I’ve started to notice a lot of universites producing adverts like this one from Northampton. In essence they all claim that you will get a job if you study with them. All of them are clearly presenting their data fairly selectively, for example by focusing on the level of employment (jobs) rather that the level of graduate employment (good jobs) or whatever other metric they perform well in.
Obviously as long as they stay within the bounds of fact there is no crime here. However it does hammer home the importance of tools like Unistats (http://unistats/) which help prospective learners to compare universities on a range of different factors.
The more of this sort of stuff I see the more I think that criticality and scepticism about data are essential career competencies.
Just found this and the stuff about scepticism struck a chord.
Also I wonder how long it will be before Unis start branding themselves more specifically. “Top Uni for graduate pay” “Top Uni for roles in finance” “Top Uni for ethical careers” etc.
I think that it is inevitable that universities and/or departments within them start to try and create more distinctive brands.
there are so many stats around that everyone has got to be best at something. The trick for university marketing will be looking for what you are best at. The trick for everyone else will be working out what all of these claims mean.
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