Helen Thorne Director, External Relations & Interim Director, Finance & Corporate Services

1. Students: customers, funders, or partners? Helen Thorne Director, External Relations & Interim Director, Finance & Corporate Services

2. How do universities and students see you?

3. UK market dynamics • 45% of young cohort in England (18 and 19 year olds) apply to HE • 400+ UK universities and colleges offering HE (c130 universities) • 60% study more than 25 miles from home – varies by region • Good, well-informed choices deliver individual and public benefits • Government drive to encourage students to act as consumers to encourage universities to compete with each other – and therefore drive up quality • Facilitating good student choice is fundamental to UCAS’ mission

4. How our strategy has changed • Pre-2010: primarily focused on services for universities • 2010-2015: more focus on students making good application choices; expansion into video content and social media; additional focus on post-16 choices • 2015-2020: strategic decision to focus on “students” rather than applicants and their journey; range of I&A from age 14 to adult; introduction of personalised communications and advice, first data driven services • 2018-2022: watch this space

5. The learner journey

6. How we engage with prospective students • Website - content, how to videos, blogs and vlogs • Social media • Search tool • Offer rate calculator • Tariff calculator • UCAS fairs and events – collect pre applicant data to enable personalised emails with subject information and city guides • Website carries advertising • Universities and others can buy direct marketing campaigns for specific groups of students, which UCAS Media executes

7. How we engage with students applying to HE • Website - content, how to videos, blogs and vlogs • Application service • Track service – to follow progress • Social media and UCAS customer experience centre • Event driven email and SMS prompts • Opt-in for additional services: • Personalised email – with marketing content • Matching with vacant places • Verification for student banking • End of cycle survey of applicants

8. How students help us develop our services • Sponsored chat room sessions - Q&A about new or improved products and services • User testing • School visits and workshops • Surveys of pre-applicants and applicants • Research and insight reports • Analysis and review of contact centre data and complaints

9. How students help us develop our strategy • Student representatives on UCAS advisory Council – which provides advice to our Board of Trustees • Schools and colleges – and those who work with students – are UCAS Trustees • We are setting up a student panel to provide advice on more strategic issues

10. Do we get it right? Mostly… • 89% of student survey respondents extremely or most happy with experience of using UCAS (2016 survey) • “UCAS makes it so easy to apply”… but “extremely complicated for mature students” • “Initially, I worried as felt it would be difficult to go through process but, I was led the whole way through good communication, guidance, deadlines and support. It was all explanatory and easy to follow.” • “You're doing a great job, keep it up”

11. Some challenges & questions • How do you engage with students – and why? • How can we offer personalised information and advice without compromising responsibilities to represent universities equally? • How can we build student and university confidence in personalised data services? • How do we continue to be a trusted and well-used sources of I&A in an era when experts are less trusted and there are thousands of information sources available?