The Five Ps to Put Higher Ed Enrollment on a Pathway to Success

With over a decade of experience, with over 50 post-secondary institutions, Northern knows the five key things you need to focus on to attract students.

Those of you of a certain vintage may remember the three “Rs” of education. And while those are still important, when it comes to getting students to attend your college or university, institutions need to focus on the five Ps!

We’ve worked with over 50 higher education institutions over the years throughout North America, and over half of those have engaged in robust user research with us. It’s no exaggeration to say we’ve had the pleasure of speaking with thousands of students through focus groups. Amplify that by the number of students we’ve been able to poll through surveys and other research methodology, combined with countless hours of staff, faculty, alumni, and researcher discussions, and it’s safe to say it all adds up to us knowing a thing or two about what attracts students to your institution.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to introduce you to the Five P philosophy – five key things that not only sway the prospective student’s opinion, but also support the needs of any influencers they may have, including parents, friends, and guidance counsellors. The five Ps? Glad you asked:

• Price
• Proximity
• Program
• Peers
• Potential

Though higher education, in general, is loath to admit it, you are a commercial transaction. A prospective student is purchasing from you the opportunity to earn a degree, diploma, or certification in the hope that the return on investment for that purchase will be a job, a salary, and career fulfillment.

When you combine that with shrinking access to international students and a culture that is increasingly questioning the value of higher education, it all adds up to post-secondary institutions competing over a shrinking pool of applicants.

Gone are the days when a university could just be passive and let the gravitational pull of its organizational reputation and gravitas draw from an overabundance of candidates. Now you’re competing amongst a smaller pool, against peer institutions and other educational and career options.

That’s where the five Ps come in. And the successful institutions are able to refine their messaging to target what matters to students – not necessarily what institutions think should matter. That means a focused website targeting the right audience, that means a cohesive organizational communications effort that delivers focused messaging that matters to students where they are in their journey, and it means highlighting what sets you apart from the competition.

That no longer means empty platitudes or vague motivational messages about “commitments to excellence” or “superior educational opportunities.” Students want the facts. They want proof and, most importantly, they want to know “what’s in it for me?”

If you’re not going to give that to them, someone else will. And that someone else will be much more attractive because they’re providing concrete examples of what that student will get out of their experience.

But don’t just take our word for it. Take the words of thousands, upon thousands of prospective and current students that we’ve worked with. Take the words straight from the source – not filtered through internal advocates who may be negatively impacted by experiential and organizational biases. We’re here to tell not what you think students should want, but rather what students actually want. Straight from their mouths (or fingers if they filled out a survey – but I digress.)

And we’ve also reached out to some friends from the higher education field to showcase how their embrace of the Five Ps made an impact on their institutions.

We look forward to sharing our insights from over a decade of dedicated higher education user research and development with you. [Sign up to be notified of our new posts, or check back monthly for our Five P series.] Every institution may be unique, but there are some commonalities that you should know.

After all, if you can focus 20 per cent of your time on the 80 per cent that’s common, that frees up 80 per cent of your time to really highlight the 20 per cent that makes you different from everyone else. That’s a great investment in time and resources that can pay off exponentially in interest, enrollment, and, ultimately, long-term retention and relationship-building from the prospective student journey all the way through decades of alumni and donor support.

At Northern, we’ve had the privilege of walking alongside institutions as they make sense of their data complexity and build digital experiences that truly serve their audiences. If any of these challenges sound familiar, we’d love to continue the conversation. Whether you’re just starting to ask the hard questions or are deep into transformation, you don’t have to navigate it alone.