How to set realistic course targets and restore sanity

The Partnership Podcast - Higher Ed Marketing

How do you stop unrealistic course targets? There was an enormous amount of interest in this topic, so on this episode of The Partnership Podcast, host Penny Eccles unpacks it with Cathy Mitchell, Associate Director of Strategic Planning at Imperial College London, and Dr Julian Westwood, Director at S Squared Insights.

Setting realistic course targets

The pressures of higher education finance and the unrealistic targets often imposed on departments can drive inefficiencies and increased workloads for academic and administrative staff alike. So how do we combat this?

Cathy and Julian share their expertise on the importance of breaking down student number targets into more manageable and realistic goals by considering market share, historical data trends, and political factors affecting student numbers.

They also highlight the need for universities to use strategic, joined-up thinking and effective data utilisation to set achievable targets.

We hear some practical tips on improving target-setting practices, the importance of fostering strong internal relationships, and how to leverage market insights for better decision-making.

In This Episode

• Meet the guests, Cathy Mitchell and Dr Julian Westwood
• The challenges of unrealistic course targets
• Why unrealistic course targets are such a challenge
• Tips from the experts on how to improve the situation
• The guests share their success stories around meeting targets
• Top tips on meeting course targets

Quotes

• “When you see a lot of reports now, they look great because they're telling you how many interactions you have and link clicks and conversion to application space. But that one big gap that we are still working towards is how much did that cost?”
• “There's a desire, I think, because so much of our targets start in the finance world, you like a finalised number. It's this number. Therefore, it's that many students. Whereas what we're really talking about is possibilities.”
• “Sometimes we set targets because we want to hit the budget, so we maintain our status quo. And I think growth can be achieved, but probably not by achieving the status quo. Things have to change, the offer has to change, perhaps the business model and commercial strategy has to change.”