Show me the money: Tech investment is changing the game - so how do universities win?'

This article is adapted from a talk I gave at the QS UK & Ireland International Recruitment Forum on Thursday 5th August 2021.

My name is Nicholas Cuthbert, a former Regional Manager in international development for Nottingham Trent University and ex-Director of OK Student, a private educational consultancy. I like to think, talk and write about higher education.

I am not an expert in Ed-Tech. But I'm guessing that you aren't either? Many professionals in HE are feeling overwhelmed and lost with how to relate new technology to their roles in admissions, recruitment or marketing - so here I ask five key questions to help you start to frame your thinking.

But first, what is the fuss all about? (this is not one of the five, this is a bonus question).

The global surge in investment in educational technology during the pandemic has been widely reported, with names like ApplyBoard and GoStudent achieving unicorn status with valuations over $1B USD and more familiar names like UniBuddy receiving further series funding to grow.

To put this into perspective, the investment in the last three years has been equal to the previous 21 years combined. It is massive.

The digital age has finally arrived in education with the money to force change.

But what does it mean for you?

All universities are different, as are people, teams and strategies. So rather than risk speaking in statements of truth I want to ask five key questions to ourselves. These are unpolished ideas that will hopefully get you thinking about how you see things right now and moving forward.

Q1. Are we being disrupted? Or is this just FOMO?

Is this our Uber moment? Are we like the hackney-cab taxi drivers of London protesting that technology cannot replace 'The Knowledge' and decades of history? Can we not see the service-gap that technology can fill?

You fall into either one of two camps:

Camp 1 - you recognize that education is far behind in embracing technology, that we have been inefficient and wrapped in a comfort blanket for years and you welcome change.

Or

Camp 2 - you are dismissing these new SaaS (Software as a Service) technologies as hype and basing your decisions or judgements on a culture of Fear-Of-Missing-Out (FOMO) rather than real value.

Only you can decide. But let me remind you that we all worried about the safety risk of Uber and now we all use it. Then we all worried about airbnb and now spend thousands on booking complete stranger's households based on a few pictures online. And Michelin-starred restaurants like Nobu now deliver on Deliveroo (London).

On the flip side, I also heavily promoted hip-tech-newcomer Clubhouse only a few months earlier and now I barely use it. So what do I know?

But If I told you I have supported international students to study in the UK communicating entirely on WhatsApp would you believe me? Then would you believe that students are willing to embrace technology and the path of least resistance even with high-value decisions.

Q2. Is geography relevant in an online world?

All university international offices are structured on regional silos of territory. All contracts are based on geography and location of services. I know personally how painfully long it can take an agent to secure a global contract, let alone a change of territory.

But online there are no borders. If you do a good job and create engaging content or refined SEO or social sales or powerful advertising, then people of all nationalities will come to you from all over the world. They don't care if you won't get paid for their nationality, they want your help to study in the UK.

Many of you are waiting to go back to the way things were, but before we all start flying all over the world again (believe me I miss this as much as anyone) let's consider the benefits for our students. IDP are reporting a massive increase in students opting for virtual appointments even when an office is open and available. FPP have stated they will never go back to physical events.

Why? Because for many people physical meetings have become inefficient. Why would you battle the traffic of Lagos when you can have a professional call online with a counsellor? Why would you travel several hours/days off the flight path when you can reach most of the world online now?

Also choice is another factor. You only represent one or perhaps a handful of educational products. There are approximately over 7,000 universities worldwide I believe. Only technology can allow students transparent access to that full range of choices. That makes sense to the customer.

Diversity is everyone's number one goal and we will always value local expertise. But will geography help or hinder your recruitment strategy?

Q3. Is the world shaped like a funnel not a globe?

Within universities everyone talks about the individual customer journey - from first point of contact through to enrollment - like a long and winding road to a final destination (or a leaky hosepipe, hello NTU).

Within the private sector everyone talks about a sales funnel. How many leads need to be generated, qualified and converted in what time frame and ROI.

However you look at this model - it is necessary to appreciate the opposite perspective. Otherwise a public sector/private sector relationship is never going to work. There are literally hundreds of software solutions to help you with any step of this journey/funnel (a few of the players I know are shown above - but there are many more).

