Tag: Results

How to Show Up In Results

Reading Time: 17 minutes

Search behavior in higher education is changing fast. With Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), prospective students and parents are no longer just scanning lists of links; they’re receiving direct, AI-generated answers at the top of the page. These summaries pull from multiple sources to deliver concise, conversational responses to complex questions about programs, costs, outcomes, and campus life.

For schools, the implication is clear: your content must be structured, authoritative, and context-rich to be surfaced by AI. If it isn’t, your institution may be invisible, regardless of how strong your traditional SEO once was.

This article explores Google SGE in education, explains what Google SGE means for higher education marketing, and how schools can adapt. We’ll cover why AI search matters, how generative AI changes content discovery, and the practical steps institutions can take, from content optimization to local SEO and reputation management, to remain visible in this new search landscape.

Need help refining your school search optimization strategy?

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What Is Google’s AI Search (SGE) and Why Does It Matter for Schools?

Google’s Search Generative Experience, now commonly surfaced as AI Overviews, represents a major shift in how search results are delivered. Instead of presenting users with a list of links, Google increasingly provides synthesized, AI-generated answers that pull information from multiple sources and present it as a concise, conversational summary.

Google SGE in education functions like an advanced featured snippet. For example, when a parent searches “best engineering programs in Ontario,” Google’s AI may generate a short comparison of several institutions, highlighting locations, strengths, and differentiators without requiring the user to click through to individual websites. This fundamentally changes how prospective students and families discover schools.

For institutions, the stakes are high. AI Overviews often answer questions about programs, admissions, outcomes, and comparisons directly in the search results. If your school is not referenced in that response, you may miss visibility at an important early decision-making moment. Visibility in AI-generated answers is quickly becoming as important as first-page rankings once were in traditional SEO.

There is also an opportunity. Early third-party studies suggest that Google’s AI Overviews may cite content beyond the top organic rankings, particularly when pages clearly and directly answer a user’s question. Well-structured, authoritative content that clearly answers a specific question can be surfaced even if it does not rank first in classic search. This creates room for smaller or lesser-known institutions to compete based on content quality and relevance rather than brand dominance alone.

SGE also changes user behavior. Search becomes conversational, with follow-up questions that refine intent and narrow comparisons. Schools must be prepared to show up for detailed, context-driven queries, supported by accurate content and complete institutional data across Google platforms.

Google’s AI search prioritizes clarity, authority, and usefulness. Schools that adapt to this shift gain visibility at critical moments. Those who do not risk being bypassed entirely.

How Can My School Improve Its Visibility in AI-Powered Search?

Achieving visibility in AI-driven search results requires a blend of traditional SEO best practices and newer approaches often referred to as Generative Engine Optimization. This means maintaining a strong SEO foundation so Google understands and trusts your site, while also optimizing your content and digital presence for how AI retrieves, synthesizes, and presents information.

Below are the key strategies schools should focus on to improve their chances of being featured in AI-powered search results.

1. Maintain a Strong SEO Foundation

First and foremost, SEO is not dead. It is the foundation on which AI search visibility is built. Google’s AI Overviews continue to rely on reliable, well-structured, and authoritative content, often drawing from pages that already follow SEO best practices.

Google has made it clear that content aligned with its established guidelines, including experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, performs well in AI-driven results. Schools should continue to invest in core SEO fundamentals, including the following.

Keyword Optimization and Metadata
Use clear, relevant keywords in page titles, headings, and meta descriptions so both traditional search algorithms and AI systems can quickly understand your content. A program page titled “MBA Program in Data Analytics | XYZ University” clearly communicates relevance and improves discoverability.

Logical Site Structure
Organize your site navigation and URLs logically so search engines can easily crawl and contextualize content. A clean hierarchy helps AI retrieve specific details such as tuition, admissions requirements, or program outcomes by following your site’s structure.

Mobile-Friendly, Fast-Loading Pages
Most prospective students search on mobile devices. Google prioritizes mobile usability and fast load times regardless of AI. A strong user experience encourages engagement and signals content quality to Google’s systems.

Example: University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock): Launched a redesigned website in 2025 that prioritized technical SEO fundamentals. The web team conducted a full content audit to streamline site architecture, consolidating and rewriting content for clarity and removing outdated information to improve crawlability and usability. This resulted in a leaner, more crawlable site aligned with best practices.

Source: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Quality Content and User Engagement
Continue publishing in-depth, high-quality content. This attracts backlinks, increases time on site, and positions your pages as authoritative sources that AI systems are more likely to reference.

Think of traditional SEO as the bedrock. If your site is not technically sound and rich in valuable content, AI-focused tactics will not compensate. A strong foundation amplifies everything that follows.

2. Create High-Quality, AI-Friendly Content (Answer the Questions)

With the basics in place, the next step is tailoring content for conversational, answer-focused search behavior. AI-powered search excels at interpreting natural-language questions, especially longer and more specific queries.

To improve visibility, your content should directly address the questions prospective students and parents are asking, using clear structure and plain language.

Incorporate Long-Tail, Question-Based Keywords
Shift part of your keyword strategy toward detailed, conversational queries. Instead of focusing only on broad terms like “MBA Canada,” develop content around questions such as “best MBA programs in Canada for working professionals” or “how to get a scholarship for an MBA.” AI systems are more likely to surface content that closely matches how users phrase their questions.

Use Q&A and FAQ Formats
Question-and-answer formats are particularly effective for AI extraction. Admissions, financial aid, and program pages benefit from clearly labeled questions followed by concise, factual answers. This structure improves usability for readers and makes it easier for AI to identify relevant information.

Example: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Incorporates “Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)” into its content guidelines for web writers. The University’s brand training recommends structuring content in a Q&A format: start with a question in a heading (e.g. *“How do I apply to Illinois?”), Immediately answer it in a brief, concise paragraph before expanding with additional detail. This approach, coupled with applying FAQ schema markup, is designed to make Illinois’s content the direct answer in featured snippets or AI summary boxes. By focusing on full questions and concise answers, Illinois ensures its high-value content is AI-friendly and voice-search ready.

Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Emphasize Authoritative, In-Depth Content
AI systems favor content that demonstrates expertise and depth. Schools can leverage faculty insight, research, and real-world outcomes to establish authority. Long-form guides, career pathway articles, and program explainers grounded in institutional expertise are strong candidates for AI-generated answers.

Structured Headings and Clear Writing
Organize content using descriptive headings and subheadings. Avoid burying key information in long paragraphs. Specific headings aligned with search intent help AI match your content to relevant queries. Lists and step-by-step explanations are especially useful, as AI often presents answers in list form.

Evergreen Content and Regular Updates
Keep content current. Evergreen content still requires periodic updates to remain accurate and competitive. AI systems favor up-to-date information, particularly for admissions policies, program offerings, and career outcomes.

By focusing on high-quality, question-oriented content, schools make it easier for AI to identify, trust, and reuse their information.

3. Leverage Local SEO and Google Business Profiles

For institutions with physical campuses, local SEO is a critical component of AI visibility. Many education-related searches carry local intent, and Google’s AI frequently integrates local data into its answers.

Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Ensure your Google Business Profile is claimed, complete, and accurate. Fill out all fields, including locations, contact information, categories, and descriptions. This data is often pulled directly into AI-generated results.

Example: University of Minnesota: Manages a centralized Google Business Profile (GBP) for its campuses to maximize local search visibility. The University’s marketing team keeps each campus’s GBP listing complete and up-to-date with addresses, hours, phone numbers, and descriptive text. They also utilize GBP features like posts and photos to highlight campus events and attributes. Following Google’s best practices, Minnesota fills out “as much location information as possible,” keeps listings current (e.g., holiday hours), and uses relevant keywords in descriptions and local posts to improve local search ranking. This ensures the University’s locations appear prominently on Google Search/Maps for relevant queries.

Source: University of Minnesota

Keep Photos and Media Up to Date
AI-generated listings frequently include logos and photos. Upload high-quality, current images of your campus, facilities, and branding. Visuals influence perception and can strengthen your presence in AI results.

Incorporate Local Keywords on Your Site
Mention your city, region, and community naturally within site content. Blog posts, news updates, and program pages that reference local partnerships or opportunities help AI associate your institution with specific locations.

Maintain Consistent Local Citations
Ensure your institution’s name, address, and phone number are consistent across directories, education portals, and social platforms. Consistency reinforces credibility for AI systems aggregating information.

Use Google Business Features Strategically
Google Posts, Q&A sections, and program listings provide additional structured data that AI can reference. Schools that actively manage these features offer clearer signals to Google’s systems.

