What’s in a Kiss? Public Information: meeting the needs of potential students Dr Simon Jones CGEOG FHEA FRGS School of STEM, University of Wales

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 NSSUnistatsKIS 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 Review Targeted at the audience Prospective students, non-expert advisors Review Unistats So, what’s in a Kis?

The solution? The KIS 30 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 to module links Close-up of module details #1

Back to module 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 – 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 FRGS School of STEM, University of Wales