12 Virtual Brochure – February 2024 B) Student Recruitment Student recruitment remains a high-level strategic risk on most risk registers given that maintaining or growing student numbers is central to securing financial sustainability. While the specifics reflect different institutions market positions, common risk factors include: more challenging domestic competition; reduction in foundation year funding; over reliance on specific cohorts such as home undergraduates or students from China; increasing disruption to international student recruitment; and concerns about the attractiveness and viability of elements of the portfolio. Mitigation activities include: - increased resource and effort on market research, modelling, and scenario planning. - increased investment in targeted marketing and even closer monitoring of performance. - strategies to substantially grow international taught postgraduate provision, including development of existing partnerships. - more extensive portfolio review and process changes to launce and retire programmes more effectively. Risk commentary The picture is very similar to 2022. Our analysis shows a consistent pattern of intrinsic high likelihood and impact scores, and on average, a high degree of confidence in the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. We note, however, that a growing number of institutions have flagged this as a rising risk and this is likely to have increased further following the 2023 recruitment round when a range of institutions were unable to realise their ideal recruitment targets. In 2022 we highlighted the importance of institutions needing to pay greater attention to understanding changing political and economic circumstances in key international recruitment markets. Some institutions have been impacted by currency changes in Nigeria, reinforcing the need for institutions to develop their local insight and scenario plans for responding rapidly to changes. We also observe that almost every institution is seeking to grow its population of international taught postgraduate students. This comes with attendant risks around geopolitics and security, brand, the UK immigration and housing context, and experience provided to international students. Audit committees and governing bodies may wish to ensure that they have sufficient visibility of portfolio changes and how the related risks are being managed effectively.
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