Commentary by Anthony Smith, Executive Principal – Brand, Partnerships and Business Development
What is the role of marketing in a university? Is it limited to the coordination of advertising in order to fill courses already on offer? Professor Phillip Kotler (1988), the world’s foremost strategic marketing academic, said “authentic marketing is not selling what you make but knowing what to make”.
Since 2013 UNE has conducted extensive market research into the needs and wants of students with many of the findings underpinning much of the new Strategic Plan, Future Fit. This research was conducted with the types of students currently active in the sector but also with new types of students expected to emerge and dominate enrolment growth over the coming decade.
The research involved many in-depth, one-to-one interviews conducted by psychologists with current and prospective student groups in order to provide a deep understanding of what drives them to higher education, and in many cases, what holds them back. A golden thread emerged. There was a concern shared by participants in all groups: an uncertainty about the future of jobs and the need to find ways to cope with rapidly changing workplaces.
The research revealed that many current students and those preparing to commence, are trying to cope with the changes that have already been transforming workplaces for over a decade, such as the shifting of jobs offshore, the digitisation of tasks and workforce downsizing to name a few. Many in a second group however had already successfully navigated these changes. This second group were concerned about future disruption to their careers from artificial intelligence, other emerging technologies and black swan events.
A significant number in this latter group were yet to find a university that could provide an accessible and acceptable solution. For these participants, the prescribed, linear qualifications of the past are no longer fit-for-purpose. They are instead looking to Universities to support them by developing new models of study. They are seeking increased freedom to customise their study so they can respond more precisely, more quickly and more efficiently to their specific career challenges.
These market research findings are echoed in academic research. Professor Douglass Hall of Boston University for example has led a substantial body of research on the rise of the protean career where this is defined as “a career process characterised by the exercise of self-direction and an intrinsic values orientation in the pursuit of psychological success” (Hall et al., 2018, p.129). ‘Protean’ is derived from the ability of the Greek god Proteus to assume any shape or form he pleased. Hall et al. (2018, p.130) identified in the protean careerist an “orientation in which the person is in charge – not an organisation or other people”.
Future Fit commits UNE to offering personalised learning journeys and to support and engage with students to match their needs wherever they are on their journey. UNE was founded on this very philosophy. UNE’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor, Sir Robert Madgwick, proclaimed in 1955 that it is better to provide adults the education they want, not what the university thinks they need or should have (Ryan, 1992).
The Future Fit promise is that we are a university that, more than any other, helps people and communities fit themselves to a world and to workplaces that are changing rapidly. This Future Fit promise is not a catch phrase dreamt-up around an advertising agency’s board table. Rather, it is a response to the plea from the students of today and of those who will emerge in the coming decade and is a step closer to what UNE set out to be over 60 years ago.
Marketing must fulfil its ongoing role to understand what our students are seeking and to act as their voice in the process of shaping UNE offerings. I am eager to meet with teams across the University to find ways to incorporate the learnings from the market research into our thinking and our offerings.
Delivering education and research that helps people fit into a changing world is how UNE can create meaningful differentiation in competitive markets and is also the very process by which UNE itself can become future fit.
References
Hall, D. T., Yip, J., & Doiron, K. (2018). Protean careers at work: Self-direction and values orientation in psychological success. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5, 129-156. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104631
Kotler, P. (1988). Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control. United Kingdom: Prentice-Hall.
Ryan, J. S., Cumming, A., & Bagnall, R. (1992). A History of Adult Education at and through the New England University College and the University of New England, 1948 to 1980.