Understanding Student Decision Making: Insights from StudentCrowd
When it comes to decision making, the students of today have a lot on their plate. With undergraduate tuition fees in England the highest in the world according to 2021 OECD research, and the UK still reckoning with a cost of living crisis, higher education choices have seldom held more weight. And it’s not just about the university with the best course, the university with an historic reputation, or even the university with the best employment outcomes. The students of today compare and evaluate their choices based on a variety of factors and priorities, financial and otherwise, in a multitude of places.
This article details the decision-making process of students. It outlines the stages of awareness, consideration, and decision, emphasising the role of research and peer reviews. Factors affecting student decisions are highlighted, including course offerings, location, and cost of living. We also examine the impact of the cost of living crisis on student priorities, with accommodation costs emerging as a crucial consideration.
The Decision-Making Process
The student decision-making process is similar to other buyer journeys, with added nuances:
Awareness
The prospective student becomes aware that they need a degree to achieve their goals, and, by extension of that, term time accommodation. This is, of course, unless they are studying locally, in which case there is a separate but related decision about whether to live at home whilst studying.
Consideration
The prospective student researches and compares their options against a number of criteria (we’ll come back to this!).
The second leg of this consideration phase includes evaluation of alternatives based on academic offers.
Using Google Trends, we can see that last year, 13 - 19 August saw the biggest spike in popularity for keywords such as ‘university review’ and ‘uni reviews’, just before the opening of the earliest UCAS applications and around Clearing time.
The second biggest spike was between 17 - 23 September, not long after applications opened on 5 September 2023. This trend has been consistent over the past 5 years.
Studentcrowd.com data reflects a similar pattern, with our biggest web traffic spike in August and the second biggest in September. This demonstrates a clear desire from students to assess their options based on peers' experiences to gain a better sense of what they could expect from their different options. This allows them to refine their choices.
Decision
The student chooses their university and accommodation option. From here, during or after their own experiences, they'll provide feedback to other students through reviews, discussion forums, on social media and in conversations with friends and family. This keeps the discovery-to-decision loop effective.
Maximising Every Stage of the Journey: Awareness
Students are usually in the ‘awareness’ phase of their journey whilst they are at college or sixth form, although it can be much earlier. They might have decided on a vocation that necessitates a degree, or wish to expand their knowledge and skills to open up more career options.
Market education is key at this stage, so prospective students who would benefit from a university degree become aware that it is a viable option.
During this stage, a physical presence in sixth forms and colleges is beneficial for universities - this could be through in-person events like career fairs and/or through print advertisements.
The Importance of Research: Consideration
Our prospective student has decided they are going to go to university, so now they are considering which ones to apply to.
For universities, accommodation teams, and PBSA providers, that consideration stage is really important to capture attention and showcase offerings.
Research shows that 89% of consumers check reviews online before making purchases. Students, specifically, understand the importance of research in making decisions about higher education and, ultimately, their future.
The breadth of student research is reflected in the data, too, showing that, after the UCAS Hub and university open days, students rely on reviews most to help them make choices. And here at StudentCrowd, we receive more than 1.9 million user sessions per year, a testament to the student need for peer-to-peer feedback.
Source: UCAS
What factors affect student decision making?
A huge and forever-changing demographic, the student population is incredibly diverse, therefore have varying wants and needs.
Whilst choosing their place of study, students might consider some or all of the following factors:
Acceptance rate
Course offering
Cost of living (city, accommodation offerings)
Location
Campus / Facilities
Clubs and Societies
Students Union
Careers Service
Internet / Wifi
When it comes to accommodation, deciding factors might include:
Value for money
Location
Property management
Cleanliness
Social spaces
Social experience
Internet / Wifi
Evidently, there are a multitude of variables driving student decision making. This is why review platforms fulfil a pertinent need in the higher education world: they aggregate all of these variables, ranked by peers, to provide students with all the information they need to take their next big step. In fact, the lack of authentic and helpful information about student experiences was exactly the reason StudentCrowd was started by 3 graduates over a decade ago.
Cost of Living
In 2024, student decision making cannot be fully explored without highlighting the effects of the cost of living crisis. Since it began, more and more students have reported accommodation prices as a leading factor in which university they decide to attend.
According to StudentCrowd data, December 2021 was the last time location scored higher in importance than value for money when it came to university choices.
Moreover, the proportion of students saying value for money is more important than location has increased by over 4% in the last 12 months. Finally, 67% of students in our recent poll told us that the cost of accommodation was influencing their university choice more than any other factor.
For university accommodation teams, this means showcasing your full portfolio is more important than ever. Without making a diverse range of provisions visible, you could be missing out on applicants.
The Decision Stage
Reviews also serve as a particularly important factor in the decision phase of the student decision-making journey. Once students have made their decisions about where they will study and live, you’ll want them to be advocates for your course or property to other prospective students, too.
That’s why marketing to new students is only part of the process. Looking after that student and ensuring they have a great higher education experience, or that you learn from their feedback when you don’t get things quite right, is the other half of the equation.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it is clear that the defining elements of the student decision-making journey are consistent year-on-year, such as the need for authentic student feedback and the general times at which this is sought out.
However, the cost of living crisis has affected the criteria with which students evaluate their university and accommodation choices, as well as their priorities.
It remains crucial for universities and accommodation teams to facilitate, showcase and, most importantly, learn from student feedback.
About StudentCrowd
StudentCrowd is the student marketing and insights platform for universities, accommodation teams and PBSAs. We’re the only platform that aggregates verified student reviews, and we’ve helped over 11 million students to make decisions about their higher education journey. Supporting the rich student sentiment data that can be extracted from studentcrowd.com, StudentCrowd has also curated the most detailed dataset for the student market in the UK, Ireland and Spain. For more information on StudentCrowd, visit their business website.
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