How Peer-to-Peer Engagement Made Students 42% More Likely to Enrol at Manchester Metropolitan University

Challenge 

Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Met) were keen to streamline their peer-to-peer engagement strategy and utilise one platform instead of multiple platforms.  

Managing multiple channels and platforms across several teams was problematic, and the approach was fragmented with a lot of time spent on administration of each channel with a lack of actionable insights, and consistent engagement and conversion tracking.

Solution

Recognising the need to better support new students, Manchester Met decided to implement Unibuddy Community, as they felt it perfectly met their requirements for online applicant engagement and community building. The platform proved immediately successful, and after a strong first year, they added Unibuddy Chat. Within six months, they had higher sign up rates, higher conversions and quicker ambassador replies. 

“We could not have asked for more of our first year with Community as the undergraduate student engagement was phenomenal. In fact, it made us realise the benefits of also implementing Unibuddy Chat” explains Benedikte Joergensen, Head of Student Recruitment at Manchester Met.

Manchester Met fully embraced Unibuddy and all the features on offer. They have seen great value in Auto Nudges, which has taken away the need for manual prompting, meaning they have more time to support their students. But their main takeaway from the Unibuddy Platform has been the AI Insights, Carly Lloyd, Student Recruitment Officer, shares: 

“AI Insights has been a game changer for us! Now we are updated weekly on Community conversations, and bi-weekly about Chat conversations, which has allowed us to address student concerns quickly. It also helps us keep stakeholders informed about what students are talking about and provide them with foresight they wouldn’t get elsewhere.”

Impact

Adopting Unibuddy has been transformative for Manchester Met’s Student Recruitment, and they have seen their conversations and sign-ups double from their previous strategy, with Unibuddy users being 42% more likely to enrol. Implementing Unibuddy Community and Chat has saved countless hours in administrative tasks, which has allowed the team to support students more effectively, contributing to incredible enrolment conversion rates.

The team is now far more productive with their data, and able to produce reports and pull data within seconds. This has made it easy to present updates to stakeholders and adjust their strategy in real-time. Carly explains: 

“Seeing the success in the first year, we all thought it had to be a fluke, but as time went on it became clear that it wasn’t. The results have been fantastic, attracting attention across other teams, and now we have dedicated Communities run by the International Recruitment Team, Accommodation Services and the Student Union.”

Unibuddy has also enabled the team to work in new, more impactful ways, allowing them to engage students more effectively and creatively. UK enquiries have had a significant increase, while content creation has become more targeted and engaging, supported by the tagging and filtering functionalities. For the International Recruitment and Conversion team, Unibuddy Community became an essential tool for communicating with individual students and supporting them in their final stage of their journey to Manchester Met.

Meanwhile, tasks that once took hours, like managing and cross-referencing spreadsheets, are now handled seamlessly within the Unibuddy dashboard, giving the team instant access to the insights they need. 

“We can safely say we are very happy with the traction we get on the platform, and there is no turning back!”