Should universities provide more parent-focused communications?
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
At the Higher Education Conference - Fixes to Foresight: What’s Next for Student Recruitment? we spoke to a panel of HE marketing leaders.
The conversation was thick and fast and we received so many questions from the audience that we weren’t able to answer them all.
Since then we’ve followed up with our panel to cover all the outstanding questions and delve deeper into some of the topics we covered.
Parents, guardians, and carers have always played a role in prospective student decision making. Over the course of the pandemic, limited access to other advisors and influencers, such as teachers, guidance from home has naturally increased even more.
So, should universities be creating content aimed specifically at parents as well as students if they’re not doing so already?
“If your institution isn’t already doing this, I think you’re missing a trick,” says Emma Leech, director of marketing and communications at Nottingham Trent University (NTU).
She explains, “they’re important as influencers, cheerleaders and sources of support. It’s important that universities do all they can to ensure they [parents] have the right information and guidance to support the people they care about.”
What do parents need and want to know?
Daniel Nyirenda, marketing and recruitment officer at De Montfort University firmly believes that parents need content that is tailored to their needs.
He explains, “there are so many different dynamics, cultures and families. The best thing that universities can do is just provide valuable information to parents so that they can help their children make the right decision.”
A forum for parents to raise their concerns, Daniel explained, was provided by King’s College London and Citizen’s UK parental engagement programme, Parental Power.
At these meetings, parents in Lambeth and Southwark discussed the issue of their children not possessing British Citizenship despite being born in the country or living here for the majority of their lives.
Parents are required to pay a citizenship fee to the Home Office, a total of £1,012. This fee was out of reach for many families in the community.
In response, King’s College London joined forces with Citizens UK and EdAid to create the Citizen’s Payment Plan. The plan provides parents with the finance to pay the fee on a no-interest basis.
[The Citizenship Fee is currently subject to judicial review]
A dialogue between parents and universities is crucial. If universities don’t have a firm grasp on the information parents need and the issues they face, content won’t hit the mark.
The language universities use to communicate with parents is also an essential consideration, particularly for those who are parents of first-generation uni students.
As Daniel says, ”there are so many students who say, ‘I'm the first person to go to university, my family don’t understand the process.’ Therefore, we need to find a way to speak to them in a way that's comfortable for them.”
Karen Hinton, head of student recruitment and market development at the University of Suffolk reflects on 20 years in the sector and her experience working at a large university, “I remember at times when the open days were very busy, and we'd have to limit parents coming into some of the talks. The thinking at the time was that these students were going to have to make their own decisions. But now, I think very few universities would ever consider refusing parents entry because we know that they're listening for something different…
“For parents, I think it’s more of the pastoral piece, it’s the ‘cuddle’. They want to know that their young person is going to be supported and welcomed. That they’ll be part of a community and aren’t going to be sat on their own. And that if they have any problems at all, the university will help them and be quick about it, we’ll be proactive.”
How are universities communicating with parents?
Karen explains why Suffolk doesn’t currently have a parent-specific area on their website, “When students are looking at university, they're adults.
“I think it’s about recognising that some of the information that we put on our website will be looked at more by influencers, rather than by the students themselves.”
Arts University Bournemouth is mindful of the timing of the delivery of its parent-focused content. Simon Pride, head of recruitment and marketing, says, “I think parents are most crucial when the offers come in in January, February, March. So we send the bit of print that we believe is relevant to parents.
“The offer letter is sent with two things: one is a really sexy little kind of booklet that repackages some of the work from that course’s degree show, and another book goes with it, which includes all of the key stats about the university that you want the parents to read.”
By approaching parent comms in this way, Simon explains, “instead of hoping that the parents will kind of keep that book in mind at all points during the process, and then say, ‘yes, I did look at that 250 page catalogue, and I remember distinctly there were some key facts that I need to know.’ No, give them the key facts when you think it will make a difference, and just the key facts.”
Emma shares some of the parent-focused comms used at NTU, “we launched a new parents’ newsletter and we have communications for ‘potential’ parents. We also have a parents and carers guide and host online Q&As for this audience.”
Parents are important
The level of focus the parental audience is given, and the approaches used vary across institutions dramatically. But, the verdict is clear, parents are a hugely important audience for HE marketeers.
We’re content marketing specialists, get in touch for storytelling workshops, strategy and creation: trina@stori.works
