Instagrad! Influencers are paid to push universities
UNIVERSITY bosses have admitted paying social media ‘influencers’ to persuade A-level students to enrol – even though they have no genuine connections to the institutions.
At least a dozen lifestyle, fashion and travel ‘celebrities’ promoted Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge on Instagram in the weeks leading up to this year’s A-level results.
Meanwhile social media star Ambar Driscoll was advocating the University of Hull – despite having graduated from Exeter.
The model, who dates YouTuber Caspar Lee and has 300,000 followers on Instagram, was pictured on the site wearing her Exeter University gown.
‘If you find yourself in clearing this results day, take comfort in the fact that you could still end up at a great place like Hull,’ she wrote.
‘Remember you’ll end up exactly where you need to be #choosehull.’
Many of the posts carried captions that gushed about how important their time at university was. They were shared on A-level results day – aimed at students going through clearing.
Influencers who promoted Anglia Ruskin included travel and lifestyle blogger Mariana Alonso, who has 82,800 Instagram followers and graduated as an engineer from Faculdades Integradas de Cataguases, in Brazil.
Travel blogger Lauren, who runs the Instagram account ‘Spain With Lauren’, also promoted Anglia Ruskin to her 10,400 followers – but with no mention of having studied there.
Influencer Grace Bee, who has 5,764 followers, admitted she did not study at Anglia Ruskin. She said it was a ‘business transaction’ but that she only works with brands she believes in. A spokesman for Anglia Ruskin, which spent £1.19million on social media, search engines and print in a year, said its Instagram campaign helped it reach ‘under-represented groups’ and the posts were all written by the individuals and clearly marked as ads.