New Education UK website to boost international promotion of UK education

We are very pleased to let you know that the new Education UK website is now live - you can see it at www.educationuk.org

We have ambitious plans for the new website, and we are confident that it will deliver real benefits to international students and to the UK education sector. We presented the new Education UK website at today’s launch of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy ‘International Education: Global Growth and Prosperity”, which sets out aims to strengthen the UK’s position in the second largest sector in the world after healthcare.

Dr Jo Beall, British Council director of education and society, said “The Education UK brand and services have had great success around the world in ensuring that ambitious students are aware of the first class reputation the UK enjoys. However, our research suggests that the global boom in international students will plateau, and the UK is already experiencing a decline in certain key sectors. As students becoming more savvy and the market more competitive, the UK can’t afford to rest on its laurels, so we decided to revamp our digital offer to build on its success and use the latest innovations to help students in their decision making to come to the UK.”

The Education UK website is the number one resource to promote UK education to international students. It attracts 2.2 million unique visitors each year and offers advice and resources to help students find suitable UK courses and scholarships. As international competition grows for globally mobile students, the British Council has re-designed the website and added significant enhancements in order to better present all that the UK education sector has to offer.

The website aims to:

• Inspire international students to choose a UK education
• Drive course enquiries to UK institutions
• Help international students to plan their UK studies and settle in

On the site, students can find out how the UK offers them a world-class education, internationally respected qualifications, great career prospects and a real adventure. They can also get advice on planning their studies and search for courses and scholarships.

What does the new site offer?

Last year, we made great progress with the site – unique visitors increased by 20% to 2.2 million, and student course enquiries via the site to UK institutions more than doubled due to a new marketing strategy and improvements to the Course Search.
The new site is designed to represent all UK education sectors - boarding schools, English language schools, colleges and universities. Developments include:

• Enhanced course and scholarship search tool: The site’s ‘Find your UK education’ tool lists 1000s of UK courses and scholarships. The intelligent search filter means students can conduct a broad search or pin-point exactly what they are looking for. Students can also download prospectuses and contact education centres directly, helping to drive enquiries to UK institutions

• Inspirational content: From our research, we know that students not only look for a world-class education and great career prospects, they also want a real adventure. The new ‘Why choose the UK’ section sets out the key benefits a UK education offers to students, whilst the ‘Living and studying in the UK’ section takes a look at the UK’s unique culture, countryside and heritage. Coming up, we are now working on a project with NUS to gather stories from current international students, and we will shortly be writing to UK institutions for examples of creativity and innovation.

• Better advice to students: When preparing articles for the new site, we sent them for review to UK sector bodies, representatives from UK institutions and British Council staff worldwide. Thank you so much to everyone who gave their time for this. We are confident that our advice is now much more student-friendly.

• Social media integration: Social media is central to our marketing and student outreach. The new site integrates with the Education UK global Facebook page - students can ask their questions and receive answers from our team directly, providing them with a warm first impression of UK education. They can also like and share stories via their preferred social media channels.

To follow in later phases of the site’s development:

• Transnational education course search: Each year, around 570,000 students worldwide study on a UK course delivered outside of the UK - e.g. at an overseas campus, online or through a partner institution. The TNE market is growing fast and offers a real opportunity to the UK institutions. The new site will allow students to search for UK TNE qualifications in selected countries.

• Education agent promotion: Agents play a key role in student recruitment. Students will be able to find reputable agents in their country.

• Mobile and tablet access: More and more students are browsing the site via mobile phones and tablets. The new site already provides a better user experience across all devices. Fully responsive designs will be launched shortly.

Promote your courses and products with Education UK

Free-of-charge
List your courses and scholarships on the ‘Find your UK education’ tool Suitably accredited UK institutions can list their institution, courses and scholarships free-of-charge on the site. This listing appears in the ‘Find your UK education’ search tool, located at the top of the website.

To list your courses and scholarships please email customer.care@hotcourses.com .

Buy a profile for the ‘Find your UK education tool’
Buying a profile offers a number of benefits over the free-of-charge listing.
• Your institution or department is prioritised in the search results, giving you more exposure
• Students can contact you directly through the site and download your prospectus
• You can make your offer more appealing, by displaying photos, videos, testimonials and more.

To buy a profile, please email daniel.staves@hotcourses.com

Buy display advertising
We offer a range of sponsorship and display advertising options. Your advertising can be targeted to specific audiences, pages, countries and subjects, delivering higher return on investment for qualified leads.
Please contact daniel.staves@hotcourses.com

If you currently have a profile and course listing on the Education UK website, your details have been automatically transferred to the new site. We will be in touch with you with more details to explain the process in full.

Who will manage and deliver the new site?
The global version of the website will be managed by the Education UK team at the British Council, working with our delivery partner Hotcourses. Hotcourses have over 10 years’ experience in international education and course marketing, and will work closely with the British Council to deliver a website that radically improves the proposition to international students, and the return on investment for institutions. Your Hotcourses account manager will contact you to discuss opportunities on the new website, but if you have any questions in the meantime you can contact them directly.