Whilst the incoming class of 2021 into Higher Education has a slightly more predictable Summer than their 2020 counterparts, the coming weeks will see the usual tensions around results, clearing and confirmation, almost stretched out over a longer period. So how can you help students?
Because students across the UK will have teacher-assessed grades this Summer, the picture isn’t as straightforward as normal. This means as different home nations get their grades at different times, there will be a level of anxiety as students have to wait to receive theirs and potential for them to worry about their place and their own results.
Traffic often increases around admissions pages in the run up to clearing anyway, as well as calls into universities, from students and parents alike. So how can you help students with proactive conversations, potentially getting teacher assessed grades at different points, and therefore splitting the domestic student body into different groups ahead of August 10th?
Home Nations
Simply put, by asking where students are from you’ll be able to know what stage they’re likely to be at. Scotland get their provisional teacher assessed grades on the 25th of June but won’t be able to appeal any grades until the 10th of August.
In Wales, it’s the 2nd of July, but they are able to appeal and then students from England and Northern Ireland have to wait until the 10th of August – a slightly earlier results day than normal allowing time to appeal from then.
All students however, won’t be able to confirm their place until the 10th of August. But many schools are sharing provisional grades early and many institutions are happy to have early conversations with students.
The Science of Decision Making
We do a lot of work using Cues.ai to not only ask questions of prospects as they use websites but also understand how content is used as part of a decision-making process.
This can be particularly insightful when used on a week by week basis and this Summer we’ll be working with clients to share how websites leading up to clearing can be better shaped to support students’ journeys.
If you’ve shaped some of those conversations based on how students will be receiving grades based on home nation, you can further break that down into course areas or level of study, or content based on students doing early clearing research for example.
If you’d like to find out more about cues.ai drop us a message.
