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Campus Comms Unplugged
Our podcast, Campus Comms Unplugged, hosted by Toby Roe, explores the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of marketing and communications in business education. We aim to overcome barriers faced by marketing communications professionals in business schools and help them make a bigger impact with their campaigns.
Each month, we feature insights from leaders in the field. We cover topics such as strategy, messaging, artificial intelligence (AI), international student trends, and more.
Episode 5
In our fifth episode, host Toby Roe sat down with Andrew Crisp, Co-founder of CarringtonCrisp, a specialist business education consultancy. CarringtonCrisp has worked with over 200 institutions in more than 40 countries and is well known for its research studies. These include Tomorrow’s MBA, The Future of Lifelong and Executive Education and The Business of Branding, which examine the latest global trends in the business education marketplace.
Toby talked to Andrew about how business education has transformed over the past two decades. In particular, they considered the roles of technology, globalisation, changing employer demands and evolving learner needs.
They discussed how business schools can navigate this changing marketplace and the importance of innovation. They also explored how schools need to position their brands and differentiate their offers to appeal to a widening range of audiences.
Key takeaways
Technological advancements
- Technological advancements are reshaping how business schools teach, assess, and engage with learners and stakeholders. For marketing and communications teams, this means mastering a far wider range of digital channels and formats. They can work with faculty to showcase how the school is using AI and online learning in teaching and assessment. This way, technology becomes a visible part of the school’s value proposition rather than just a back-office tool.
Globalisation
- Globalisation and transnational education are reshaping university strategies. More schools are opening or partnering on campuses in places like India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This means communicators must decide how to articulate one unifying brand story while adapting messages, proof points and even programme narratives for each local market. This means that the offer feels relevant and credible on the ground.
Differentiation
- Differentiation and branding are priorities in a crowded and competitive marketplace. Business schools are also competing with consulting firms, professional bodies, online providers and government initiatives. Communicators need to define and consistently promote a sharp, evidence-backed positioning that goes beyond generic “excellence”. It should focus on the specific strengths, outcomes and audiences their school is best placed to serve.
Learner demand
- Learner demand has shifted towards personalisation, flexibility, and regional nuances. “Learners” now range from 16 to 60. They expect tailored, flexible study options. This means communications teams must segment their audiences more precisely and build journeys and content that speak to different life stages and geographies. They need to ensure that imagery, tone and channels genuinely reflect working professionals as well as traditional campus-based students.
Academic and corporate partnerships
- The relationship between academia and corporate partners is evolving. Companies are looking for applied research, custom programmes and shorter, skills-focused learning. Communications professionals have a key role in translating complex academic work into compelling stories and formats that resonate with corporate decision-makers. They should showcase successful partnerships to attract new employers into long-term relationships with the school.
In their words
“The difficulty is when we use that word students, I think increasingly I’ll talk about learners because many of those at university or at business school or studying a programme with a business school are not students in a traditional sense from undergraduate 18 to 21. Yes, maybe they’re a master’s postgraduate student. But also they’re looking for particular skills at a particular time, in a particular way of delivery, to support a particular career objective. And so those learners are now anything from 16 to 60, looking for the right course at the right place, at the right time, at the right price, from the right brand to take them forward. And I think that’s an enormous shift in thinking that’s required in our institutions.” – Andrew Crisp, Co-founder, CarringtonCrisp.
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