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Access, Participation & Success case study: Black and Asian Student Recruitment

The background 

Sometime before the Open University’s (OU’s) Access and Participation Plan (APP) had been finalised, an insight project had already been undertaken by the OU’s Strategy and Insight team, looking at the barriers to entry faced by students from minority ethnic groups, who are under-represented in the OU student body compared to the rest of the Higher Education (HE) sector. Key barriers for potential students include lower awareness of the OU as an option, concerns about distance learning, the availability of support, and whether the OU has the same opportunities as campus-based universities in areas such as employability. The APP now sets some ambitious targets around student recruitment for these under-represented groups. 

The challenge 

The APP calls for a year-on-year increase in the proportion of new UK undergraduate students who are from Black and Asian ethnic groups. Data also shows that Black students in particular are more likely to be lost from the OU between registration and the first Fee Liability Point (this is when a student makes their first fee payment, and the point at which the APP targets are measured).  

This presents two specific challenges:  

  • How to create marketing messaging that is more diverse in its appeal and reaches deep into Black and Asian communities? 

  • How to ensure an ongoing, culturally relevant experience for Black and Asian students after they enrol? 

The approach 

A Task and Finish Group was established to tackle these marketing challenges and deliver on the APP student recruitment target. The group, chaired by Kate Hawkins from the Strategy and Insight team, included colleagues from across Marketing & Communications (Marcomms), the Development Office and the Access, Participation and Success (APS) team.  

Kate says, “It was important that the group took a holistic approach and linked our work to issues of race equity in the organisation as a whole. As well as focusing on the traditional tools of marketing, we needed to consider issues of language, how we represent ethnicity in our imagery, as well as considering the student experience, staffing and OU culture.” 

Working with an external agency – Multicultural Marketing Consultancy – the group ran stakeholder interviews and workshops to build on the insight already gained through the Barriers to Entry project. An audit was also undertaken of existing OU campaigns, the OU image library and case studies.  

This work led to the development of a new insight-led marketing strategy, specifically targeting Black and Asian students. The strategy, published in November 2020, includes external and internal facing activities, designed to improve the diversity, reach and cultural relevance of OU communications.  

Key highlights 

  • The group published a set of guidelines around how to communicate effectively with Black and Asian audiences. This includes recommendations on authentic representation, racial literacy, the use of acronyms (e.g. ‘BAME’) and key messages.  

  • In parallel, a series of race equity workshops were held for Marcomms staff to increase confidence when communicating about race. This emphasised the importance of valuing lived experience and using staff networks to gain Black and Asian perspectives. Staff in the unit now feel empowered to take a more boldly anti-racist approach in our external communications. 

  • A new set of case studies and images were commissioned for the OU asset bank (our internal image library), designed to highlight a more diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. These provide a positive portrayal of Black and Asian people at the OU. 

  • A variety of targeted marketing and communications activities have been undertaken, including a photographic partnership with Alamy and bespoke TV programmes produced in partnership with specialist TV channels Yanga! TV and the Islam Channel. The principles of this new strategy (in terms of how we reach, and how we engage Black and Asian audiences) are now also being applied to wider marketing activity, such as the OU’s new core advertising campaign ‘The Future is Open’, marking a shift in focus across Marcomms. 

  • The strategy included the creation of new staff roles, including a Programme Director for Marketing and Community Outreach, and a new Campaigns Manager role which will be solely focused on delivering marketing activity for Black, Asian and Widening Access audiences. An outreach manager post is also planned. This will bring the resources to engage directly with individuals and influencers in the community. 

What next? 

The APP student recruitment targets are very stretching and don’t necessarily reflect the slow, cumulative way in which marketing activity of this kind can make a difference. Reaching new audiences and challenging deeply ingrained perceptions takes time, so there is still a long way to go. 

However, early indicators have been positive, with the OU brand tracker showing improvements in perceptions of the OU, particularly among Black audiences. The work undertaken by this Task & Finish Group has also helped to shape the OU marketing strategy as a whole, and enhanced cultural competency across the organisation.  

Kate comments, “The project has created new focus in our communications activity, influencing wider OU ways of working and our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion agenda. The Marcomms team are now able to lead and collaborate on questions of how we tackle institutional gaps relating to race and develop our brand to attract a more diverse student body.” 

The Task & Finish group has been closed and ongoing Black and Asian student recruitment activity is now part of Business as Usual. Next steps are: 

  • To focus on face-to-face outreach work, which was delayed due to the pandemic 

  • To deliver further research, looking deeply at our processes to understand the reasons behind lower conversion and early retention of Black students 

  • To continue tackling the barriers around brand perception that still exist 

Our evaluation in this area will continue.  Data will be closely monitored to look for a shift in recruitment numbers for the intake in Autumn 2022 and beyond, and further updates will be added to the Access, Participation and Success Case Studies section of our website at a later date.

For more information about this case study please contact us.