Avoiding Dropoff in Your Enrolment Process

Video Transcript

Brett de Leijer

So, in the last episode of Education TV we spoke to our focus group and they explained the university application process. Alice, what did you think?

Alice Nuttall

So it was really interesting, I think having someone in the room who was from a university outside of Australia. So, obviously for Molly it seems that the application process in New Zealand is a little bit more straightforward. They don’t have ATAR for example, so she was able to submit her application before even finishing her final year of high school.

Molly Steel

I applied online but I already passed the year before I even went into the exams so I just, all I needed was that transcript.

Alice

The non-school leavers of course they go direct to the college, whereas Tim and Jack were applying through VTAC.

Tim Newton

I had to put in our preferences so I put – obviously a teaching course is number 1 – and then I had a couple of back ups just in case and then received our ATAR at the start of December and then probably mid-January where we got – said if we got accepted in the course.

Alice

So, it’s quite a stressful process. There’s a few steps involved and it was interesting hearing that Jack was actually speaking with past students and getting them to help in the application process.

Jack Quartermain

I messaged a couple of past students to help me out in applying through VTAC and they were really helpful.

Alice

What that really tells us is that they were wanting to speak with someone who has been through the experience themselves.

Pip Hamilton

Yeah, they need a bit of support. It’s a lot of – like you said, there’s a lot of steps involved. So, in terms of marketing to that, a lot of contact options, a lot of support that you would be able to offer them.

Yeah, as you said, live chat maybe with ex-students, or contact centre staff who really know their stuff because they have got a few hoops to jump through. Live chat, call centre extended hours, enquiries, submissions and that kind of thing would be key at that time because a lot of these students don’t really know the steps that they need to jump through.

They need to directly apply through VTAC websites, they can’t apply through a university’s website at all. So they completely jump off your support – you might offer them all the support that they need on your website, and then they have to click through and then they’re on VTAC’s website.

So, to be able to access a one-on-one conversation with somebody is really important at that point. But in terms of a marketer at this time there’s also, there’s embargo periods, when you’re not allowed to market directly to these students.

So you need to be aware of that, and then when you are marketing to these students and sending out emails and that kind of thing, you need to get a lot of it approved by VTAC, so it’s a complicated time.

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