Fall in university applications accentuates need for global brand development

OK, so the headline reduction is still 8.9 % but this still leaves the second highest figure of apps on record and, since these figures were only made up to the end of June, many thousands are still expected to apply before the deadlines are finally reached.
What’s more, the biggest drop has come from the over 19 age group with school leavers up to the age of 18 showing only a 3 % reduction. Some of these might be opting for cheaper options across the channel such as Maastricht University while others may go off travelling the globe and revisit the situation later.
All things considered, it is likely that application numbers will start to recover as soon as the initial knee-jerk phase has worked its way through. This is what happened after the last drop in total applications which followed the 2006 fees increase. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, put the fall in context and concluded that: "These figures confirm that the fall in applications is far less dramatic than some were predicting for this year."
What will probably be of greater concern to university business managers is the 1.3 % drop in applications from the lucrative overseas market. They will want to examine whether this is due to higher fees, tighter visa requirements or a combination of the two.
Certainly they will feel that this is no time to let up on their marketing efforts and will be focusing even harder on key areas such as strategic brand development. They will also be looking at new sources of revenue with online courses being an obvious diversification. Oxford, for example, has already built up a portfolio of over 50 courses which it can, of course, sell anywhere in the World.
It may be that the stabilisation of university applications from overseas students is partly due to the rapid growth of online offerings, particularly from the USA. British students tend to regard physical attendance at university as being part of their social as well as academic development whereas foreign students may be much more pragmatic and only essentially interested in the qualification gained at the end of the day. In such circumstances, the opportunity to save travel and accommodation costs may prove just too tempting.