How University of Surrey Grew Student Engagement and Drove a 54% Enrolment Conversion with Unibuddy

Challenge

The University of Surrey was constantly exploring ways to improve conversion and give prospective students a clearer, more authentic view into university life. They wanted tools that could help them build meaningful relationships with prospects in new and creative ways.

Following the impact of Covid-19, the higher education sector as a whole faced significant recruitment pressures. Like many universities, University of Surrey was open to new ideas for lead generation and conversion. Previously, University of Surrey relied on Facebook offer-holder groups to engage applicants. Over time, these became increasingly difficult to moderate and posed challenges around safeguarding. 

Solution

University of Surrey originally used Unibuddy alongside other third-party tools, but quickly saw the value in having one platform, and consolidated their approach around Unibuddy, implementing both Chat and Community.

Unibuddy Chat stood out in particular, giving University of Surrey a direct line to prospective students and enabling authentic, one-to-one conversations. As Richard Falkus-Holder, Student Marketing Co-ordinator, explains, “The ability for our ambassadors to communicate to prospective students directly to their phones, a captive audience, is like gold dust.” What had previously felt difficult and awkward through SMS marketing became simple and effective with Unibuddy.

Unibuddy Community also provided a secure, centralised alternative to the Facebook groups. It allowed the University of Surrey to support peer-to-peer engagement in a way that aligned with their duty of care, while still meeting students’ expectations for informal and honest conversations. They have even explored other ways to utilise Unibuddy Community, and have created a community specifically for placement students, to help them feel connected to the university and other students in similar positions. 

Impact

University of Surrey has seen a 54% enrolment conversion rate across Unibuddy Community, “this is why we keep putting time and effort into the platform. It makes us feel that we are putting our efforts in the right place, and the numbers don’t lie!” Richard shares.

Each year, University of Surrey’s Community continues to grow, supporting peer-to-peer engagement and keeping students connected. The platform allows ambassadors to continue conversations safely after on-campus events, to continue those relationships and convert more prospects in an organic way.

Richard also tells us that Unibuddy has made lead generation and conversion more simple and effective, “sometimes you have to work so hard to generate and convert leads, and Unibuddy is surprising how easy it is to use considering the outcomes you get from it.”

International students benefit from reassurance and meaningful connections, while the university team values how Unibuddy simplifies engagement and delivers measurable results. Richard also highlights the partnership with the team at Unibuddy, “the team is incredibly friendly, not just knowledgeable about the products, but about the sector as a whole. They really work with you to find a solution that works best for your individual university.”