metropolitan University went down the route of introducing a new fast track application scheme for current undergraduates which saw great success (an extra 150 enrolments to be exact!) and can be developed into 2025.
The University of Manchester focused more on their content and channels to convert offer-holders with reassuring videos from current postgraduate students that have been created specifically for them. They also put on a physical PhD Café event on campus where 100 students chatted to current PGRs and admissions staff about research opportunities at the university. We think it went well given the admissions team had a queue for the full two hours!
Even with established campaigns for this target audience, Portsmouth saw the value of organising a PGT and PGR event which was tied to their funding and bursary call. They also used in-house expertise to make it a hybrid event with both on campus and online elements happening at the same time (we’ll pick this up more in Flexibility later).
Affordability (and honesty)
We all know that postgraduate education is not cheap. The rising cost of living doesn’t help, the loans don’t cover the basics and scholarships are competitive. A lot of our discussion was around being honest about this with potential students.
Time and money are two critical elements for the next generation of postgraduates, and for some, right now might not be the best time for them to invest. And that’s alright. We discussed how universities can play the long game and focus on the whole life cycle of a student who might be better off getting a job right now, but could come back later if you’ve nurtured that connection and removed the transactional nature of your relationship with them.
For those who are wanting to move into postgraduate education now, another part of the discussion was around building relationships with ambassadors and encouraging them to tell their stories so they can candidly discuss how they afford their education to meet that cost of living conversation.
Flexibility (in the course and events)
What was particularly interesting was chatting about the recruitment of home students to PGT and PGR on a full-time study mode. It would appear there is a shift for some, with a greater focus from potential students on the distance learning, on demand and part-time study options, over full-time.
This shows how important it is to have these different options available to potential students, and acts as a reminder of how diverse the postgraduate audience is.
This line of thinking expanded into events and considering their delivery from the student point of view. Virtual is out, digital is in! Digital events like webinars are more accessible, convenient and engaging (arguably) for the potential postgraduate audience. They can also be recorded/edited and viewed at a later date which helps everyone to do more with less resource. It’s something we all agreed should be happening (if not already) and people were getting excited about what new technology and platforms could help to make hybrid better in the future! So no more physical versus virtual chat in 2025!
That’s not to say physical events don’t have their place. Students still want to see labs and facilities, especially at the PhD level in more STEM subjects. But, with questions coming in around how to join a physical event virtually and the availability of talks on demand (we see this at our own PG LIVE events), the desire and expectation for flexibility is strong.
Bring on 2025!
So to wrap up, 2024 has brought challenges but new opportunities to the market. Let’s use 2025 to keep up momentum, try new things and build on the great work from this year. And with that, we’ll wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year and we look forward to working together again in 2025.
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