Digital Engagement Strategy in Higher Education - Part 1

With a huge increase in innovation and blended learning planned for this autumn, further transformation is just around the corner for the higher education sector. But as a university, how do you become more mobile, more flexible, better prepared and better placed to attract, support and retain your students & staff through the challenges and opportunities ahead?

Recently, we brought together a group of leaders driving higher education transformation for a digital roundtable discussion on this topic.

We opened the conversation by asking higher education leaders: “After a turbulent 2020 and with a refocussing on 2021-22, what are your top priorities when considering future strategies in attracting, engaging and retaining your students and staff?”

The responses came straight away and the majority focused on the student experience to improve retention and success, followed by the need to manage the cultural shift and training requirements of blended on/off-campus experiences for their people (ensuring equal access for all). The 3rd priority is about unifying and decoding disparate data sources to build a better operational view: improving analytics and planning.

The list expands as other priorities are brought to the conversation: the continuous drive towards smoother, quicker inductions, approvals and other processes, the focus on improving the employee experience, building in greater resilience to risk from future adverse events, and last but not least, updating ageing technology in general.

The last 18 months had been a time of great challenges, though it has also provided the opportunity to make changes and build for the future. Historically, institutions have had a lot of different systems, that need to be brought together to create a more holistic view; one front door, essentially. The future holds a lot of opportunities, but it’s about how to do it, and when to do it. These last 18 months have shown the need for change, and this normally happens after adversity. There is an expectation of innovation now. A couple of years ago, it was difficult to get people to use Microsoft Teams; now, universities have teams of “Teams experts”. This has been a paradigm jump, though we know it’s not as good as face to face.

After the presentation, our facilitator posed a stimulus question for guests to consider in break-out groups, with a view to each returning with a question to put to the panel in the following session: Thinking back to your response to top priorities, if you could achieve one change to your operations overnight, what would it be? The panel, formed by leaders from Durham University, University of Leicester, SAP and NTT DATA Business Solutions, was convened to answer a number of questions:

1. How do we deliver a seamless experience for staff and students?

One panelist said that they were in a very good situation because they had come out of a 3-year CRM transformation project a little over a year before the pandemic hit. This has created a seamless journey from the first contact to enrolment. There’s been a restructure, and the panelist has picked up the enquiries management team. It’s been about picking up the data, understanding what people were confused about and where the information gaps were; also, they’ve set up a postgraduate portal, developed an agents’ portal and campaign teams. This project put them in a positive position. In terms of Covid, they have been able to react quickly. However, greater integration is required as there are still gaps and legacy systems. They’ve been held back a little regarding data-driven systems; the systems need to be integrated if we want to get all the data. They are looking at a new project for enrolment, which only requires one input from a student; they will then be recognised forever. In terms of staff, work is required, as the concentration has been upon the students.

Another panelist made the point that it’s a tough question. They have launched a transformation project aiming to provide resources and activities from before students join the university; it is holistic and university-wide. They’re learning as they go. A key element this year has been students’ lack of confidence in technology, so they’re attempting to address that as part of a wider drive to get them used to the university experience before they come. Student needs should be brought together more in advance of enrolment and connected more so that we can move on from the very individualistic experience they’ve had in the last year.

The facilitator asked if the experience being described is both an individual and a collective one for the student body. Essentially, yes! Students start their degree with 100 people that they probably haven’t met before; if universities can start connecting them earlier – genuine connections, not just a Facebook group, at the point of making their firm choice or even earlier – then they will be reassured, and it will facilitate a general sense of camaraderie.

In the past, students were the customers so that was the main focus and staff were all on campus so looking after them was relatively easy and systems were largely just systems of record but now we need a seamless approach for both students and staff. It is a huge job managing remote staff. Also, as institutions, universities do a lot of different things, which makes a holistic system more challenging; virtually every type of business is transacted from teaching and research through accommodation, catering and libraries to farms, airports and even fishing boats. Pulling all of this together is a huge task. In terms of the front end, if you can get one front end while reducing other systems, then that is the way forward.

…to be continued in Part 2