Strong local SEO increases the likelihood that your institution appears in AI-generated responses to geographically relevant searches.

4. Embrace Online Reviews and Social Proof

Why are online reviews important for AI search results? Online reviews provide fresh, user-generated content that signals credibility and relevance to AI systems. Positive, detailed reviews can help your institution appear in AI-generated answers by reinforcing trust, boosting visibility, and enriching the data AI uses to evaluate and summarize schools in search results.

Online reviews now influence both human decision-making and AI-generated search results. Google’s AI Overviews often incorporate ratings and review themes directly into responses.

Maintain Strong Ratings
In competitive searches, AI systems tend to highlight institutions with strong review profiles, as ratings and review sentiment are commonly incorporated into AI-generated summaries. Strong ratings are increasingly a prerequisite for visibility, not just a reputation metric.

Monitor Review Content
AI systems analyze recurring themes within reviews. Frequently mentioned strengths or concerns can appear in AI-generated summaries. Active monitoring helps ensure accuracy and context.

Encourage Positive Reviews
Develop a structured approach to requesting reviews from satisfied students, alumni, and parents. Reviews that mention specific programs, facilities, or experiences provide richer signals for AI.

Example: Midwestern Career College: Encourages its community to engage on Google’s review platform for each campus location. On its official website, MCC provides step-by-step instructions for students to leave a Google review – from clicking the campus’s Google My Business link to hitting the “Write a review” button. This call-to-action shows MCC actively seeks public feedback. By driving satisfied students to post reviews, the college strengthens its online reputation and local search rankings. The steady flow of positive Google reviews serves as social proof to prospective students scanning the web for authentic feedback.

Source: Midwestern Career College

Diversify Review Sources
While Google reviews are most influential, other education-focused platforms and social feedback also contribute to the broader information ecosystem AI systems draw from.

Showcase Testimonials on Your Site
Highlight authentic testimonials and success stories on your website. When properly structured, these can reinforce credibility for both users and AI-driven search systems.

Online reviews have become direct inputs into how AI describes institutions. Active review management strengthens both reputation and search visibility.

AI-powered search rewards clarity, authority, and usefulness. Schools that invest in strong SEO foundations, question-driven content, local optimization, and reputation management are far more likely to appear when prospective students turn to AI for answers.

In an AI-first search environment, visibility belongs to institutions that make it easy for both people and machines to understand their value.

5. Optimize Visual and Multimedia Content

AI search results are no longer limited to text. They increasingly include images and videos to help users evaluate options more quickly. A search about campus life may trigger a photo carousel, while a branded university query could surface a campus tour video alongside the AI-generated answer. If your visual assets are weak, outdated, or poorly optimized, you risk losing attention even when your institution is referenced.

To compete effectively, schools must treat multimedia as a core part of search optimization, not a design afterthought.

Image Optimization
Images should be handled with the same rigor as written content. Start by using descriptive file names that clearly indicate what the image represents. Replace default camera names with specific, readable names such as school-name-library.jpg or university-science-lab.jpg.

Alt text is equally important. It should accurately describe the image in plain language and, where appropriate, align with the page topic. For example, an image of a new facility might use alt text such as “State-of-the-art science lab at [School Name].” Avoid keyword stuffing or vague descriptions.

Page performance matters. Large, uncompressed images slow load times, which negatively affects SEO and user experience. Since AI systems often surface images closely tied to page content, it is also important to place your strongest visuals on pages where the surrounding text is directly relevant. If a user asks what your campus looks like, Google can only surface your images if they are indexable, contextualized, and optimized.

Example: Fort Lewis College: Ensures that images and videos on its site are optimized for both user experience and search visibility. Fort Lewis’s Web Style Guide instructs editors to compress and properly size images for fast loading, and to always include descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO. For multimedia content, the college provides captions or transcripts for videos, knowing that search engines (and users) can’t index what isn’t in text form. By adding text transcripts to videos and alt tags to images (with relevant keywords where appropriate), Fort Lewis makes its visual content discoverable by AI and voice search tools while also improving page load times.

Source: Fort Lewis College

Infographics and Charts
Custom graphics can strengthen authority, especially when they communicate outcomes, rankings, or program pathways. When using infographics or charts, include them on relevant pages with concise captions that explain what the visual shows. Captions help users and clarify context for search systems.

Do not place critical information exclusively inside images. If a chart highlights graduate employment rates or admissions statistics, repeat the key points in HTML text. This improves accessibility and ensures AI systems can accurately interpret and reference the information.

Video Content (YouTube and Beyond)
Video is often the first impression prospective students have of an institution. Google regularly surfaces YouTube videos in search results, including AI-enhanced answers. A query like “tour of [School Name] campus” may show a playable video immediately, making video optimization essential.

Focus on video content that addresses high-intent questions, such as campus tours, residence life walkthroughs, student testimonials, program overviews, and admissions explainers. Titles and descriptions should be clear, descriptive, and aligned with how users search. For example, “Campus Tour | [School Name] | Student Life and Facilities” is more effective than a generic welcome video title.

On your website, embed key videos on relevant pages and include a transcript or written summary. Video alone provides limited context for AI. Supporting text gives search systems content they can analyze and reference. Engagement signals also matter. Videos with strong watch time and interaction are more likely to surface in search results.

Schema for Videos and Images
Use schema markup where appropriate, particularly VideoObject schema for important videos. Structured data helps search engines understand what a video contains, its duration, and its purpose. While schema does not guarantee AI inclusion, it improves clarity and future-proofs your content as search becomes more structured.

Example: Michigan Technological University: Integrates video SEO into its content strategy to capitalize on the popularity of video content. Michigan Tech advises its departments to treat video content like web text content for optimization: use keyword-rich titles and descriptions on YouTube, and crucially, attach accurate transcripts or captions to each video. Providing a transcript allows Google and other AI-driven search engines to “understand” the video’s content.

Michigan Tech emphasizes the importance of captions and transcripts so search engines can understand video content. More broadly, platforms like Google and YouTube use metadata such as titles, descriptions, and timestamps to better interpret video relevance in search results.These practices ensure the university’s lectures, tutorials, and marketing videos are accessible to search engines and can surface in voice or AI search responses.

Source: Michigan Technological University

Speakable Content and Voice Search
As AI search integrates more closely with voice assistants, content clarity becomes even more important. While Speakable schema is not widely used in education yet, schools should focus on writing concise, well-structured answers to common questions. Clear summaries on admissions, tuition, and programs prepare your content for both visual and voice-based search experiences.

Multimedia optimization improves both visibility and perception. Strong images and videos help schools appear in AI results and stand out once they do.

6. Use Structured Data and Clean Site Architecture

Structured data and clean site architecture significantly improve how accessible your content is to AI systems. Generative AI for colleges relies on context, and schema markup provides that context explicitly. A logical site structure ensures important information is easy to find and understand.

Education-Specific Schema
Schools should implement schema types relevant to higher education. EducationalOrganization schema supports institutional information. Course schema describes programs and credentials. FAQPage schema is ideal for admissions and financial aid questions, while Event schema works well for open houses and webinars. When the schema aligns with visible page content, it increases Google’s confidence in surfacing that information.

Example: University of Minnesota: Embraces structured data to enhance how its content appears in AI-powered results. In October 2025, U of M’s marketing tech team rolled out new schema features across its Drupal web platform to better label content for search engines. Their official guide explains “that’s the power of structured data” – snippets of code that help search engines and AI understand page details like program offerings, alumni, FAQs, etc., leading to rich search results. Minnesota’s web environment includes a Schema.org metatag module, and they continually update it (e.g., adding support for alternate organization names and parent organizations in 2025) so that university webpages can output a comprehensive JSON-LD schema. This clean, machine-readable markup boosts the visibility of U of M content in rich results and AI summaries.

Source: University of Minnesota

FAQ and Q&A Schema
The FAQPage schema is especially valuable for AI-powered search. It clearly signals which text answers specific questions. If a prospective student asks about tuition or application deadlines, schema-marked answers increase the likelihood that AI systems pull accurate snippets directly from your site.

Clean URLs and Logical Hierarchy
Your site structure should be intuitive and reflected in URLs. Paths like /academics/programs/computer-science help both users and crawlers understand content relationships. Important pages should not be buried or scattered across PDFs without internal links. AI systems are more likely to surface well-organized pages than fragmented information.

