UCL: raising awareness of studying abroad

As part of their Global Engagement Strategy, UCL is placing a strong emphasis on growing outward student mobility. The College wanted to raise the number of undergraduate students who had taken the opportunity of a study abroad experience as part of their degree programme by 17% by 2025. This aim was therefore driving a need to raise awareness of UCL Study Abroad opportunities, and the support available, to their students.

In June 2017, Pickle Jar Communications were asked by the UCL Study Abroad team to develop a more strategic approach to the promotion and communication of global opportunities at UCL, to help them reach the target set out in the Global Engagement Strategy. Our work included:

• Extensive baseline discovery which comprised an onsite discovery workshop with the team, additional stakeholder interviews, competitor research and a review of existing plans and research

• A robust audience research report informed by a range of techniques including telephone interviews, focus groups and a survey

• Branding and positioning recommendations based on the audience and competitor research we had conducted

• Development of a messaging framework that aligned to UCL’s student decision making journey

• A measurement and evaluation plan to help assess the performance of future communications

All this work was brought together into a communication and promotional plan. This included advice on content creation, the timing of communication activities, which channels to use, and how best to use them.

We also provided UCL’s Study Abroad team with guidance on how to make the most of peer-to-peer influence by building a student ambassador team.