Are these the worst times yet?

“A few years ago, I was asked to present to an annual international education conference on the topic of “Strategic Marketing in Turbulent Times”. My slides were illustrated with examples of all the geopolitical, economic, and legislative challenges that had occurred during my thirty years in the industry. My thesis was that with a good strategy and some wiggle room/wiggle budget to be able to react to emergencies, universities always survive. But recently, colleagues have been telling me these are the worst times yet. There appears to be a perfect storm in UK higher education: overseas markets are changing, with Chinese and Indian student choices maturing and morphing faster than we can plan overseas recruitment trips, and alternative markets stubbornly hard to diversify into; robust numbers of domestic student numbers are increasingly difficult to source or sustain financially; government oversight is tightening, particularly in relation to market selection – there may be potential students, but they may not get visas without threatening the institution’s licence; the cost of delivering HE is out of kilter with the prices universities are allowed to charge for domestic students; political forces are leading to attempts to restrict numbers when university targets need to increase to ensure financial sustainability. With varying and ever more precarious levels of government direct investment in higher education across the four home nations, this all results in severe financial tensions when balancing university books. But, are these the worst times yet? And can we overcome them as we have all the other crises that the past thirty years have thrown at us? But, are these the worst times yet? And can we overcome them as we have all the other crises that the past 30 years have thrown at us? This week’s DETCon London at Senate House, University of London, will address this existential question with a combination of macro-vistas of the external environment and forensic analysis of the mechanics of the full customer journey. The quest for highly-qualified and bona fide students in stable cohorts from secure provenances is core to the agenda. Featuring political and economic commentators of the first degree in the persons of Frank Gardner and Robin Bew, as well as vice-chancellors, senior institutional leaders, and practitioners from all institutional angles, this is a major international education conference without a major conference fee. Strategic marketing in these extremely turbulent times may seem impossible, andthe survival of universities as we know them may appear in question, but if ever a group of panellists was equipped to address the key issues, these are they. I have always said the justification for the investment of time and money (did I mention this event is free?) in attending a conference is 1) having one good idea and 2) meeting a new buddy. DETcon will serve you both, and more. See you there . About the author: Andrew Disbury is a linguist who was the first in his family to attend university. During a four-year degree he was sent on government-backed, fully-funded student exchanges to China and France, which were truly transformative experiences. He returned to China on graduating, supported by a British Council scholarship, and by the end of the 1980s had spent four years in China; highly unusual at the time. Andrew worked in UK-China trade promotion, which led to becoming a lecturer in International Business. He became the Business School’s academic lead on student marketing, recruitment, and admissions and then was hired by the British Council to promote “Education UK” to Chinese students. He spent the next six years allied to the British Embassy in Beijing, covering the education brief across the greater China region. After that Andrew was an admissions director, international director, and pro vice Chancellor for global engagement. He then entered the private sector with an international student recruitment company headquartered in Canada. In 2023 Andrew became the inaugural chair of the UK Advisory Board for the Duolingo English Test. The post Are these the worst times yet? appeared first on The PIE News .

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