Internal Linking
Use internal links to connect related content using descriptive anchor text. Admissions pages should link to financial aid details. Program pages should link to career outcomes or internship information. Internal linking helps AI systems follow context across your site and identify authoritative pages.

Technical Hygiene
Keep sitemaps updated, fix broken links, and ensure key pages are indexed. Avoid blocking important content with noindex tags or robots.txt. Do not rely solely on PDFs or images to communicate essential information. Always provide HTML text summaries for critical details.

Data Accuracy and Consistency
Structured data must match on-page content exactly. Inconsistent tuition figures, dates, or requirements can confuse AI systems and undermine trust. Centralizing frequently updated information reduces errors and improves reliability.

Clean structure and accurate schema make your site easier for AI to understand and more likely to be referenced correctly.

7. Stay Current and Adapt

The final requirement for AI-era visibility is continuous adaptation. AI-powered search is evolving quickly, and static strategies will fall behind.

Monitor Performance
Track impressions, click-through rates, and query patterns. Declining clicks may indicate users are getting answers directly from AI results. Identify affected pages and strengthen their value or clarity.

Use AI Evaluation Tools
Emerging tools can highlight gaps, such as missing schema or slow performance. While imperfect, they can help prioritize improvements.

Keep Content Updated
Refresh pages when programs, policies, or deadlines change. Update older content with current data and examples. AI systems favor recent, accurate information, especially for admissions and cost-related queries.

Watch Industry Trends
Follow credible SEO and higher education marketing sources to understand how AI search is evolving. Use early signals to adjust content strategy before visibility declines.

Example: University of Utah: Stays on the cutting edge by rapidly adapting to emerging search technologies and educating its staff. In late 2025, Utah’s Web Support & Usability team hosted a campus Web Editor Summit focused on the latest SEO and AI trends. They urged content editors to adjust strategies for AI-driven search, for example, by optimizing site content even if certain pages are blocked from traditional indexing (since AI models might analyze them regardless). Utah is even preparing for the next wave of AI by securing an enterprise ChatGPT license to integrate advanced AI into its services. By proactively training web editors on tools like custom GPTs and emphasizing new ranking factors, the University of Utah shows a commitment to continuous learning and quick adaptation in the AI era.

Source: University of Utah

Balance Optimization With Human Experience
AI visibility is only the first step. When users click through, your site must guide them clearly toward next actions. Strong user experience, clear calls to action, and authentic messaging remain essential.

Schools that combine technical discipline with ongoing refinement will remain visible as search continues to evolve. Continuous improvement is the most reliable long-term strategy in an AI-driven search environment.

Preparing Your School for AI-Driven Search

AI-powered search is fundamentally changing how prospective students discover, evaluate, and compare institutions. Visibility is no longer determined solely by blue-link rankings but by how clearly and credibly a school’s information can be understood and reused by AI systems. To remain competitive, schools must move beyond isolated SEO tactics and adopt a more holistic approach to search visibility.

This means maintaining strong technical SEO foundations, publishing content that directly answers real student questions, and ensuring visual, video, and structured data assets are optimized and accessible. Clean site architecture, accurate information, and consistent updates all play a role in whether an institution is surfaced or overlooked in AI-generated results. Just as important is a commitment to ongoing adaptation. AI search will continue to evolve, and schools that monitor performance, refine content, and prioritize the student experience will be best positioned to earn trust, attention, and engagement.

Need help refining your school search optimization strategy?

Discover how our specialized services can help you connect with and enroll more students.

FAQs

Question: What is Google’s AI Search (SGE) and why does it matter for schools?

Answer: Google’s Search Generative Experience, now commonly surfaced as AI Overviews, represents a major shift in how search results are delivered. Instead of presenting users with a list of links, Google increasingly provides synthesized, AI-generated answers that pull information from multiple sources and present it as a concise, conversational summary.

Question: How can my school improve its visibility in AI-powered search?

Answer: Achieving visibility in AI-driven search results requires a blend of traditional SEO best practices and newer approaches often referred to as Generative Engine Optimization. This means maintaining a strong SEO foundation so Google understands and trusts your site, while also optimizing your content and digital presence for how AI retrieves, synthesizes, and presents information.

Question: Why are online reviews important for AI search results?

Answer: Online reviews provide fresh, user-generated content that signals credibility and relevance to AI systems. Positive, detailed reviews can help your institution appear in AI-generated answers by reinforcing trust, boosting visibility, and enriching the data AI uses to evaluate and summarize schools in search results.

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January 7, 2026
Getting Consistent Results from AI: Understanding the AI Context Window
From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis
Subscribe to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Too many teachers are struggling with getting good results from AI. Sometimes it just goes “off the rails,” or they might get good results one day and not the next. The same thing happens with students as they use AI. Problems caused by not understanding how AI works leads to lost time, confusion, and sometimes even student misuse. Much of this problem is related to the context window of AI. How do we understand AI and the context window? How do we teach about this?

Today’s guest is Rob the AI Guy. He started his work leading a major social media agency but now runs a thriving community focused on AI agents and automation. He is my favorite AI YouTuber, and I joined his Skool this year, which I’ve found to be my most helpful resource for keeping up with everything AI. Rob clearly explains how AI works, but perhaps the most useful concept he shares is how the context window works. If you’re struggling to use AI well, trying to understand it, or grappling with how to explain it to your students, this is the show for you.

Key Takeaways for Teachers
- AI tools behave inconsistently because they rely on a limited context window that fills up and resets.
- Starting a new chat can dramatically improve AI responses when results drift or become unreliable.
- Different AI models have different strengths, and using more than one can lead to better outcomes.
- Students need explicit instruction on how AI works so they don’t overtrust or misuse it.
- Critical thinking is more important than memorization in a world where AI can retrieve information instantly.
Visual Summary

I created this infographic from this show’s transcript to give a visual overview of some of the topics discusse din the show. I used Google’s Notebook LM.

Watch the Show

Watch this video on YouTube.Subscribe to the Cool Cat Teacher Channel on YouTube

Listen to the Podcast

Robert Benjamin – Author Bio as Submitted

Robert Benjamin also known as “Rob the AI Guy”

Robert Benjamin breaks down the latest in AI automation as a serial entrepreneur and YouTuber known for making complex technology accessible. Having consulted with over 350,000 clients through his social media agency, he now runs a thriving community focused on AI agents and automation, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and real-world business applications.

Blog: https://www.skool.com/ai-automation-school

The post Getting Consistent Results from AI: Understanding the AI Context Window appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

If you’re seeing this on another site, they are “scraping” my feed and taking my content to present it to you so be aware of this.

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December 22, 2025
Tutoring was supposed to save American kids after the pandemic. The results? ‘Sobering’

Rigorous research rarely shows that any teaching approach produces large and consistent benefits for students. But tutoring seemed to be a rare exception. Before the pandemic, almost 100 studies pointed to impressive math or reading gains for students who were paired with a tutor at least three times a week and used a proven curriculum or set of lesson plans.

Some students gained an extra year’s worth of learning — far greater than the benefit of smaller classes, summer school or a fantastic teacher. These were rigorous randomized controlled trials, akin to the way that drugs or vaccines are tested, comparing test scores of tutored students against those who weren’t. The expense, sometimes surpassing $4,000 a year per student, seemed worth it for what researchers called high-dosage tutoring.

On the strength of that evidence, the Biden administration urged schools to invest their pandemic recovery funds in intensive tutoring to help students catch up academically. Forty-six percent of public schools heeded that call, according to a 2024 federal survey, though it’s unclear exactly how much of the $190 billion in pandemic recovery funds have been spent on high-dosage tutoring and how many students received it.

Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.

Even with ample money, schools immediately reported problems in ramping up high-quality tutoring for so many students. In 2024, researchers documented either tiny or no academic benefits from large-scale tutoring efforts in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.

New evidence from the 2023-24 school year reinforces those results. Researchers are rigorously studying large-scale tutoring efforts around the nation and testing whether effective tutoring can be done more cheaply. A dozen researchers studied more than 20,000 students in Miami; Chicago; Atlanta; Winston-Salem and Greensboro, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; schools throughout New Mexico, and a California charter school network. This was also a randomized controlled study in which 9,000 students were randomly assigned to get tutoring and compared with 11,000 students who didn’t get that extra help.

Their preliminary results were “sobering,” according to a June report by the University of Chicago Education Lab and MDRC, a research organization.

The researchers found that tutoring during the 2023-24 school year produced only one or two months’ worth of extra learning in reading or math — a tiny fraction of what the pre-pandemic research had produced. Each minute of tutoring that students received appeared to be as effective as in the pre-pandemic research, but students weren’t getting enough minutes of tutoring altogether. “Overall we still see that the dosage students are getting falls far short of what would be needed to fully realize the promise of high-dosage tutoring,” the report said.

