Applicant Experience
Managing the Applicant Experience
The applicant experience encompasses all the opportunities or points of interaction between higher education and a potential student. Such experience affects whether or not an individual becomes a higher education student, and indeed whether or not an individual chooses to apply to higher education in the first place. Managing those interactions requires integrated practice across the whole applicant experience, leading to a more predictable transition into higher education.
SPA's guide to the applicant experience incorporates all the published information and additional resource materials from our major investigation in this field. Alternatively, the individual elements of the guide, published as the work progressed, are still available using the links below.
Higher education providers are welcome to use these materials within their own strategic planning, admissions reviews and training. Please feel free to disseminate them amongst internal and external colleagues involved in recruitment, admissions, enrolment and retention.
We would be happy to receive feedback from as wide a range of practitioners as possible. Please contact Dan Shaffer if you have any queries or wish to discuss our recommendations in the context of your own institution.
- Definition of the applicant experience
- UCAS and Direct flowcharts of the applicant experience
- The Applicant Experience Strategy Map
- The pre-application stage and recommendations
- The application stage and recommendations
- The post-application stage and recommendations
- The transition stage and recommendations
Reviewed and updated: September 2011