Peer-Led Engagement With Unibuddy Helps Aston University Convert 58% of Community Members

Challenge 

Aston University wanted a more effective way to nurture offer holders through to enrolment, while giving them new, engaging ways to connect. Previously, the university had successfully used Facebook groups to engage with international students, but these groups proved far less popular with home students.

With limited engagement channels for home students, Aston University risked relying too heavily on email, and began to worry about overusing the channel. While Unibuddy Chat was already helping to reduce the volume of inbound questions to the admin team, the discovery of Unibuddy Assistant, which integrates AI into the chat experience, “it felt like another jigsaw piece we were missing” says Mathew Gostelow, Campaigns & Marketing Manager at Aston University.

Solution

Aston University was already using Unibuddy Chat and decided to expand its use of the platform by implementing both Unibuddy Assistant and Community, “we already recognised how great Unibuddy Chat was, so we knew we wanted to unlock the full offering, and introducing other solutions would have been the wrong choice”, says Mathew.

Community quickly became a key channel for nurturing offer holders, giving students a space to engage with each other, while Aston benefited from the robust auto-moderation they already trusted. Time-to-value was almost immediate, with sign-up rates soaring in the first 24 hours. At the same time, fewer emails were landing in the admissions inbox, as students were able to self-serve answers and support.

One feature Aston University has particularly valued is Community’s blogging platform. “We have great ambassadors on Unibuddy, with really interesting and persuasive stories to tell” says Mathew. “But we didn’t have anywhere for those stories to go. Now, with Community, ambassadors come to me pitching content ideas that we are able to use across our wider content strategy.”

Impact

58% of Unibuddy Community members went on to enrol, making Community a powerful indicator of intent. “I had to step back and check these results were correct. It’s a really worthwhile final stage in the pipeline and has shaped how we’ll use Unibuddy even more this year.”

This success is driven by how students use Community in practice. Rather than engaging passively with announcements, students actively connect with their peers, forming networks with others on the same course or in the same halls, a clear signal of commitment to Aston. Peer-to-peer interaction has become central, reflecting the higher level of trust students place in fellow students’ voices.

Building on their learnings, Aston launched its offer holder Community earlier than ever before, moving from an April-September window, to a January launch so students can begin connecting from open days onwards. The team plans to close the group after results day and open a more focused Community for students who accept their place, with the flexibility to test and adapt at no additional cost.

Unibuddy Community has also strengthened Aston’s content strategy, embedding student-generated content where it was previously missing, and driving strong internal support as the Marketing Leadership Team noted the effectiveness of Unibuddy. 

Mathew finishes, “the last 12 months has put Unibuddy on the map at Aston, everyone is interested to see how they can engage with it, and engage with prospective and current students.”