Monica Bhatt, a researcher at the University of Chicago Education Lab and one of the report’s authors, said schools struggled to set up large tutoring programs. “The problem is the logistics of getting it delivered,” said Bhatt. Effective high-dosage tutoring involves big changes to bell schedules and classroom space, along with the challenge of hiring and training tutors. Educators need to make it a priority for it to happen, Bhatt said.

Related: Students aren’t benefiting much from tutoring, one new study shows

Some of the earlier, pre-pandemic tutoring studies involved large numbers of students, too, but those tutoring programs were carefully designed and implemented, often with researchers involved. In most cases, they were ideal setups. There was much greater variability in the quality of post-pandemic programs.

“For those of us that run experiments, one of the deep sources of frustration is that what you end up with is not what you tested and wanted to see,” said Philip Oreopoulos, an economist at the University of Toronto, whose 2020 review of tutoring evidence influenced policymakers. Oreopoulos was also an author of the June report.

“After you spend lots of people’s money and lots of time and effort, things don’t always go the way you hope. There’s a lot of fires to put out at the beginning or throughout because teachers or tutors aren’t doing what you want, or the hiring isn’t going well,” Oreopoulos said.

Another reason for the lackluster results could be that schools offered a lot of extra help to everyone after the pandemic, even to students who didn’t receive tutoring. In the pre-pandemic research, students in the “business as usual” control group often received no extra help at all, making the difference between tutoring and no tutoring far more stark. After the pandemic, students — tutored and non-tutored alike — had extra math and reading periods, sometimes called “labs” for review and practice work. More than three-quarters of the 20,000 students in this June analysis had access to computer-assisted instruction in math or reading, possibly muting the effects of tutoring.

Related: Tutoring may not significantly improve attendance

The report did find that cheaper tutoring programs appeared to be just as effective (or ineffective) as the more expensive ones, an indication that the cheaper models are worth further testing. The cheaper models averaged $1,200 per student and had tutors working with eight students at a time, similar to small group instruction, often combining online practice work with human attention. The more expensive models averaged $2,000 per student and had tutors working with three to four students at once. By contrast, many of the pre-pandemic tutoring programs involved smaller 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 student-to-tutor ratios.

Despite the disappointing results, researchers said that educators shouldn’t give up. “High-dosage tutoring is still a district or state’s best bet to improve student learning, given that the learning impact per minute of tutoring is largely robust,” the report concludes. The task now is to figure out how to improve implementation and increase the hours that students are receiving. “Our recommendation for the field is to focus on increasing dosage — and, thereby learning gains,” Bhatt said.

That doesn’t mean that schools need to invest more in tutoring and saturate schools with effective tutors. That’s not realistic with the end of federal pandemic recovery funds.

Instead of tutoring for the masses, Bhatt said researchers are turning their attention to targeting a limited amount of tutoring to the right students. “We are focused on understanding which tutoring models work for which kinds of students.”

Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or [email protected].

This story about tutoring effectiveness was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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August 25, 2025
Behind the scenes at UCAS on level 3 results day

In Cheltenham they call it “UCAS Christmas” and it’s not hard to see why. Months of preparation, a whole lot of expectation riding on a single day, highs and lows of emotion, and more snacks than you can shake a stick at.

Level 3 results day at UCAS HQ has the kind of jittery manic energy that comes when a lot of people have been anticipating this day for months, and half of them have been up since 2.00am the night before. By the time I arrive, the marquee moment – the national release of admissions decisions into 700k-plus inboxes at 8.00am – has passed without a hitch and the main business of Clearing, fielding queries from anxious applicants (and their parents), is under way.

Nerve centre

At the heart of the building sits Joint Operations Centre, or JOC for short, a room humming with the quiet buzz of people making sure the right things are happening. Courteney Sheppard, UCAS head of operations, explains that today, most UCAS people who have decision-making power on results day convene in this one space so that if anything happens that needs speedy resolution the right person is on hand. Those with deep subject expertise are housed temporarily in the office next door, ready to jump in to address issues as they arise.

All along one wall there are massive screens – at least twenty and probably more like thirty, all monitoring different data in real time. One screen simply shows the current time (because in the critical two minutes before 8.00am release there are actions that are coordinated to the second); others track web traffic, database capacity, maximum wait times for calls, social media traffic, applicant behaviours, and much more besides. Opposite the screens is a flipchart where there are already a ream of jotted notes about ways to improve for next year.

It’s easy to underestimate the logistical and technological challenge facing UCAS on results day but consider how rare it is for any system to have to cope with close to simultaneous login of every possible user. All over the country at 8.00am on the dot applicants’ UCAS results portal goes live and they can login to see whether they have secured their preferred course and higher education institution. Simultaneously they receive an email from UCAS with the same information. And, I’m told, UCAS creates a static web page for each and every applicant with the same information so that if there is any delay at all in getting into the portal, even of only a few seconds, the applicant can be redirected to the information they are looking for.

“The 8 o’clock moment is always hairy,” says Lynsey Hopkins, UCAS director of admissions. “The preparation is incredible, and takes months, because there are so many moving parts. The tech is really complex and is getting more so all the time. You always worry that if any applicant wasn’t able to see their outcomes that could ramp up their anxiety on one of the highest stakes and most stressful experiences of their young lives.”

But getting information on admissions decisions out to applicants is only the beginning. The vast majority – in fact the highest number on record this year – will have a place confirmed at their first choice of institution. Most of those will segue seamlessly into celebrating and looking forward to taking up their place. But a substantial number will pass through Clearing – and not only because they have been unlucky enough not to receive an offer from their preferred institution. Some applicants’ plans will have changed since they made their application through UCAS and will wish to decline their place in favour of a different option; others don’t even start applying until the Clearing period. Where UCAS holds data on applicants’ previous choices and qualifications the system will suggest possible matches for applicants to help them begin to sift their options.

“The largest group of people in Clearing are those who have actively put themselves there,” says Ben Jordan, UCAS head of strategy. “Clearing doesn’t have negative connotations among young people at all – it’s just a brand.”This year 92 per cent of all higher education providers are offering courses through Clearing, and there are more than 30,000 courses available, offering an enormous degree of choice to applicants.

Holding hands

In theory, applicants contact institutions directly, and once they have secured an offer, are able to update their applications via their UCAS portal and have the application confirmed by the institution, without active intervention from UCAS. In practice, many applicants still need help and support from the central admissions service.

Over in the “west wing” there’s the traditional call centre staffed by a mixture of UCAS’ customer service team, volunteers from across the business, and temporary staff, all sporting UCAS t-shirts, headsets and query cards they can wave to summon a senior staff member to help them answer the more complicated questions. On a normal day, UCAS has 50-60 people working on customer services; today it’s around 200.

It’s not uncommon for calls to simply consist of an applicant saying, “My UCAS portal says I got in. Did I get in?” To which the correct answer is, “Yes, you got in, hurray!” Job done to everyone’s satisfaction. But it’s much more likely that applicants have more complicated questions – predictably many lose their login information, don’t fully understand the process, and generally need a bit of hand-holding at a stressful time.

“We don’t just handle questions, we handle emotions,” says Jordan Court, customer call handler. “There can be so much riding on this day for applicants, they can get so anxious, it’s understandable they can sometimes lose the ability to deal with administrative stuff.” Every call handler, especially those volunteering receive detailed training, with a strong focus on emotional intelligence. “We tell people, ‘Imagine how you would want your child or your sibling to be treated’” says Courteney. “Nine of ten times what people want from the call is reassurance or validation, especially if they’re not able to get support from a school or college.”

While the calls come in steadily, in this day and age much of the queries are via social media or the UCAS chatbot, Cassy, which is able to resolve the more transactional questions, reducing the overall call load by around 30 per cent. Some issues require intervention: Jordan is able to resolve one query by noticing from a screenshot that an applicant is trying to access his UCAS portal via a web browser that has been designed for gamers – advising the applicant to try again with a more mainstream browser.

Without fail, everyone I speak to talks in glowing terms about their experience of being “on the phones” for Clearing. It’s clearly a formative experience for many UCAS staff, giving them a strong sense of purpose and of the importance of the work they do to connect applicants to higher education, as well as occasionally throwing up useful insight about how to improve the applicant experience.

