Making sense of digital content strategy, Higher Education and student recruitment

Big data has led to an extremely large amount of information appearing online which requires additional capturing, organising, analysing and storing. The change also demands information systematisation, new approaches to the online content management and development of the relevant software. The issue is highly relevant to higher education institutions (HEIs) than ever before, given the complex market situation – severe financial and strategic competition, i.e. continuously added/changing government policies, rising tuition fees and decreased student numbers (due to low suitable-for-HE-age population and general concerns about the potential debt). Current prospective students are better technologically equipped and educated. As the online users, they require swifter access to the relevant website content, via multiple devices, with the opportunity for two-way communication and quick response times to enquiries. If the intention is to stay in the market for the long-term, institutions need to adapt to the new market requirements and technological needs of the modern key stakeholders. Thus, successful student recruitment is vital, yet, at the same time, hard to achieve. This paper proposes a solution in the form of a digital content strategy (DCS). The strategy enables effective planning of quality content and online data management which can, potentially, provide distinction in student recruitment and a unique position in the HE market.