Developing a Distinctive Position for your University

Intro

Developing a Distinctive Position for Your University facilitates the identification of university values in order to create a marketing strategy that capitalises on points of differentiation and increases visibility.

What You'll Learn

• How to identify your university’s key values and points of difference

• How to use your university’s differences and values to enhance your university’s visibility and overall marketing strategy

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

✓ Identify the importance of differentiation within competitive academic markets

✓ Distinguish between values and facts within a university’s expression of its position

✓ Evaluate a university’s current expression of its position as it relates to its values, goals, and academic mission

✓ Enhance a university’s current expression of its central point of differentiation

Who It's For

University leadership, faculty, and marketing department

Get Prepared

We recommend completing the Developing a Distinctive Position for Your University course after you have completed the Increasing Visibility course in the Building World Class Universities knowledge track, as this course provides important information on high-level university visibility strategy.

This online course includes practical, interactive worksheets. We recommend you use a laptop or tablet if possible.

Course Expert(s)

David Miller in his own words:

In 2011, I joined the University of Exeter as Head of Marketing, and for the next five years I helped drive the Exeter brand up students’ consideration lists to the point where in 2016 when I left, 50% of AAA+ students included Exeter on their UCAS short-list.

One of the most enjoyable elements of my role was working with academics, refreshing low-recruiting programmes and launching entirely new programmes. From the BSc in Medical Sciences to BSc Business in the Cornwall Campus. From Natural Sciences to Liberal Arts. Not to mention bringing a marketing perspective to the entire Masters portfolio.

Most marketing people in universities are good at selling their current portfolio. But often they don’t have the time, or sometimes the skill-set, to help academics refresh their portfolios or develop and launch new programmes. This is why I set up Academic Programme Development. Partly because I love working with academics. Partly because developing differentiated programmes and university positioning is core to student recruitment. And so much cheaper than wasting millions on advertising campaigns.

My USP as an HE marketing man? I bring a private sector skill-set to higher education, with a clear focus on portfolio development and university positioning. Both require years of experience in proposition development.

Experience which you simply don’t get if you’ve only ever worked in the public sector.

I work with a range of other specialist talents, from data analysts to market researchers to university planners. Sometimes within universities, sometimes, without. Together our combined efforts relieve the pressure on academics, de-risk the programme development process and maximise the chances of success.

Programme

The Building World Class Universities programme is an eight-course knowledge track that supports institutions with the foundations and strategies they need to begin or continue on their journey to becoming world-class universities.

The Building World Class Universities programme includes the following online courses: