Top Trends Shaping Student Experience 2022

The experiences which students seek from tertiary education are changing and with it, so too are the demands placed on universities to meet the needs of the modern student. This shift is being perpetrated not only by advances in technology and changing student expectations, but also what the workplace of the future will be.

While many of these trends have been emerging over the last five years, the pandemic has accelerated change for both students and the workplaces they will be entering. This is highlighted by research from McKinsey
1. showing that “Creating Digital Self-Service Experiences as a Foundation for Your Digital Ecosystemthe pandemic has accelerated existing trends in remote work, e-commerce, and automation, with up to 25 percent more workers than previously estimated potentially needing to switch occupations”. : Customer expectations have completely changed. In this stage, you should aim to focus on your customers’ needs and offer them digital self-service experiences. Also, it’s very important to reach this stage, the de facto market standard, as quickly as possible.
    
2. Use Intelligent Omnichannel Features To Roll Out Digital Processes Across the Entire Organization: The second step takes a more holistic approach on digitization. Instead of relying only on selected channels, the goal is a full-fledged omnichannel approach. This requires harmonizing an organization's internal processes to form one “unified user experience”. Successfully completing this step allows you to profit from the growth opportunities and the edge in efficiency that going digital affords your company.
    
3. Create Innovative B2B Experiences and Become a Digital Company: After completing the first two stages, you will be able to further develop digital experiences quickly and in an agile manner. In this stage it's time to be visionary, as increasingly intelligent digital processes, fueled by AI, IoT or Data Science, make your employees and customers ready for growth.

With a rapidly changing environment and a fundamental shift in what “work” looks like, the demands placed on universities to prepare students for the future are greater than ever. To succeed, universities can’t afford to rest on the success of their past, but rather need to adapt to meet the needs of the modern student. In this article, we analyse the top six trends shaping the student experience in 2022 and beyond.

1. Controlling the Student Recruitment Narrative

The experience a student has with a university starts before they even step foot on campus or enrol in a course. Compared to a decade ago, universities are finding it more challenging to oversee and control the path that students take when considering their enrolment options.

This shift was already in place with students increasingly looking to social channels, online groups, and reviews to shape their decision-making process. The pandemic has once again accelerated this shift, with universities having to think creatively and run student open days and orientation week virtually. 

This more fractured environment creates new challenges for marketing and recruitment teams. Not only do they have to give increased consideration to meeting students in the right time and place, as well as on their preferred device, but this messaging needs improved personalisation to create a more controlled narrative and to better support students throughout their decision-making process.

2. Planning for Your University of Today, But Also Tomorrow

The modern student today is starting their tertiary education during a time where it is estimated that they will have 17 different jobs over five careers in their lifetime according to a report released by the Foundation for Young Australians. This places greater importance on universities preparing students for the ability to shape and morph their careers as new technologies and opportunities emerge.

Equally, there is a growing opportunity for universities to take advantage of the shift towards micro-credentials and short-term courses that allow an individual to pivot their career from one domain to another. Universities are best placed to take advantage of this opportunity, as they can capture the student at the start of their tertiary education and undergraduate degree, and provide ongoing value throughout their career. By doing so, they provide the initial value expected of them as an education provider, as well as a pathway for future career pivots. This allows universities to earn revenue from that student not just over the first 3 to 4 years of their career, but potentially the next 30 to 50 years.

3. Streamlining the Student Enrolment Process

One of the top business trends identified by Gartner in their

Digital Strategy Checklist

2022 Higher Education Top Business and Technology Trends report is the focus on enrolment challenges faced by students.



Similar to how students of 2022 and beyond have grown up with social media embedded as part of their everyday lives, they have different expectations when it comes to interacting with the products and services they use each day. The ability to apply, update, edit, and control the signup or enrolment process from any device and at any time is a minimum requirement. Increasingly though, there is the expectation that their experience is personalised and guided.

That needs to come with the balance of privacy and allowing the student to be in control of their data, but if there is the option to reduce the time it takes to complete enrolment, offer alternative course suggestions, or guide a student currently facing difficulty, then that process can and should be improved through personalisation.

4. Delivering on the Promise of a Hybrid Campus

For many universities, the pandemic created a situation where they quickly needed to scale existing solutions or add capacity for online courses, assessments, and exams. As the world emerges from the pandemic, now is the time for universities to revisit what were, at times, stopgap or temporary solutions.

​​​​​​​To help B2B manufacturers navigate the three-steps, the white paper also includes an The growth of online education has proved to be a positive for some, but not all, students. On the other side of the equation, some universities have embraced remote learning better than others. As we come to the end of the pandemic though, it's clear that the hybrid model8-point checklist will become the more widely adopted approach.

With a hybrid campus however, universities now need to consider how to elevate the “ that serves as a helpful guide and assists you in developing a digital customer strategy. In going through the checklist and answering queries on the “Discovery” (incl. identifying experiences), “Assessment” (incl. evaluating the organization's digital maturity) and “Action” (expanding the digital strategy) phases, you’ll get a clear picture of your efforts and the areas that need the most work. In addition, the checklist will also help you to evaluate the quality of your measures and ensure that all required actions are taken.whole of university experience” to online channels. Universities need to go beyond offering online courses, assessments, and access to student financial information, and think strategically about what it means to go to university and what services can support a student regardless of where they are physically located. For example, this could include providing an avenue for student societies to collaborate online, providing access to industry, facilitating student mentorship programs, and extending student support services to digital channels. In essence, students of 2022 have an expectation that everything they’re able to do on campus can equally be done online.

5. Connecting With Industry & Preparing for Careers

The democratisation of education, emergence of short courses, and adoption of hybrid learning environments also open up new opportunities for increased collaboration with industry and a focus on the on-the-job skills valued by employers.

Numerous university courses and alternate education providers, such as Udacity, have already built industry partners directly into the course curriculum. This provides valuable opportunities for students to get hands-on with the tools, technology, and processes used day in, day out within the profession or industry of choice.

  The complete whitepaper, "Developing a Digital Customer Strategy for B2B – Checklist and Step-by-Step Guide for Manufacturers" can be found at this link

.

A hybrid work environment accelerates this potential as students are no longer tied to only accessing the industry, experts, and mentors within their geographic location. Universities can facilitate this process by providing more self-sustaining interactions with industry in unified experiences that tie the student to external stakeholders and facilitate opportunity that goes beyond the lecture room doors.

 

A Better Customer Experience – With a Digital Experience Platform

Customer journeys of B2B manufacturers are characterized by a large number of experiences, which regularly draw on a large number of data sources and software systems.

In order to successfully present these experiences consistently and in one single source of truth (your website!), you need a platform which merges a wide variety of data sources into a single user experience. Enter digital experience platforms (DXP)!

DXPs help you align your digital strategy with your digital experiences, thereby forming the heart of your digital strategy. The open source-based Liferay DXP

is one of the leading and most popular DXPs for B2B manufacturers worldwide. As the only system of its kind, Liferay DXP has been continuously ranked as a Leader at the top of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs for 11 years. Liferay supports B2B organizations by working within their existing business processes and by enabling them to create seamless user experiences that uniquely meet their needs.6. Delivering ‘The University For Me’

Ultimately, the underlying trend that touches on each of these initiatives, and many more, is the fundamental shift that universities need to undertake. Just like our banks, telcos, and energy providers are focused on the unique needs of their customers, universities need to increasingly focus on delivering the “university for me


”.