Or you could pick a one-solution partner like QS to do literally everything.

AI is making efficiencies in the funnel to make sure your customer journey is more personal, transparent, data-led and accessible. It is greasing the wheels and turning your slow moving oil tanker in to a speed boat.

But beware - the online world it is not as big as you think.

A funnel is designed to trap all leads and then filter them. There are only so many search terms we can all bid for on Google. There are only so many big SEO platforms - BiliBili, YouTube, TikTok or in the education world THE, QS, WhatUni etc. making your own websites redundant. There are a finite number of agents or schools in the world and they are all doing the same things.

Monopolies will win on a commercial level, but will they benefit universities if we are all funneled through the same platforms and conversion tools? This is why peer recruitment is so powerful - you invert the funnel - by generating leads not at the top (where leads are poor quality and competition is high) but at the bottom from your existing customers influencing others to follow their example.

Q4. Can you cope with the speed of demand?

No one is questioning the quality of the UK admissions system. Sure, it can be a frustrating wait for offers for students and mistakes do happen, yes we are going to be implementing a PQA model in a few years - but the consensus on a world stage is that our admissions systems are very robust and the envy of many.

But with technology things are going to speed up.

For the first time ever, agents and students can switch country destinations at a click of a button. We've seen it happen in India where students traded Australia or New Zealand for the UK as soon as the border closed or they heard about the launch of the Graduate Route.

Just like migrating birds changing destination, the lead bird changes and the whole flock follows. Or like rainfall run-off in urban areas - AI is the metaphorical concrete, steel and glass of online real estate that is going to make your admissions office flash flood.

Have you noticed during COVID measures that ordering at a restaurant with an app is slower than ordering in person despite less people in the room? That's because for you it is efficient and easy(ish), but for the restaurant it is flooding them with orders all at the same time with no natural way to regulate the flow.

The more we use AI, the faster things will become. At peak times of year students are checking their application portals/trackers as much as once every hour - how are you going to keep up and keep them satisfied? They don't see the queue, but they do hear who gets served first. These are the moments of truth that will tip the balance.

Q5. Is this a battle of humans v machines?

This most common response to technological solutions is - 'you can't beat the human touch'. Personal, quality, face-to-face service cannot be bettered.

And no one would disagree on an individual basis - especially if your KPI is 'it only takes one student to make this trip/event worth while' - where have I heard that before?

Accenture produced a study in 2021 that showed that businesses that use AI in their services were 40% more productive. I hate to use myself as an example of inefficiency here - but me flying to Latvia to stand around for days talking to students (as pictured) is not efficient. Yes, I might have changed the lives of some individuals by supporting them to choose the UK - but I'd wager I am much less effective than YouTube or Facebook to help Latvians with the same decision or knowledge gathering.

SaaS solutions are not about replacing people. They are about improving B2C interactions, enabling you to efficiently target who is interested in a way that meets their needs.

I would suggest this is not a human v machine scenario - but more like human + machine.

This quote from Steve Jobs (below) perfectly illustrates the point. Technology is nothing but hollow CRMs and algorithms without people to utilize it. Universities are wonderful places full of wonderful people that I have great faith in - and technology should be used as a lightning rod for all the good things you do already.

So there you go. Five keys questions to probe your own vision and strategy.

It is hard to 'land' a presentation/topic like this as it is just the beginning. I can't really tell you how to win. Some of these solutions will be the MySpace compared to the Facebook of this era and I am not going to be quoted in the future promoting the wrong one! But what's for certain is it's our industry's turn for a digital revolution.

This is not a time to sit on the fence to wait and see. True marketing is about testing and learning and responding to the moment. An $18.8B wave means there will be plenty of vested interest in promoting study abroad, in courting universities and making you try before you buy - so get out there and ride the wave - and I look forward to seeing where it takes you. Surf's up.

QS Enrolment Solutions (QSES) is a leading global provider of outsourced international and domestic student recruitment, conversion and retention services. Find out more at http://www.qs-enrolmentsolutions.com/

If anyone would like an impartial view or to discuss any of the topics in this article please contact me via LinkedIn or email nick@type-nine.com. Thanks for reading.