Lines to take

Elsewhere in the building Jo Saxton, UCAS chief executive, is fielding media appearances and questions alongside minister for skills Jacqui Smith, who has the day before recorded a special message of congratulations to applicants from UCAS’ very own professional recording studio.

UCAS director of data and analysis Maggie Smart talks me through the extraordinary process of data analysis that underpins the talking points everyone is reading in the morning papers. As a voluntary signatory to the UK Statistics Authority’s code of practice for statistics, Maggie is responsible for making sure that anything UCAS says about what the data indicates should be verifiable with actual data published on its website.

Results day for the UCAS data team starts at 11.00pm the night before, capturing live operational data at 12.01am, wrestling it into a format that is publishable as public data, creating different datasets to inform governments in each of the UK Nations, and analysing the key insights that will inform the press release and briefing to the senior team until 5.00am. The press release covering the agreed talking points is signed off and released at 7.00am.

Following results day the team will track and publish daily Clearing data, updating the public dashboards by 11.00am each day. One innovation for this year will be publication of weekly data on use of the “decline my place” function, seeking to understand more about which applicants are more likely to take up that option.

In recent years the media around results day has presented something of a mixed picture, with celebratory stories of achievement and advice on securing a university place mixed with more critical queries of the value of higher education. For UCAS, engagement with stakeholders in government and in media is partly about giving confidence in the robustness of the system and partly about landing messages about the continued importance of higher education opportunity, in line with the emphasis on breaking down barriers to participation in UCAS’ recently published strategy.

In its next strategic period, UCAS will focus on the 250k-odd individuals who register for UCAS but never get to the point of making an application. Understanding the experiences, hopes and aspirations of that cohort will help to inform not just UCAS, but the whole HE sector on how to meet the needs of those of that cohort that could potentially benefit from higher education.

Given the complexity of the policy landscape for HE it’s invigorating to spend a day with people who share a core belief in the power of higher education to change lives, of which Ben Jordan is possibly one of the most heartfelt. As the policy narrative on access to university takes on a more regional and skills-led flavour, Ben argues that the enormous diversity of the higher education offer needs to be better understood so that students can truly appreciate the breadth of the options they have.

“I’ve seen purpose-built factories, I’ve seen racing car courses on university campuses,” he says. “These days the majority of applicants aren’t those with just A levels, it’s a much more mixed picture, and it’s so important that they understand not only what is opened up or closed off by the choices they make but how much higher education has to offer them. It’s our job to get that message out.”

This article is published in association with UCAS.

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August 15, 2025
The Numbers Don’t Lie: HSI Funding Delivers Results

Dr. William Casey Boland A lawsuit challenging Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) federal funding represents another figurative bomb lobbed in the current war on U.S. higher education. Galvanized by the President’s blitzkrieg on social funding and education, this assault on the alleged reverse racism of HSI funding reflects the ugly political tenor of the times in the U.S. It also conveniently ignores the evidence of the positive impact of such governmental support.

l’ll acknowledge my bias: I teach at a large urban college that recently received an HSI grant. Nearly all my students are students of color, with roughly half being Hispanic. Many are the first in their families to enroll in college. Most of their parents were not born in the U.S. We are amongst the 20% of all colleges in the U.S. that are eligible to apply for an HSI grant, which are made available through the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Title III and Title V).

Why did we apply for this grant? State funding per student to public HSIs is $6,396.59 compared to $15,526.13 for non-HSIs. The ongoing disparities in postsecondary educational attainment based on race and ethnicity reveal more about a deficit in public policy to address the equitable distribution of resources and less about the ability of students of color to obtain a college degree. Despite modest gains over time, gaps in attainment continue. 28% of the Hispanic population in the U.S. received an associate degree or higher compared to 48% of the white population. The average graduation rate in four-year postsecondary institutions was 52% for Hispanic students compared to 65% for white students. HSI grants are made available in part to narrow this gap in college outcomes amongst Hispanic students.

What is my college doing with its HSI grant? To advance retention, persistence, and specific course completion, the grant will improve the First Year Seminar, provide professional develop with a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy, integrate tutoring, peer mentoring, academic and career coaching, and target intervention in gateway courses.

Many HSI-eligible colleges look like mine, but not all. They are two and four-year public and private non-profit institutions that are under-resourced, become eligible to apply when their undergraduate enrollment reaches 25% Hispanicand at minimum 50% receive some form of financial aid. The rising number of colleges eligible for HSI grants reflects the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. Between 2010 and 2022, the Hispanic population accounted for 34 percent of the overall increase in the U.S. population. Hispanic participation in colleges and universities rose from 14 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2022.

Several characteristics are common across institutions designated as HSIs. First, Hispanics tend to enroll in HSI-designated colleges more than non-HSIs. This is largely due to Hispanic students wanting to enroll in a college close to their community. Second, Hispanic students attending HSIs are often the first in their family to seek a college degree. Third, Hispanic students enrolled in HSIs on average graduated from high schools with large classroom sizes, disproportionate levels of racially minoritized student populations, and lower standardized test scores. Many argue that HSIs offer such students an opportunity to participate in postsecondary education that they would not otherwise have.

Evidence-based research demonstrates the ROI on the federal government’s investment in HSIs. When colleges receive HSI grants, there is a positive effect on Hispanic students. I found that grant receipt increases Hispanic bachelor’s degree completion by nearly 30 percent and associate degrees by almost 25 percent. In another study, we found a 10% increase in Hispanic students obtaining STEM associate’s degrees. We also found benefits for non-Hispanic students, with an 11% increase in the number of those students receiving STEM associate’s degrees. This echoes another study focusing on the initial year HSI STEM grants were awarded with the authors finding HSI STEM grant receipt directly led to an 8% increase in Hispanic students receiving such degrees in community colleges.

I doubt the architects of this recent lawsuit challenging HSI funding have ever spoken to someone who graduated from an HSI. I teach a graduate course on minority serving institutions (MSIs). Nearly all my students are students of color from the New York City metropolitan area. Most attended different MSIs as undergraduates. While experiences vary, most extol the virtues of having attended an MSI. They speak to the level of support they received, the power of being surrounded my others who shared their background, the willingness of HSIs and other MSIs to welcome students’ families and community to campus, amongst many other characteristics that made them glad they chose an HSI or MSI over a PWI.

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of postsecondary programs funded through tax-payer dollars. Yet recent political antagonism directed towards higher education looks more like red meat being tossed to appease the red base as opposed to thoughtful, evidence-based decision-making. Acknowledging the effectiveness of HSI funding and similar efforts would weaken the core animating principle of the current Republican mission to decimate political support for such programs and reduce the existence of government more broadly.

Dr. William Casey Boland is an assistant professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College-City University of New York.

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July 25, 2025
Reflections on the demand for higher education – and what UCAS data reveal ahead of Results Day 2025

This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Maggie Smart, UCAS Director of Data and Analysis

As we pass the 30 June deadline for this year’s undergraduate admissions cycle, UCAS’ data offers an early view of applicant and provider behaviour as we head into Confirmation and Clearing. It also marks a personal milestone for me, as it’s my first deadline release since rejoining UCAS. I wanted to take a deeper look at the data to reflect on how much things have changed since I worked here 10 years ago.

Applicant demand has always been shaped by two key elements: the size of the potential applicant pool, and their propensity to apply. Since I last worked at UCAS in 2016, these two factors have continuously interchanged over the better part of the past decade – sometimes increasing or decreasing independently but often counterbalancing each other. Let’s take a look at how things are shaping up this year.

Overall, by the 30 June there have been 665,070 applicants (all ages, all domiciles) this year, compared to 656,760 (+1.3%) in 2024. This is an increase in applicants of over 64,000 since UCAS last reported in January, although the profile of these additional applicants is very different. At the January Equal Consideration Deadline (ECD), over half of the total number of applicants were UK 18-year olds, who are the most likely group to have applied by that stage in the cycle. They represent just 8% of the additional applicants since January, among a much larger proportion of UK mature and international students.

As we saw at January, the differences in demand for places between young people from the most advantaged (POLAR4 Quintile 5) and most disadvantaged (POLAR4 Quintile 1) areas at June remain broadly the same as last year – with the most advantaged 2.15 times more likely to apply to HE than those from the least advantaged backgrounds, compared to 2.17 last year.

UK 18-year-old demand

Demand for UK higher education (HE) has long been shaped by the 18-year-old population – the largest pool of applicants. Despite the well-known challenges facing the HE sector at present, at the 30 June deadline we see record numbers of UK 18-year-old applicants, with 328,390 applicants this year – up from 321,410 (+2%) in 2024. This trend was almost entirely locked in by the January deadline, given the vast majority of UK 18-year-old applicants have applied at this stage in the cycle.

