Developing impactful content strategies for postgraduate student recruitment. Part 1: making the case
This is the first part of a four part blog series on developing impactful content strategies for postgraduate student recruitment. In this post we set the context for a content strategy for postgraduate recruitment, explore how it’s often deprioritised as we focus on undergraduate target audiences, and consider how to make the case for prioritising postgraduate audiences.
In future posts in this series we explore:
The market for postgraduate (or graduate for our North American friends) recruitment and enrolment has shifted in recent years, especially when it comes to the choices of international students. We see shifts in choices between anglophone countries, for example the decline PGR numbers in the UK, compared to growing PGR numbers in Canada and Australia (see Universities UK report from 2022). We see the inevitable impact of Brexit on the decline of EU students choosing to study in the UK, and the rise in newer markets choosing to study there instead, such as India, Pakistan and Nigeria (see this trends post from HEPI from 2023). And the catastrophic decline in postgraduate international student acceptance rates in Spring-Summer of 2024 has made headline news for the huge impact it’s having on the UK higher education market (see article from University World News).
Alongside the obvious impact on the UK market, stories of school closures in the USA, the introduction of tuition fees for postgraduate international students in recent years in non-traditional yet attractive markets like Norway and Sweden, and heavy investments into the higher education sector in countries like China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the global market for postgraduate international recruitment is in a state of change perhaps like none other that we have seen in decades.
The secondary focus of content strategy
Having worked on content strategies for over 300 institutions in more than 30 countries, I can confidently say that postgraduate recruitment is often treated as a secondary objective, or put on the back burner as institutions prioritise the scope of their content strategies with a heavier focus on undergraduate programmes. Amongst the trends that we at Pickle Jar see are:
Lower investment in content strategy and content marketing for postgraduate recruitment and research engagement
Greater complexity and lack of clarity in stakeholder “ownership” of postgraduate recruitment, leading to a much more difficult process to secure budget and buy-in for investment in postgraduate recruitment content strategies and content marketing approaches
Under-resourced teams responsible for postgraduate recruitment, typically with greater emphasis on admission administration and enrolment skills than on marketing, content strategy and strategic storytelling
A lack of audience research and insight data on the impact of content and communications on postgraduate decision-making. We tend to have decent data on (retrospective) trends around where students come from and go to, but little data from a behaviour and individual impact perspective that traverses the whole decision-making journey
Approaches to measurement and evaluation that aren’t set up properly to track ROI, and therefore reinforce approaches that drive quantity in numbers over quality of leads, and thus typically lean more towards brand awareness, overall reach and visibility and undergraduate recruitment, instead of more targeted postgraduate approaches
Internal politics and internal performance management approaches that don’t support collaborative working that favours postgraduate recruitment and research communications
The relative immaturity of content strategy as a necessity in higher education, meaning that many institutions are just getting started in approaching content strategically and inevitably see undergraduate recruitment as the most obvious place to begin with when defining their strategy scope. This also often means that the organisational “lead” for content strategy tends to be in a more middle management role without the authority or influence to drive the changes needed.
Don’t get me wrong. Some institutions do invest in creating whole institution content strategies. We’ve created them. But it can take something to commit to it (see “What does it take to create a whole-organisation content strategy?”). And so many institutions will create them either by audience, by goal, by channel or by their own department focus.
Making the case for a postgraduate recruitment content strategy
If you don’t have a robust content strategy that solidly supports postgraduate recruitment, then now is the time to act on that if we’re to turn the tide - especially in the UK - of the potentially catastrophic impact of declining PG recruitment and international shifts.
But there’s even more reason to prioritise a postgraduate recruitment content strategy:
Your postgraduate recruitment content strategy will force you to take a serious look at your approach to research communications and engagement as a whole. Especially when we consider doctoral and research programme recruitment, it opens the door to a research content strategy that also serves postgraduate recruitment goals but goes much much further. In fact, I’d encourage you to think of this as being a research content strategy, with postgraduate recruitment as one of the priority goals.
Because of the overlaps between multiple different teams, functions and stakeholders, working on a postgraduate recruitment content strategy offers an excellent opportunity to set in place new modes of collaboration across the institution, pulling together academic programme leads, schools and faculties, research support services, student recruitment, student support services, and alumni relations.
Let’s not ignore the economic impact. Postgraduate recruitment - especially from international markets - carries higher tuition fees and the potential for a high return on investment for the institution not just in fees income, but also in creating outstanding research content that you can really sweat for maximum impact across a range of areas (we’re pointing here to great storytelling and the many uses it can be put to).
The key, however, is to excite multiple stakeholders with different perspectives and goals to collaborate on this project. At Pickle Jar, we’re always happy to help you gain the internal buy-in for such projects through guest talks, video calls, sharing best practice from other projects and our sector knowledge, and more.
Up next, part 2: knowing your audience
In part 2 we will explore the importance of really knowing your target audience and investing in proper audience research. We also share three different audience mapping techniques for you to use to inform your content strategy and plan.
How can Pickle Jar help your institution with postgraduate recruitment?
If you’ve made it this far in this long and detailed post, you must be serious about making a difference to your institution’s postgraduate recruitment. And undoubtedly you understand the importance of content strategy in doing so. At Pickle Jar we can support your institution through a bespoke programme of activity designed to meet you exactly where you are at and tailored to your budgets. This might include:
Audience journey mapping
Producing a full content strategy
Developing a content marketing plan
Creating compelling content to drive postgraduate recruitment
Training and coaching your teams to support them to create their own content strategy and approach, or to produce better content.
Contact us by email to hello@picklejarcommunications.com to set up a no obligation conversation about your postgraduate recruitment content strategy needs, and to discuss how we might be able to be your strategic content partner in addressing your challenges.