Module 3

The Customised Institution Report and Word of Mouth Search Engine

Real insight into your marketing and corporate strategy

Module 3 now comes in two parts; a report individually tailored to your institution and an online search engine that interrogates over 300,000 verbatim comments.

Combined, these address your marketing fundamentals including your key competitive strengths and weaknesses; the kind of students you attract; why you get rejected; how well you execute your key marketing processes; what students most value about your location; how reputation affects your applications; and much more.

The written report compares your university to your competitors – either a basket of competitors, looking at the views of those who chose them in favour of your institution, or a single competitor. You decide.

The Word of Mouth Search Engine allows you to see exactly what students say about universities – yours and all other UK HEIs. We ask students to tell us in their own words, unprompted, why they chose their current university, why they declined other universities and how the universities they have experienced could improve. The comments can be searched by a range of filters for year, current university, rejected university and theme of response. It’s a powerful tool for understanding the student voice, and illustrating your case internally.

What you get

Detailed management summary
Key performance indicators
Over 200 customised PowerPoint slides packed with charts and tables
Institution-wide login for online Word of Mouth Search Engine

*For no extra cost you can combine the last two years of results in a single report for even more robust comparisons.

Investment

2011/12 only – £4,400
11/12 + 10/11 – £5,600
11/12 + 10/11 + 09/10 – £6,600
11/12 + 10/11 + 09/10 + 08/09 – £7,400
11/12 + 10/11 + 09/10 + 08/09 + 07/08 – £8,000

Call 020 7288 8789 to order

The first 10 orders receive a 10% discount
The next 20 orders receive a 5% discount

Notes
Customers subscribing to this module in previous years will be resupplied with previous years’ data at no extra cost.

Please note that the questionnaire has developed over the last five years so trend data is not available for all questions.

All prices exclude VAT.

Scores of charts which clearly set out your competitive issues.

Click the image to see a series of screen shots.

Introduction

Introduction to the study
Module overview
Methodology
Defining your competitors
Defining the student segments
Definitions
Significant differences
Management summary

Your competitors

Your students

Introduction
Demographics –
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Nationality
Whether lived in UK before starting university
Profile –
Type of school attended
Family members attended university
Term-time accommodation
Term-time distance from home/permanent address
Student loans
Maintenance grants and scholarships/bursaries
UCAS points
Proportion paying overseas fees
Proportion of widening-access students
Student clusters – demographic profile and characteristics
Clusters in comparison

Applying to university

Introduction
Whether current university was firm choice or insurance choice
Firm choice universities
Insurance choice universities
Proportion attending their favourite university
Timing of university application

Marketing and communications

Introduction
Online sources used to investigate universities applied to
Offline sources used to investigate universities applied to
Print newspapers used to investigate universities applied to
Most useful sources of information – online & offline
League tables used when making university choice
Media sources used by those who went through clearing
How students were contacted by their current university
How students would most like to have been contacted
Who from their current university contacted them
Who students would have most liked contact from
Whether contact made them more or less likely to want to attend
Top 10 reasons institutions are considered best at communicating
Application process – importance & performance – how you compare

Key reasons for choosing and declining

Introduction
Key unprompted reasons for choosing current university – you/your competitors/UK sample
Verbatim responses for reasons for choosing you
Verbatim responses for reasons for choosing your competitors
Unprompted reasons for declining any university – all UK decliners
Key unprompted reasons for declining your offer – your decliners
Verbatim responses for reasons for declining your offer
Key unprompted factors that would have attracted all UK decliners
Key unprompted factors that would have attracted your decliners
Verbatim responses for factors that would have attracted your decliners

University choice factors

Introduction
All attributes ranked by importance

Choosing a course

Introduction
Key reasons for choosing the subject currently being studied
Course – importance & performance – how you compare

Employability, reputation and recommendations

Introduction
Influence of future employability/earning potential on course choice
Influence of future employability/earning potential on university choice
Student perceptions of graduate employability
Student perceptions of what improves graduate employability
Student access to activities that improve graduate employability
Future employability – importance & performance – how you compare
Reputation – importance & performance – how you compare
Recommendations – importance & performance – how you compare

Facilities and social life

Introduction
Campus facilities – importance & performance – how you compare
Social life – importance & performance – how you compare

Open days

Introduction
Proportion attending an open day or visiting institutions applied to
Open days attended at institutions applied to – by WP group – UK sample
Number of open days attended/visits made at institutions applied to
Number of open days attended at institutions applied to – by age – UK sample
Number of open days attended at institutions applied to – by WP group – UK sample
Proportion who attended an open day at their current institution
Why students attended open days – prompted
Verbatim responses for why students didn’t attend open day at your university
Timing of open day visits – yours vs. your competitors’
Who organised open days – yours vs. your competitors’
Who accompanied students to open day
Proportion interviewed or assessed
Did interview/assessment make students more or less likely to attend
Why students were more/less likely to want to attend after interview
Actual and desired activities – at current institution – UK sample
Actual and desired activities at non-current institutions – UK sample
Actual and desired open day activities – your students
Actual and desired open day activities – your competitors’ students
Usefulness of your open day activities – all attendees
Usefulness of competitors’ open day activities –all attendees
Participation vs usefulness of your open day activities
Open days – importance & performance – how you compare
Whether open day changed how much students wanted to attend

Location

Introduction
Preference for living at home vs. living away from home
Preferred proximity from home amongst those who prefer to live away
Extent to which cost was a factor in decision to live at home
Importance of cultural, outdoor and community life
Key cultural resources sought by those who value cultural life
Key outdoor resources sought by those who value outdoor life
Key community resources sought by those who value community life
Location – importance & performance – how you compare

Costs

Introduction
Influence of tuition fees on whether to attend university
Influence of tuition fees on whether to attend university – by WP group – UK sample
Ways decision to attend university was affected by tuition fees – unprompted
Influence of tuition fees on which institution to attend
Influence of tuition fees on which institution to attend – by WP group – UK sample
Ways institution choice was affected by tuition fees – unprompted
How choice was affected by tuition fees – prompted
How choice was affected by tuition fees – prompted – by WP group – UK sample
Value of financial assistance received
Type of financial assistance received
Level of concern regarding student debt
Costs – importance & performance – how you compare