During my previous tenure at UCAS, the size of the UK 18-year-old population had been falling year on year but from 2020, it began to increase. This continued growth drives the increase in UK 18-year-old applicant numbers we have observed in recent cycles. But when we look at their overall application rate to understand the strength of demand among this group, the data shows a marginal decline again this year – down to 41.2% from 41.9% in 2024. The historically strong growth in the propensity of UK 18-year-olds to apply for HE, which we’ve observed across the last decade, has clearly plateaued.

This could be due to a range of factors, such as young people choosing to take up work or an apprenticeship, or financial barriers. We know that cost of living is increasingly influencing young people’s decisions this year, with pre-applicants telling us that financial support – such as scholarships or bursaries – ranks as the second most important consideration for them (46%), followed closely by universities’ specific cost-of-living support (34%).

Interesting to note is the number of UK 19-year-old applicants. When separating the data to distinguish 19-year-olds applying for the first time (as opposed to those reapplying), there has been a decent increase – from 46,680 last year to 48,890 this year (+4.7%). For many years, the number of first-time UK 19-year-old applicants had been falling year on year, but since 2023 this trend has started to reverse. This suggests that demand among young people may be holding up as they decide to take a year out before applying to university or college.

Mature students

For UK mature students (aged 21+), the picture looks very different. The number of mature students applying to university or college ebbs and flows depending on the strength of the job market, so since I was last at UCAS, we have typically seen applications decrease when employment opportunities are strong and vice versa. Alongside fluctuations linked to the employment market, rising participation at age 18 means there is a smaller pool of potential older applicants who have not already entered HE. The falling demand from mature students continues in 2025, although in recent years there have been small but significant increases in the volume of mature applicants applying after the 30 June deadline and directly into Clearing.

As of this year’s 30 June deadline there have been 86,310 UK mature (21+) applicants, compared to 89,690 (-3.8%) in 2024, meaning a fall in demand compared to the previous year at this point in the cycle for the fourth year in a row. However, whereas at the January deadline mature applicants were down 6.4% compared to the same point last year, at June the figure is only 3.8% down showing some recovery in the numbers. This is another indication that mature students are applying later in the cycle. While it remains too early to say whether we will see continued growth in mature direct to Clearing applicants in 2025, last year 9,390 UK mature students who applied direct to Clearing were accepted at university or college, an increase of 7.4% on 2023 and 22.7% higher than 2022.

International students

When looking at the UCAS data through the lens of international students, the landscape has changed significantly since 2016. Brexit led to a sharp decline in EU applicants, offset by strong growth elsewhere, the pandemic caused disruption to international student mobility, and we’ve seen intensified global competition, shifting market dynamics and geopolitics which are increasingly influencing where they choose to study. This year we’re seeing growth once more, with 138,460 international applicants compared to 135,460 in 2024 (+2.2%) – although this stood at +2.7% at January. It should be noted that UCAS does only see a partial view of undergraduate international admissions (we tend to get a more complete picture by the end of the cycle) and we don’t capture data on postgraduate taught and research pathways.

Interest among Chinese students in UK education has held firm since my time at UCAS, and this year we’re seeing a record number of applicants from China – 33,870, up from 30,860 (+10%) in 2024. This year’s data also shows increases in applicants from Ireland (6,060 applicants, +15%), Nigeria (3,170 applicants, +23%) and the USA (7,930 applicants, +14%).

Offer-making

We are releasing a separate report on offer-making this year, alongside the usual data dashboard for applications. This additional data covers offers and offer rates over the past three years, from the perspective of applicants according to their age and where they live, and from the perspective of providers by UK nation and tariff group.

What we’re seeing as the natural consequence of increased applications this year is an uplift in offers. Universities have made more offers than ever before this year, with 2.0 million main scheme offers to January deadline applicants overall, largely driven by the rise in UK 18-year-olds applicants (who are the most likely to use their full five choices while applying). This record high surpasses the previous peak of 1.9 million offers set last year (+3.8%).

While the main scheme offer rate has increased across all provider tariff groups, the most notable uplift is for higher tariff providers – up 3.2 percentage points to 64.4% this year. Despite the increase in offer rates, higher tariffs do still remain the lowest, partly due to being the most selective institutions. Offer rates by medium and lower tariff providers have also increased, by 0.9 percentage points to 77.0% among medium tariff providers, and by 1.5 percentage points to 81.7% among lower tariff providers. This means that, among those who applied by the Equal Consideration Deadline in January, 72.5% of main scheme applications received an offer this year, also a record high, and 1.8 percentage points higher than in 2024.

It’s worth noting that we’ll be updating our provider tariff groupings in time for the 2026 cycle, to reflect changes in the higher education landscape.

Looking ahead

For students who are intent on going to university or college, it makes this a very good year, with more opportunities than ever before. A record 94.5% of students who applied by the January deadline will be approaching the critical summer period having received at least one offer. High levels of offer-making by universities and colleges typically translates into more acceptances, which should give applicants plenty of confidence heading into results day.

I’m delighted to be back at UCAS, and my team will continue to dig further into the data as Confirmation and Clearing draws nearer to see how demand translates into accepted places come results day.

UCAS

UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, is an independent charity, and the UK’s shared admissions service for higher education.

UCAS’ services support young people making post-18 choices, as well as mature learners, by providing information, advice, and guidance to inspire and facilitate educational progression to university, college, or an apprenticeship.

UCAS manages almost three million applications, from around 700,000 people each year, for full-time undergraduate courses at over 380 universities and colleges across the UK.

UCAS is committed to delivering a first-class service to all our beneficiaries — they’re at the heart of everything we do.

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July 16, 2025
10 Smart Enrollment Marketing Tactics That Drive Results

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Today’s prospective students aren’t waiting for a glossy brochure to arrive in the mail. They’re researching schools on their phones between classes, watching campus tours on YouTube, and chatting with peers online to compare experiences. They’re digital-first and impatient, and expect the same seamless experience from a college as they would from Netflix or Amazon.

To stand out in this noisy, fast-moving environment, your enrollment marketing needs to work smarter. That means shifting away from static promotions and embracing data-driven, student-centric strategies that guide each prospect from curiosity to commitment.

Here’s how you can make that happen: 10 tactics that schools across North America (and beyond) are using to win the attention, trust, and enrollment of today’s students.

Struggling with enrollment?

Our expert digital marketing services can help you attract and enroll more students!

1. Understand Your Audience (Better Than They Expect)

The best enrollment marketing strategies begin with deep audience insight. Not the surface-level kind (like age ranges or postal codes), but real, behavior-based understanding.

Instead of just collecting names at events or counting clicks on a landing page, take the time to analyze what your audience is doing. Are they spending five minutes reading your nursing program page but bouncing quickly from your homepage? Is there a spike in traffic after you post student testimonials on Instagram? These are the clues that shape smart decisions.

Tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Slate reveal exactly where prospects engage and where they drop off. Segmenting audiences based on their actions, rather than assumptions, lets you personalize outreach that feels meaningful. If a student explores your hospitality program at 11:00 p.m. from another time zone, your strategy should reflect that interest and context.

Personalization builds a connection. And connection drives conversion.

Example: Oregon State University implemented a modern CRM (Slate) to segment and personalize outreach. OSU filters prospective students by interests, major, and location to trigger automated, tailored communications (email, text, print) for each segment. With this approach, Oregon State University ensures that prospects receive information relevant to them. For example, engineering-minded students get content on OSU’s tech programs, improving engagement and application conversion.

Source: Oregon State University

2. Turn Your Website Into a Top-Performing Recruiter

Think of your website as your lead admissions counselor. It works 24/7 and never forgets a prospect’s name, if it’s built right.

A compelling site doesn’t just list programs. It creates an experience. Navigation should be intuitive, especially on mobile, where the majority of users browse. Application deadlines should never be more than one click away. Program benefits should be clear, outcomes measurable, and support services obvious.

Equally important is online visibility. Students won’t land on your site if it isn’t optimized for search. That means including the phrases they’re typing into Google: “Best business diploma in Vancouver” or “Top graphic design college Canada.” A steady stream of blog content around these themes builds your authority and search rankings over time.

Don’t underestimate local search either. Schools that claim their Google Business listing and keep it updated with reviews, photos, and FAQs tend to show up higher in local results, right when families are deciding which campuses to visit.

