Are you delivering an outstanding student experience?

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Starting university can be both an exciting and overwhelming experience for a student as it’s a major life transition. From developing their academic skills to managing a new social life, it’s important that the university supports its students at every step of their journey.

Student journey doesn’t start from the moment they arrive on campus, but the moment they land on your website to review their options. A complicated process, a broken website or difficult navigation will immediately give a negative experience. OHO Interactive, a US-based digital marketing agency, conducted some research on higher education website traffic and found out that it decreased on desktop browsers by 4%, from 63% in 2017 to 59% in 2018. They also found that visitors to higher education sites have been spending less and less time during their visits. Since 2014, the average session duration has dropped from 3:06 to 2:21, and the number of pages per session has dropped from 3.18 to 2.42.

This research just shows the importance of having a mobile responsive website, with engaging and relevant content. Remember - a side effect of the digital era is the fact that people are impatient and would like to get to the relevant information as quickly as possible. All it takes is one small glitch on the website for the prospective student to get frustrated and go to a competitor. On the other hand, making your website stand out and offering the student a seamless experience will encourage them to continue their journey with you. You can download our student experience guide where we explore ways to enhance the experience with our website and student hub.

Once your students have registered, applied and signed all the contracts, they'll get excited about the first day with you! The Student Academic Experience Survey 2019 asked more than 80,000 students how prepared they felt before they began university and found the following...

1

0%

were unsure
4

0%

felt very prepared
2

0%

felt very unprepared
5

0%

felt neither prepared not unprepared
3

0%

felt slightly unprepared
6

0%

felt slightly prepared

Preparing for university requires understanding where to go, what is expected,  when to arrive, and the list goes on. Ensuring your students have this information prior to arrival is vital. Whether it be uploading the documents to their student hub page or having your team or even alumni recording welcome videos, it’s your job to make sure the student has access to this information. You and your team have a wealth of knowledge, you know the campus inside and out, so be sure you share this with the students and contribute toward their positive experience.

During their stay with you, the positive experience needs to continue. Word of mouth is one of the strongest types of marketing and students love to share their experiences. Whether it be negative or positive, the experience they share will impact the universities reputation, especially as it’s more difficult to encourage people to share their positive experiences over the negative ones. Simplified processes such as quick and efficient maintenance requests or parcel notifications are ways you can enhance their experience all year round.

If you want to find out more about how you can improve the student experience from the initial first website visit, right through to their departure, download our free Student Experience Guide. Here you’ll receive tips and tricks on how you can improve their experience at each stage.

Get your free copy by clicking below!