Student recruitment

The issue

With rising competition for university places and improving A-level grades, the government is keen that fair access to study is maintained. Students, now paying more than ever for their education, are becoming increasingly vocal about their needs and expectations.

What you can do

Digital technologies can contribute to successful student recruitment in the following three areas:  

Inform and prepare prospective students

• Explore best practice in communicating with prospective students in the 1994 group report Managing students’ expectations of university
• Digital technologies are helping universities to share reliable and consistent course information and support new students throughout the recruitment process.
  • Radio show - Jisc on-air: Successful student recruitment
• e-Portfolios, learner-created collections of digital items such as ideas, evidence, reflections and feedback, are particularly useful for capturing informal learning gained through work and life experience. They can also help with widening participation and lifelong-learning.
  • Guide: e-portfolios
  • Toolkit: e-portfolio implementation

Match students to courses

• A level students can get a taste of university lectures by watching short videos at the Faculties.  The site also offers advice on choosing a university department and the type of career relevant to a subject area.
• Open educational resources (educational materials shared freely online) enable prospective students to preview course content. Our open educational resources guide will take you through the steps needed to decide whether, and how, to make your educational resources open.

Streamline administration

• Student recruitment involves the management and transfer of data between a number of administrative processes such as student records, financial records and course information. We’ve been working to develop a standard, which facilitates the sharing of course-related information between institutions and to and from organisations such as UCAS.
  • Briefing: XCRI

Looking ahead

UCAS Apply handles 98.5% of applications to UK higher education electronically, yet business processes for admissions are often predicated, or even reliant, on printouts of data. We have mapped out existing electronic admissions processes across the UK and are now working to identify best practice and provide a blueprint for the future.