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9.30 – 10am Coffee and pastries
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10am – Welcome
David Penney, Director of Marketing - UCAS -
10.15 – 10.45am – Early choices: key insights to prepare for the next generation
Jo Richards, Senior Insights Lead - UCAS -
10.45 – 11.15am – Student decision making: the hidden factors
Katharina Wittgens, Business Psychologist and Managing Director - IB -
Break
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11.30 – 12.00pm – Deep dive: influences and role models
Megan Edwards, Principal Insight Consultant - UCAS -
12 – 12.30pm – The art of connection
Jon Kirk, Lead Client Partner & Smita Chohan, Client Partner - SMRS -
Lunch/networking
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1.15 – 1.45pm – Antiviral content: Life after social media
Kyle Campbell, Founder of Education Marketer -
1.45 – 2.15pm – Delivering what your future students really need
Poppy Hall, Head of Industry Marketing & Emma Froud, Director of Business Development - Unibuddy -
Break
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2.30 – 3.15pm – Student panel: ask your questions
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3.15pm – Closing remarks and drinks reception
Early choices: key insights to prepare for the next generation
- University or other progression routes?
- Future career paths and workplaces?
- Jobs that might not exist yet?
We can now reveal these hard-to-reach mindsets to help you understand their considerations. Plus how these decision-making experiences affect the choices they ultimately make. With significant qualitative and quantitative discoveries – plus tips to refine your recruitment strategies and the channels you use – you’ll be perfectly positioned to reach your future applicants.
Speaker
Jo Richards, Senior Insight Lead – UCAS
Gaining understanding of students and applicants – across behaviour, satisfaction, and experience – means Jo can help you place them at the heart of your strategies.
Overseeing UCAS’ approach to insight across their customer groups and markets, Jo has previously set up and developed market research teams in universities – including as Associate Director of Market Research and Insight at the University of Warwick, and Head of Market Intelligence and Strategy at the University of Liverpool.
View the presentation (1017.44 KB)
Student decision making - the hidden factors
There are some very influential psychological factors that drive school and college leavers to choose their university and future path. But these aren’t always obvious. Hear more about what these influences are from a leading expert. Discover why they are so powerful when it comes to decision making. Get some great insight from the UCAS early choices report from a psychological perspective, to help you tap into student mindsets.
Speaker
Katharina is a Business Psychologist and Managing Director at IB. Together with the IB team, she advises businesses on how to integrate Psychology, Behavioural Science and strategy into business activities to create more commercial impact.
She has advised global brands such as HSBC, Virgin Atlantic, UCAS, Guidedogs, the BBC and many others in relation to finding the hidden psychological influences on retention, purchase decisions, engagement and trust and how brands build these insights into their communications, marketing and business strategies.
She has a great understanding of the strategies that can be applied to change organisations’ cultures and people’s behaviours as well as the importance of uncovering people’s conscious vs non-conscious behaviour.
View the presentation (2.03 MB)
Deep dive: influences and role models
What are students planning for their futures, what drives them and helps them make these choices? Megan Edwards will talk through the qualitative analysis from the survey, with a focus on the factors and individuals shaping their decision-making, who influences them and why, and how you can use this insight in your recruitment strategies.
Speaker
Megan Edwards, Principal Insight Consultant, UCAS
View the presenation (674.26 KB)
The art of connection
Making meaningful connections with prospective students is essential for effective student recruitment. This session will provide research-backed insights to help you understand and engage this audience across the decision-making journey. We’ll explore findings from SMRS MediaMapper, a unique research project into prospective student media habits and consumption preferences, to understand the best channels and strategies for connecting in different contexts.
Armed with these data-driven insights, you’ll be equipped to evolve outreach and marketing efforts in an increasingly competitive environment, and you’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how to align your approach to engage, recruit, and support prospective students more effectively at each step of their journey.
Speakers
Jon Kirk, Lead Client Partner, SMRS
Smita Chohan, Client Partner, SMRS
View the presentation (13.47 MB)
Antiviral content: Life after social media
Social media has peaked. Every other person on LinkedIn has a podcast, Mr Beast is teaching at Harvard, and Meta just launched Threads to the tune of 100 million users. But here are some other metrics:
- Cases of teen depression have doubled since 2010.
- Community-driven sites like Reddit and Twitter are becoming pay-to-play.
- Google has just announced that EVERYTHING it indexes will now be used to train AI.
Put differently, we’re at a crossroads.
As marketers, we can either turn a blind eye, feed the machines and risk the health of future generations. Or, we can choose to create something meaningful that gives young people a sense of hope, connection and, maybe, helps them discover their place in the world.
Join Kyle Campbell, Founder of Education Marketer, for a new playbook. One not just rooted in building engaged audiences, but creating content that is never forgotten.
Speaker
Kyle Campbelll, Founder and Managing Director of Education Marketer
Every week on a Tuesday, Kyle publishes the Education Marketer Newsletter, a quirky overview of higher ed news, analysis and demand gen strategies. He is one of The PIE's top 50 voices in international education, and brings over a decade of experience for education marketers looking to build and monetise student audiences. He likes Nintendo.
View the presentation (718.38 KB)
Delivering what your future students really need
What do your future students actually want on their journey to studying with you? And are you delivering it?
In this session, Emma Froud and Poppy Hall from Unibuddy will take you on a whistle-stop tour of student mindsets today, and how they're evolving with your 2024 and 2025 cohorts. They'll also demonstrate how you can tailor your student experience from discovery through to arrival, and beyond, by building scalable student communities that resonate with each and every applicant.
Speakers
- Emma Froud: With over 15 years of experience working in higher education, starting as a postgraduate researcher in social mobility and most recently working as Head of Student Recruitment and Widening Participation at both Oxford Brookes and Queen Mary University of London, Emma Froud is passionate about educational equity and making sure that students from a diverse range of backgrounds have access to the same opportunities. Emma now works as Unibuddy's Director of Business Development, working with organisations across the UK to better engage and support students throughout their higher education journey.
- Poppy Hall: With 10 years of experience working in marketing and events roles, Poppy Hall currently heads up the Industry Marketing function at Unibuddy, where she's been for the past four years. Leading on Unibuddy's events, thought leadership, and PR strategies, Poppy is especially focussed on taking our market and student insights to encourage collaborative working within the Higher Ed space. Having previously worked at Royal Holloway, University of London, Poppy brings this student recruitment facing experience in to inform her day-to-day at Unibuddy.
View the presentation (555.89 KB)
Student Mindset Conference Presentations
Student Mindset Conference Presentations
- Student Mindset - Project Next Generation (1017.44 KB)
- Student Mindset - Anti-viral content - life after social media (718.38 KB)
- Student Mindset - Future students - what do they really need (555.89 KB)
- Student Mindset - Influence and role models (674.26 KB)
- Student Mindset - Student decisions - the hidden factors (2.03 MB)
- Student Mindset - The art of connection (4.04 MB)