Example: ENSR partnered with HEM to revamp its website for better usability and search visibility. Targeted SEO optimizations (including multilingual content and Google Ads campaigns) were implemented to attract more qualified traffic. ENSR also improved site speed and navigation. As a result, the school saw a 10% year-over-year increase in admissions, clear evidence that an optimized, easy-to-find website translates into more student enrollments.

Source: HEM

How can schools use SEO to reach more prospective students? Schools can use SEO by optimizing their website and content with keywords students search for, like program names or “colleges near me.” Creating informative blog posts, improving site speed, and using clear navigation help boost search rankings, making it easier for prospects to find and explore the school online.

3. Meet Students Where They Scroll

Social media is no longer just a promotional tool; it’s where brand trust is built. And guess what? Students don’t want picture-perfect posts. They want a glimpse into real student life: the awkward, the inspiring, and everything in between.

How do social media platforms help attract prospective students? Social media platforms help attract prospective students by showcasing authentic campus life, student stories, and academic highlights where students already spend time. Targeted ads and engaging content build awareness, answer questions, and create emotional connections that encourage students to explore programs and take the next step toward applying.

The most effective schools blend behind-the-scenes campus life, student takeovers, and authentic voices with strategic, paid campaigns. Engagement is key. Answer comments, reply to DMs, and ask questions. Your presence shouldn’t just be felt; it should be responsive.

And when a student visits your site but doesn’t apply? A retargeting ad reminding them about a scholarship deadline can bring them back with a purpose.

Example: Randolph-Macon Academy utilizes student-driven social media takeovers and campaigns to humanize its brand. For example, on “Takeover Tuesdays,” R-MA students run the school’s Instagram Stories, giving followers a genuine day-in-the-life look at campus life. These peer perspectives resonate with prospective students and parents. R-MA also shares posts on LinkedIn celebrating achievements (like its seniors earning $16 million+ in scholarships) to boost credibility. By strategically targeting content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, R-MA expands its reach and builds trust with specific audiences.

Source: R-MA Instagram

4. Bring Your Campus to Their Couch

Campus visits are powerful but not always possible. Virtual tours bridge that gap beautifully when done right.

Why are virtual tours important for school admissions marketing? Virtual tours are important because they let prospective students explore campus facilities, culture, and student life from anywhere. They provide a first-hand experience that builds familiarity and trust, especially for international or remote students who can’t visit in person, helping them feel more confident about applying.

The most compelling virtual experiences go beyond slideshows or still images. They immerse visitors in 360° visuals of your labs, residences, lounges, and dining halls. Add narration, clickable maps, and interactive hotspots to create a sense of discovery.

Want to make it even more engaging? Offer live tours hosted by current students. Answer questions in real-time. Make the conversation two-way. This kind of hybrid interaction not only informs, but it also builds comfort and connection.

Gamifying the experience with small touches like hidden easter eggs or quizzes can boost session time, making students stay longer and remember more.

Example: Eastern New Mexico University: In January 2025, ENMU launched an upgraded 360-degree interactive virtual tour of its campus, in partnership with a virtual tour platform. The tour lets prospective students anywhere in the world explore campus landmarks at their own pace with panoramic views and clickable info points. New interactive stops even feature current students sharing their experiences via video, and users can access photos and descriptions of traditions at each location. This immersive virtual experience makes viewers feel “like they are on campus,” even if they cannot visit in person.

Source: ENMU

5. Let Video Carry the Message

Nothing conveys emotion, trust, and energy quite like video. That’s why it’s the top-performing format across all platforms.

Students use video to explore, compare, and decide. A 30-second clip showing campus energy can hook them, while a three-minute video of a student explaining why they chose your school can tip the scales.

The best videos aren’t always the most polished. Often, it’s the realness that lands, the quiet moment in a dorm room, a laugh during class, a genuine answer about overcoming a challenge. When current students tell their story on camera, it resonates far more than scripted promos ever could.

And don’t stop with publishing. Upload to YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world), share snippets on social media, and embed videos in your emails or on your site. It keeps your message moving, even when you’re not.

Example: The Academy of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences regularly produces short videos featuring student success stories and hands-on training highlights. These testimonials and “day in the life” videos are shared on AAPS’s website and social channels, providing an authentic glimpse into student outcomes. AAPS also posts video content of alumni in their new careers or students in lab classes, which personalizes the school’s message.

6. Be There Instantly with Smart Chatbots

Picture this: a student is exploring your program page at 10:45 p.m. They want to know if scholarships are still open, but your office is closed.

This is where chatbots shine. When used effectively, they answer FAQs, guide students to relevant pages, and even collect lead info for follow-up, all in real time.

Today’s best bots go beyond text. They can speak multiple languages, schedule tours, and connect students with human counselors. They’re not a replacement for your staff. They’re the frontline, making sure no interest goes cold.

Example: The University of Illinois Gies College of Business deployed an AI chatbot named “Alma” on its online MBA program website to handle common questions and nurture leads. The chatbot was built with a no-code AI platform and programmed to answer prospective students’ free-text questions about the program, provide key information (e.g., deadlines, curriculum), and even collect contact info for follow-up.

Source: Gies College of Business

7. Let Students Do the Talking

Your school can say it’s great. But it means more when others say it for you.

Prospective students read reviews before making decisions. That’s true whether they’re buying shoes or choosing a college. A few well-placed, authentic reviews from happy students or parents can tip the scale in your favor.

Example: Rosseau Lake College actively highlights student and parent testimonials on its official site to manage its online reputation. RLC’s admissions section features a dedicated “Student Testimonials” page with quotes, stories, and even videos from current students and recent graduates.

Source: RLC

Make it easy for your community to share their voice. Follow up after tours or events with a simple request for feedback. Prompt graduating students to reflect on their journey. And most importantly, respond graciously to both praise and criticism.

Highlight these testimonials in your marketing materials, emails, and website. Some schools even have dedicated pages that feature alumni quotes, rankings, and outcomes all in one place.

Example: Discovery Community College leverages Google reviews and social media to boost its reputation. When the college receives a glowing review online, the marketing team amplifies it; for instance, Discovery CC shared a student’s 5-star Google review on Instagram with a thank-you message.

Source: DCC Instagram

When you let your results speak for themselves, people listen.

8. Nurture With Purpose: Email and Text Messaging

Email isn’t outdated. It’s just misused.

Too often, schools blast the same generic message to every lead. But with marketing automation tools like HubSpot or Slate, you can do better. Much better.

Send personalized messages based on actual behavior. If someone downloaded a course calendar, send a follow-up series about faculty highlights, career paths, or student testimonials from that program. If a student clicked a scholarship link but didn’t apply, follow up with a helpful guide or checklist.

Text messages are the perfect complement: fast, direct, and effective. Use them for urgent nudges like deadline reminders or event RSVPs. But be respectful. Less is more when it comes to texting.

9. Host Webinars That Educate and Inspire

Done right, webinars are student recruitment gold. They let students interact with faculty, hear from alumni, and ask real questions, all from the comfort of home.

Think beyond the program overview. What are students anxious about? Admissions essays? Career prospects? Financial aid? Offer sessions that solve these problems, not just sell solutions.

Example: The University of North Texas runs themed Admissions Webinars for targeted audiences of students who haven’t yet applied. UNT invites high schoolers to sign up for sessions like “Why UNT? & How to Apply,” where recruiters walk through programs, campus life, and the application process via Zoom.

Source: University of North Texas

Live Q&As make these events feel dynamic. A student asking a question and getting an answer in the moment, that’s engagement. That’s trust.

Example: Randolph-Macon Academy hosts regular live webinars for prospective families as part of its recruitment strategy. During these virtual info sessions, R-MA’s admissions counselors present an overview of the school, share up-to-date facts, and then open the floor for Q&A. They often incorporate a live virtual campus tour within the webinar. This format has been effective in converting attendees to applicants – families get to interact directly with staff and students from home, addressing any doubts in real time.

Source: R-MA

And once the event ends, the content lives on. Recordings become lead magnets. Clips fuel your social strategy. Recaps can power blog posts. Every webinar is a long-term asset when you plan it right.

10. Showcase What Comes After: Alumni Success

Prospective students are investing time and money. What they want to know is simple: “Will it pay off?”

Highlighting alumni outcomes is one of the most persuasive things you can do. Share job placement rates, grad school acceptances, average salaries, whatever metrics tell the story of success.

Even more powerful are personal stories. The alum who launched a startup. The student who landed a dream internship. The graduate who returned to school to mentor others. These aren’t just achievements, they’re proof points.

