Share Case Study
Our client was a prestigious UK university with more than 30,000 students and 6,000 staff.
The university struggled to recruit students to its online master’s degrees
When it comes to online education, prospective students have myriad options from institutions at home and abroad, each with their own specialisations.
For universities to succeed in this competitive marketplace, they need to discover their distinctive edge and be clear on the students they are targeting.
The university we were working with had experimented with online master’s degrees but had not achieved the student recruitment it was seeking. So we worked with the institution to help it explore other options, including identifying the disciplines where it could anticipate strong demand.
We used a variety of datasets to identify the sweet spot for market penetration
To work out where the university should play, we knew that data was essential. We brought together a variety of data sources (including the Higher Education Statistic Agency (HESA), StudyPortals, QS Rankings and Lightcast (previously Burning Glass)) to give the institution a competitive edge.
We used data to answer some key questions:
- What is the projected student demand? Using a mix of data from HESA and StudyPortals course-search data, we estimated future demand across 170 online courses.
- What is the projected industry demand? We estimated the likely demand for courses based on Lightcast data.
- How do UK online courses compare to those of other countries? We benchmarked enrolment patterns against international comparators, leveraging data from DAWN, our data warehouse.
- In which courses does the university have a competitive advantage? We identified the university’s strongest courses by analysing rankings and enrolment data as well as speaking to senior academics to determine areas of specialist expertise.
- What student markets should the university target? We identified priority student markets, including their location.
Our data-driven approach enabled the university’s stakeholders to have strategic conversations that debunked false assumptions about market opportunities and to focus efforts on activities that will deliver the greatest value to the university, students and wider society.
We identified programmes that could attract another 450 students
Our analysis identified nine courses for the university to target. We estimated they could bring in another 450 students, which would leverage the university’s reputational strength in these disciplines and deliver revenue of £3.5 million each year.
The university is using our analysis to shape its online programme offering.
What you can learn from this project
Data-driven analysis can break a stalemate in deciding which efforts to prioritise.
Local and other domestic students account for the bulk of enrolment in online degrees, so universities should prioritise this before targeting overseas students.
Online degrees have relatively weak demand in some countries whose governments do not formally recognise them, so the geography of students should be carefully considered.
Key people in this project
Antonia Instone
Director
Antonia is an experienced leader and strategist specialising in not-for-profit organisations, having developed and delivered successful growth, transformation and people programs for government, universities and non-government organisations (NGOs).
Jack Armstrong
Senior Consultant
Jack comes to Nous with experience working as an assistant adviser to Australia’s Education Minister.