A couple of weeks ago I published a blog on “Cuts – the outlook for university staff levels”.  It seems to have attracted quite a lot of comment, so I thought I would follow up by talking to some of the media, national and specialist, which carry recruitment advertising for the sector.

Interestingly, given the general mood of pessimism around, I once again ended up feeling more positive than I had anticipated.  There was a consensus that, at least in the short term, there was something of an upturn – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the bottom had been reached, and year on year figures had started to improve, if only by a little.  In spite of what has clearly been a terrible twelve months for the media, one at least claimed to be on budget so far this year.

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No doubt after the Election we will hear about the impact that the digital communications revolution has had on the fortunes of the various parties – and no doubt the reports will be as contradictory as their policies.  However, when normal service resumes, and we go back to attracting students and recruiting staff (assuming that there is any money of course), there will certainly be some lessons for education marketers.

Actually, one of the key lessons is that things are changing, and that experimentation beyond the tried and trusted is important, if only to learn what doesn’t work – a toe in the water is less costly than a full scale disaster.  And in our world, there are always new things to try….

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