Universities turn to social media in race to lure students

UNIVERSITIES are turning to Snapchat and Whatsapp to lure in students as they scrabble to fill up courses during the “clearing” process.

A number of institutions are preparing to make offers via social media apps for the first time, in a bid to reach students faster than their rivals.

On A-level results day tomorrow, typically students who fail to make their grades for their first choice offer would phone up universities on a special clearing hotline to see if they could get onto a course.

But with fierce competition between universities to fill up their places, institutions are developing novel ways to get hold of students as quickly as possible.

De Montfort University will use Whatsapp messages to make offers for first time this year, while Sheffield Hallam University will use Facebook Messenger.

Southampton Solent University will be making offers through Instagram and Snapchat, following a successful trial on Whatsapp last year. Staffordshire University will also be making offers using Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter.

Rebecca Hollington, a manager at Southampton Solent, said that administrative staff will be encouraged to use emojis and send selfies congratulating students if they have been accepted. “We know that young people wanting to come to university are digitally savvy – and we need to be as well,” she said.

Paul Hindle, content and social media manager at De Montfort University, said: “Two or three years ago a lot of call centres found that it was the poor person doing Twitter in the corner that was absolutely deluged with inquiries. People have gone from phones to social to this kind of direct messaging, so we anticipate it will be popular.”

A dip in applications has left institutions scrabbling to fill places, as this year a significant drop in the number of EU students combined with a decline in the youth population has led to applications to British universities falling by four per cent.