JISC

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.

Digital technologies can contribute to successful student recruitment by helping to inform and prepare prospective students, by helping to match students to the right courses (so improving retention) and by streamlining administration.

We’ve developed technologies in each of these three areas to support institutions with student recruitment.

• ‘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.
• For examples of best practice in communicating with prospective students, see the Jisc-funded report by the 1994 group, Managing students’ expectations of university.
• Listen to our radio show to find out how digital technologies are helping universities to share reliable and consistent course information and support new students throughout the recruitment process.
• Open educational resources (educational materials shared freely online) enable prospective students to preview course content. Our Open educational resources infoKit will guide you through the steps needed to decide whether, and how, to make your educational resources open.
• 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 help with widening participation and lifelong-learning. See our infoKit and e-portfolio implementation toolkit .
• 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, called XCRI which facilitates the sharing of course-related information between institutions and to and from organisations such as UCAS.
• UCAS Apply now handles 98.5% of applications to UK higher education electronically, yet business processes for admissions are often predicated, or even reliant, on print-outs 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.