Newsletter #72: Clearing round-up; YouTube quietly rolled out podcasting; Student creators are the future of higher ed marketing
✏️ From the Education Marketer desk
English literature has fallen out of the top 10 subject choices. Read
Higher ed, Google is updating its algorithm. Read
Student creators are the future of higher ed marketing. Read
📰 HE news
For Clearing, medium tariff institutions are back to outperforming the Russell Group. Although student numbers are higher this year, the shape of Clearing was remarkably similar to 2019. Dare I say we’re seeing a return to the trend line? In terms of admissions, private schools have seen the steepest decline in those achieving A grades - a drop of 25-30 percentage points to 58% (exams are back.) Still, that’s pretty high. By comparison, just 35% of students at academies achieved A grades, while for those at comprehensives it’s even lower - only 30%. In other news, lower tariff institutions had a good year. They managed to close their Clearing performance gap (slightly) against the Russell Group and Medium tariffs for the first time since 2017. Read
📊 Marketing and media news
YouTube quietly rolled out a podcasting hub. Strangely, despite being the most popular destination for podcasts (surprise!) this is the first time it’s officially entered the space. It looks like a long-term play too. It’s paying creators (up to $300,000) to move platform, plus wooing advertisers with an 84-page slide deck… It’s keen. For education marketers, it’s a win. You can leverage your existing subscriber-based and lean into the demand for video-first content. YouTube also fixes audio’s inherent “discovery” issue. There’s no platform where you can swipe through audio clips, but there’s plenty designed for video - Shorts, Reels and (of course) TikTok. YouTube Podcasts | Analysis
BeReal: Popular with students. Amazing for authenticity. Next to no opportunity for marketers 👍. Well, you could get your student creators to repurpose BeReals as TikToks… But that’s all off-app. So, Instagram plans to fill the gap. It launched a dual camera (blatant rip-off) mode with a view to rolling out “IG Candid” (its own BeReal notification and infrastructure) next month. Of course, this is IG, so Candid will likely be part of Meta’s ad network. If you like BeReal and think your audience could handle an ad every few swipes - it could be for you. IG Candid | Analysis | BeReals on TikTok
🏫 What unis are doing (Clearing review special)
Marketing activity felt different for Clearing this year. Notably, the apparent decline in social media engagement. I spoke with over 10 universities - all reported fewer DMs and social media activity e.g. messages or celebratory posts from students. On the flip side, advice and guidance from student creators was hot, and peer-focused sites like Student Crowd and TSR maintained huge surges in traffic. In 2019, I worked in Aston University’s digital Clearing centre and you couldn’t move for all the social mentions and DMs. What happened? I think - the rise of privacy. Read
Two stand-out pieces of Clearing activity:
University of Portsmouth tapped into Clearing phone fear on TikTok. Read
Clearing advice from universities didn’t find much traction on TikTok this Clearing. But advice from students soared. Read
And now, back to our regular programming…
Kings College London has a new take on “day in the life” content. It uses Instagram Reels to share short-form snippets. Nice idea. For such a simple format, the content gets A LOT of views and engagement - send one of your content creators out to do the same. TikTok is where you can be daring and strike a chord with your audience, but if you want reach - Instagram Reels is where it’s at. Look
🧑🎓 What students are saying
"People are paying a lot of money, and the loans aren't really changing, because interest rates are so steep and so, this forgiveness just kind of helps negate some of that.” Students on the US Government forgiving $10,000 of student debt for all those earning under $125,000. Read
👾 Culture shock
A tool that beeps every time your computer sends data to Google. Look
Facebook broke. For hours timelines were just comments made on celebrity posts. Read