Example: Randolph-Macon Academy publicizes its alumni and student success outcomes as a core part of marketing. R-MA’s communications showcase statistics like 100% college acceptance and millions in scholarships earned by each graduating class. In 2025, R-MA proudly shared that its 69 seniors collectively secured over $10.5 million in scholarships for college. Alumni success stories (military academy appointments, leadership roles, etc.) are featured on the school blog and newsletters.

Source: R-MA

Some schools use interactive alumni maps to show where grads are working across the globe. Others run weekly spotlight stories on social or newsletters. However you do it, make sure it’s easy for prospects to imagine their own future in the successes of those who came before.

When you say, “Here’s where our grads go, and here’s how we help them get there,” the value of your school becomes real.

Enrollment Marketing Is Not About Tactics. It’s About Trust.

Each of these enrollment strategies works on its own. But when you combine them into a cohesive enrollment plan, powered by data and driven by empathy, you don’t just generate interest. You build relationships.

From a student’s first Google search to their final enrollment decision, every interaction matters. So make them count. Use tools like CRMs to track engagement. Align marketing with admissions. And most importantly, keep the student experience at the center of it all.

Because in today’s world, enrollment isn’t about volume. It’s about value. Give your prospects content that answers questions, support that feels personal, and stories that inspire. Do that, and the results will follow.

Need help building your enrollment marketing plan?

HEM offers expert services tailored to higher education institutions across Canada and beyond. Contact us today to learn more.

Struggling with enrollment?

Our expert digital marketing services can help you attract and enroll more students!

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How do social media platforms help attract prospective students?

Answer: Social media platforms help attract prospective students by showcasing authentic campus life, student stories, and academic highlights where students already spend time. Targeted ads and engaging content build awareness, answer questions, and create emotional connections that encourage students to explore programs and take the next step toward applying.

Question: Why are virtual tours important for school admissions marketing?

Answer: Virtual tours are important because they let prospective students explore campus facilities, culture, and student life from anywhere. They provide a first-hand experience that builds familiarity and trust, especially for international or remote students who can’t visit in person, helping them feel more confident about applying.

Question: How can schools use SEO to reach more prospective students?

Answer: Schools can use SEO by optimizing their website and content with keywords students search for, like program names or “colleges near me.” Creating informative blog posts, improving site speed, and using clear navigation help boost search rankings, making it easier for prospects to find and explore the school online.

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June 18, 2025
Victorian universities table 2024 financial results – Campus Review

A majority of Victorian universities posted operating losses in 2024 but continued to boost the salaries of their vice-chancellors, annual reports reveal.

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May 14, 2025
Unlock Your Enrollment Potential: Real Strategies for Real Results
Engaging students wherever they are is critical to enrollment success.

With eight years of experience at Ruffalo Noel Levitz working with more than 100 campuses across the country and following more than two decades leading enrollment efforts on campus, I know firsthand the challenges you face in enrollment. And in today’s environment it can feel like information overload on what you should be doing.

I recently hosted a webinar sharing insights from our 2025 Marketing and Recruiting Best Practices for Undergraduate Students study, where 114 institutions of all types completed our survey about their use and effectiveness of recruitment strategies. We covered everything from the fundamentals of outreach to the latest in AI-powered chatbots. In survey responses, we found a lot of shared experiences and opportunities for strategy enhancement. Specifically, we identified seven strategies that should form the foundation of your annual marketing and recruitment plan, as well as a few others we recommend incorporating to drive your recruitment to the next level.

Let’s talk real numbers (and real support)

In our survey, we asked about written marketing and recruitment plans. Only 29% of institutions have a fully implemented, data-driven plan. So if you’re among the 71% of institutions still working on creation of a full plan, you’re in good company—we’re all trying to navigate this evolving landscape. The encouraging part is you’re committed to improvement. We found that most institutions rate their plans as “good,” but you’re aiming for “excellent.” That drive to excel is what we’re here to support.

Discovering what truly works (together)

Through survey responses, we found some powerful strategies that are working for colleges right now. Virtually every institution that uses them rates personalized videos and video calls with students as effective, although fewer than half of you are using those outreach tactics. And implementing new AI-based digital assistants on your website will meet an expectation that students and families have to receive real-time answers to their questions 24/7 about application status, academic programs, and aid packages—but only 22% of institutions have taken this important step.

Search engine optimization (SEO) stood out as a leading strategy with 75% of institutions pursuing this and 100% of institutions rating it as effective. But we also know that most institutions don’t invest enough or broadly in SEO. Students are increasingly turning to search sites to find university sites and program information, and if you’re not in the top seven links, you’re effectively invisible. You need to incorporate into our annual plans ongoing SEO across your website to develop and maintain relevant content that speaks directly to student interest, both for traditional search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. You then need to track site traffic to measure ROI and so you know when it’s time to revisit those pages again. SEO is not a one-and-done process! Let’s make your website a powerful tool for student recruitment.

7 practical steps to optimizing your enrollment management outreach

Revisit your core: start with the fundamentals. Don’t underestimate the power of the basics! Make sure those foundational strategies are rock-solid and you have a documented plan for implementation. A strong foundation allows you to build from there and creates the space you’ll need to deal with mid-cycle unforeseen challenges.

Refine your digital approach: digital marketing practices and calls to action. Take a fresh look at your digital marketing. Are your calls to action clear and compelling? Personalize your ad content to the audiences you’re targeting.

Boost your visibility through SEO. SEO is key to being found. Make sure your website content is discoverable by both traditional searches and AI tools. Track your traffic so you know what’s working and what isn’t.

Advertising strategies. Get smart about your advertising. Are you spending your dollars where your students are today or just where you have always spent them? In the last 4 years we’ve seen a significant shift away from “traditional media” and to digital advertising.

Connect authentically on social media. Focus on the platforms where your students are spending their time. Remember, authenticity is key. They’re looking for real glimpses into campus life, not just polished perfection. Show them the genuine experience.

Create tailored experiences with personalized video. Imagine how students will feel when they receive a video that’s just for them! Work to create personalized, customized content based on each student’s interests and watch who’s watching by incorporating tracking metrics.

Enhance student support with AI chatbots. Digital assistants have come a long way in just a couple of years. Use today’s technology to provide 24/7 support so your prospective students can get specific answers in real time.

We can help you navigate the digital shift and engage students 24/7

While the ongoing shift toward digital strategies can feel overwhelming, we’re here to support you every step of the way. We’ll help you find the right balance for your institution and your audience.
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April 27, 2025
Tailored for Student Success and Built to Drive Results
Why would you settle for a generic LMS when your university deserves one based on its own learning path? Custom LMS development creates a customized experience that drives student achievement from day one, not only provides tools.

Why Universities Need a Custom LMS

Custom LMS systems are much needed in modern institutions since off-the-shevel LMS solutions usually fail to satisfy their various needs. Custom LMS development is hence quite relevant. Customized solutions can fit the processes, academic framework, and student needs of your university, therefore promoting improved institutional effectiveness and learning results.

Did you realize?

A 2023 EDUCAUSE study shows that 78% of leaders in higher education feel that tailored learning environments directly help to ensure student success.

Using custom LMS solutions, universities noted a 25% increase in student involvement and a 19% increase in course completion rates.

Key Benefits of a Custom LMS Development for Student Success

Students advance at their own speed under customized content delivery depending on performance.

Interactive materials, multimedia integration, and group projects all help to keep students engaged.

Modern analytics—real-time student performance—allows teachers to modify their plans to raise results.

Linkages with current SIS, CRM, and outside tools help to simplify procedures.

Flexibility and scalability help you to ensure long-term viability as your university develops.

How to Develop a Custom LMS for Universities

Customizing the best LMS for student success is about matching the platform with the mission of your university, not only about technology. Here’s a breakdown:

Name the main goals: Describe for your university what student success means.

Plot the course of the student. Recognize several student kinds, from those needing more help to fast learners.

Design for User Experience: Make sure teachers and students alike have a simple, mobile-friendly interface.

Leverage data: To create reporting and analytics tools to monitor performance and interaction.

Test, refine, and scale: Beginning with a pilot program, get comments, and always improve.

The Future of Learning with Creatrix Campus

Creatrix Campus provides a best-in-class LMS for student success, therefore enabling universities to design individualized, data-driven learning environments. Features like automatic reporting, assignment administration, and engagement tracking enable our platform to help colleges uncover new academic successes without sacrificing cost-effectiveness.

Ready to change the educational process at your university? Your way, let us create an best LMS for student success that propels student success.
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March 25, 2025