What’s in a Kiss?Public Information: meeting the

needs of potential students

Dr Simon Jones CGEOG FHEA FRGSSchool of STEM, University of Wales

s.jones@wales.ac.uk

KIS/WIS Agendas Marketing Perspective for Potential Students

• Public information is a Westminster priority• Student satisfaction - including in relation

to risk-based review in England - will generate discussion in other countries of the UK

• WIS - tends to be more technical information - mixture of publicly available, available internally, and available on request

HEPISG

Wales Northern Ireland

ScotlandEngland

NSS Unistats KIS

Consultancy Stakeholders Members

Other public information

So, what’s in a Kis?

Oakleigh Consulting/

Staffordshire University

17 pieces of information

Study, student satisfaction, costs and employability

What they want, where they want it

Course level, UCAS, HEI websites

Raise the profile of public

information Published judgement on public information

QAA Institutional ReviewTargeted at the

audience

Prospective students, non-expert

advisors

Review Unistats

So, what’s in a Kis?

The solution?

The KIS30 September

2012

Courses starting in 2013/14

Undergraduate provision

Closed

One FTE or less

Post-graduate

Overseas

But not

Ah, a KIS!

How the KIS/WIS Widgets Appear

• Design is moving on rapidly– will show three out of a possible 10 items– no data gaps (if no data available then will show categories where there is data);– will be on a 'rolling' basis - one drops off the end each time

• Can be located in a vertical or horizontal format– should be located with other course information– institutions can decide where on the page they want to place the widget– can differ across different programmes and/or schools

• Widget will have a fixed width of 200px and will be of variable height according to the length of the course name

• Widget can be embedded on course pages in a similar way to embedding a YouTube video or Google map

• Widget design is fixed and universal, so it will not be possible to include any additional, tailored information such as additional links

The KIS Ecosystem

University course page with VERTICAL KIS widget

University course page with HORIZONTAL KIS widget

KIS detail page (top)

KIS detail page (middle)

KIS detail page (bottom)

Close-up of module options

Back tomodule links

Close-up of module details #1

Back tomodule links

Close-up of module details #2

University Positioning Information Among Stakeholders

• Meeting thresholds for publication in DLHE and NSS to ensure as much data as possible is available– 50% response rate, and at least 23 responses

• Ensuring that data submitted is accurate as possible• Recognising that new programmes will have

incomplete data (DLHE and KIS)– may throw up more marketing challenges when trying to

compete against similar, established courses• Ensuring that widgets are inserted appropriately on all

course web pages• Likely to feed into new league tables/student choice

websites

Programme Level Marketing Issues

• Unistats website will enable comparison of KIS – Prospective students will be able to access the KIS from the Unistats website– HEI is responsible for ensuring that the KIS data is submitted– Widget is also likely to be available on the UCAS site– May wish to revisit data (and possibly delivery of programmes (scheduled activities,

exams, etc) when can see what competitors are offering– May cause marketing difficulties if information is badly inaccurate

• Cost of study is a big NUS campaign– Likely to become even more important in the future– Balancing expectation for costs to be included in the fee with marketing exciting

programmes (foreign field courses, student placements, etc.)

• Challenges for smaller courses– May need to be marketing strategies to address issue of gaps in the data

• Managing student expectations– Scheduled activity claimed and not delivered may increase complaints

Academics - Making Best Use of Employability

• Response rates for DLHE• Participation in the HEAR• How they compare with other, similar

courses (including scheduled hours)• Don't forget HE in FE!

Additional Agendas Impacting KIS• Westminster agenda for making more information available• Potentially, the Student Charter agenda • NI HE strategy, published May 2012

– http://www.delni.gov.uk/hestrategy • HEAR agenda is designed to increase student employability

– Could impact indirectly on DLHE and therefore KIS• Risk based review method

– Consultation published yesterday by HEFCE will impact on IRENI

– NI will have to decide whether to participate in this– Scotland and Wales both say they won't move to longer review

intervals (4 and 6 years respectively)

Tricky areas

Joint Honours

Modular courses

Part-time

Collaborative provision

Integrated masters

Private institutions

Directly funded HE in FE

Small/ specialist courses

Branding

What lies lurk in kisses - H Heine

What’s in a Kiss?Public Information: meeting the

needs of potential students

Dr Simon Jones CGEOG FHEA FRGSSchool of STEM, University of Wales

s.jones@wales.ac.uk