The need for a new perspective
Changing sector realities
The expansion of the higher education sector in the early 1990s was a transformative moment. The introduction of new Universities increased access, opening doors to a more diverse demographic. This shift saw Universities evolving from exclusive institutions to widely accessible learning hubs, fundamentally changing both the nature of higher education and the expectations of students.
Over subsequent decades, higher education became embedded in the national psyche as a default next step after school for many.
Degrees were seen as a passport to prosperity, and marketing efforts reflected this optimism. Despite fears, the introduction of tuition fees and student loans in 1998 and gradual rises through to 2012 were generally acknowledged to have had a limited impact on student number3.
Changing attitudes
However, in just a few years, attitudes have shifted radically. Economic pressures, changing job markets, and alternative career pathways are challenging the assumption that University is the only – or best route to success.
Covid exacerbated the situation, with the shift to online delivery proving stubbornly difficult to reverse and causing students to question whether their experience of University education really represented value for money2
Meanwhile, graduates navigating the world of work, mortgages and raising a family, were experiencing their student loan morph from an abstract consideration to a significant brake on their life choices. Awareness of these realities have been amplified by increasingly noisy debate, while parents, teachers or influencers of the next generation bring their specific (and not always helpful) perspectives.
Challenges for providers
These demand-side worries are only one aspect of the challenges facing Universities:
Universities face financial constraints as a result of reductions in per-UK student funding. This is being exacerbated by a decline in applications from international students from the EU post Brexit, and the impact of changes to visa rules on admission of dependents. Against this demand-side impact, the cost of maintaining world-class facilities, attracting top faculty staff, and delivering high-quality education has led to significant budgetary challenges.
Tuition fee increases have been insufficient to balance the books: while a 3.1% increase in fees will take effect from Autumn 2025, Universities UK estimates that fees of £12,500 per year are necessary simply to stand still4. The unsurprising result is that many institutions are facing redundancies and course closures. Disproportionate impact across faculties: The Arts and Humanities, in particular, are under scrutiny. Slow pruning of provision in these subjects has caused some commentators to question whether the ethos of University education is being undermined by the reductionist narrative equating degrees with employability.
The challenge for recruitment advertising
Every sector has at its heart a core generic proposition. For Universities we can summarise it as ‘Our University helps you become the best you can be’. And we can see the variations of this across many student recruitment campaigns, with location providing the most obvious differentiation. While there’s nothing wrong with the sentiment – it’s a truism after all – there is a need to go further to properly differentiate in this challenging market.
And what this central proposition doesn’t generally do is acknowledge that it’s not just a University degree that can transform someone into their best self. From apprenticeships and employment to the increasingly potent lure of entrepreneurships and the gig economy, your competitor set is no longer simply your rival Universities