National Conference 2025 Resources

…sharing money-saving and budgeting tips – all with the aim of helping young people get the most from their money at university. His work with STS also involves campaigning to improve conditions for students, as well as working with universities to ensure those studying receive the very best financial guidance. 

Based on the latest market research by The Student Room insight team, this presentation offers data and insights into the factors influencing students’ choices, the implications of these decisions, and the support they seek during this pivotal time.

Session Highlights:

Collaborative Approach: Understand the importance of making student recruitment a shared mission and learn how to get buy-in from all stakeholders.

Case Studies: Dive into examples of what worked (and what didn’t) from James’s experiences at various universities.

Interactive Learning: Engage in discussions and activities that will help you apply these strategies in your own context.

Time is precious and we need to talk about how we can maximise your engagement and exposure to pre and post 16 students and target those who will benefit the most from the conversation. With many years of experience working in the education system, Elizabeth’s session gave quick wins for optimising your time and engagement.

Explore how marketing strategies can better address the evolving priorities of students, from employability and skill development to career readiness. Plus, discover what tactics can enhance your approach, offering real-time engagement insights and improving targeting for successful, student-centred recruitment outcomes.

The Learn with US Transition Programme at the University of Southampton will be used as a case study to demonstrate the impact pre-entry support can have, especially for students who are underrepresented at university. The programme provides free interactive workshops and guidance to state schools offering the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification).

A joined-up approach is essential, and the Learn with US Transition Programme is an access focused component of the first intervention strategy we have developed in our Access and Participation Plan (APP) as a response to the OFS’ Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR). This session will demonstrate how other pre-entry programmes such as Ignite Your Journey work together, and how sustained support across the student lifecycle continues for students who study at the University of Southampton.

In this session:

• Shared insights on what young people want and need from outreach activities
• Showed international and UK best practice case studies on how to build an outreach ecosystem and demonstrated how Blackbullion has collaborated with teams
• Delegates could try out a suite of skill-building tools on budgeting, goals and developing long-term money management and confidence
• Discussed and voted as a group on what should be the standards of skill-building within outreach sessions.

They also shared input from the Unifrog teachers, sharing their perspectives on
university access schemes and the most effective strategies for supporting disadvantaged students in pursuing higher education.

Delegates engaged in interactive discussions to address key challenges and collaborated on innovative solutions to support Gen Z students effectively.

The Scottish NHS records that only 1 in 10 of the nurses are male, and that only 2 in 10 of the allied healthcare professionals (AHPs) are male. In terms of education, 15% of AHPs surveyed by the Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) reported that they attended independent schools, which is significantly higher than the national average of 6.5%. An equal representation of society within the healthcare sector is vital for equity, diversity, and inclusion, and can lead to improved health, social and economic gains.
The overall aim of this project is to examine perceptions of male masculinity in the context of healthcare professions. In the longer term, this research may reveal interventions to help raise aspirations of working-class boys, particularly into healthcare careers. This project takes place August to December 2024.

As part of the presentation, QMU shared the co-design approach and methods, introducing the scope, aims and potential impacts that this innovative project will have.

The session considered the importance of tailoring programme design to meet the needs of different student groups, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

Alongside sharing The Brilliant Club’s own experience of running access and success programmes with over 100,000 students, the session gave the audience space to reflect on the different student groups their institutions are prioritising for attainment, access and success work, and the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions targeted towards these groups.

In this workshop, Hannah Simnett explored effective techniques for engaging students who may be resistant, disengaged, or otherwise challenging to connect with. Delegates gained insights into understanding the underlying causes of these behaviours and learn practical tools for creating an environment where every student feels seen, heard, and valued.

This session explored common definitions and terminology, the legal, moral and ethical responsibilities of HEI’s as well as provided tips to supporting Neurodivergent students in HE.

This session will offered top tips including:

• How to engage teachers with emails that are opened, read, and actioned
• How to engage students with talks that are immersive, memorable, and inspiring.

Delegates in this session discovered:

• Best practice for standing out in a crowded inbox
• Ways to improve your email readability through words, structure, links
• Powerful delivery techniques for your next school and college session
• Examples of interactive examples to make sessions more engaging
• Insights from the UniTasterDays university guidance survey.

This session pulled from FindAUniversity’s unique data sources to reveal the audiences
searching for UK postgraduate study in 2025, understand how they’re evolving and highlight
opportunities to engage and support them.

The session explored central and faculty activities, internal stakeholder engagement, incentives, streamlining the admissions process and benchmarking/evaluation.

How do we best support prospective postgraduate students to navigate student finance? Explore the role that we can play, with plenty of chances to share best practice and top tips between us.

Discover practical, eco-friendly strategies through dynamic quiz questions and real-world
university case studies. This session aims to provide you with the knowledge and tools to
lead your institution towards a sustainable future.

They covered how the collaboration was started, how the two institutions have worked together to extend the Sheffield City collaboration to UCAS and other student recruitment events, the impact they have seen from the collaboration and top tips for other institutions and organisations to tap into the power of collaborative working.

In this session, Chris Green, Social Media Manager at Imperial College London discussed how nurturing student content creators to support student recruitment has resulted in the creation of viral content that has truly resonated with the university’s target audience.

In this session Penny Eccles shared her top tips to critically assess the growth potential of a course and how to make the real and lasting changes required to reach new applicants and enrollers. [Spoiler alert: you need to work with your academics!]

During this workshop, delegates learned how to captivate their audience, use body language effectively, and create powerful, engaging presentations. The sessions also covered how to deal with nerves and handle unexpected challenges like a pro.