Edtech experts to discuss the importance of peer recruitment

ENGAGEMENT, authenticity and value propositions will be among the key strands of debate when the importance of peer recruitment in the North American higher education sector is explored at a webinar next month.

Experts from London-based global edtech firm The Access Platform (TAP) will be joined by panellists from the University of Alabama, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and international strategic growth specialists Tidewater 360 for the event

It will explore ways in which peer recruitment technology can help universities to attract new students, amid the ongoing challenges thrown at the higher education sector by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strategic Development and Partnerships Director at TAP Nick Golding, who will be leading the webinar, said:

“The power of online peer-to-peer engagement in international and domestic student recruitment is now well-established. However, the pandemic has injected even more relevance to its remote recruitment capability and to its importance in digital recruitment events.

“In this webinar, we will be exploring different ways in which our partners have been using the platform from before and after the onset of coronavirus, and we will have a student ambassador on the panel to give their perspective.”

The number of universities using TAP’s technology has surged since the coronavirus pandemic, as traditional methods of attracting new students became untenable. With more than 100 higher education institutions using the technology, its community of students ambassadors has also grown considerably.

Using The Access Platform’s etch, prospective university students are able to gain an insight into university life by speaking to student ambassadors in a virtual space, giving them valuable, real life insights upon which to base their decisions.

Strategic Advisor and Edtech Entrepreneur at Tidewater 360 Michael Huckaby, who will be attending the webinar, said TAP had created a ‘unique’ and ‘valuable’ technology platform.

He added: “It is crystal clear that colleges in the U.S. must provide a compelling value proposition to potential students to remain viable in these unprecedented times.  There is no denying that students desire authenticity which generally comes from friends or their peers when making important life decisions. 

“The Access Platform has developed a unique and valuable technology that enables colleges to seamlessly integrate the TAP platform to turbocharge their student ambassador program. As a strategic advisor to TAP, I’ve personally seen the power of peer recruitment for colleges in the U.S. and throughout the world.”

A student ambassador from the University of Alabama will also be attending the webinar to discuss how TAP’s platform has worked following the events of 2020.

@TAPlatform (The Access Platform) the London-based peer engagement platform, has announced that it is deepening its partnership with @suttontrust, to support The Sutton Trust US Programme, delivered in partnership with @FulbrightPrgrm.

The Sutton Trust is the pre-eminent champion of social mobility through education in the UK, and the US Programme offers state school students the opportunity to explore what it is like to study in America. It’s a fully-funded programme giving students from disadvantaged backgrounds a taste of being an international student to help see if the US could be the right fit for them for degree course study.

It is delivered in partnership with the US-UK Fulbright commission, part of the Education USA network. Over the last 70 years, Fulbright has helped thousands of UK students apply to hundreds of US universities.

As a result of the programme, 412 Sutton Trust students have been admitted to over 74 US universities since 2012, including Harvard and Princeton, with support of over $109 million. Eighty per cent of students are in the first generation of their family to study at university.

TAP will support the Sutton Trust US Programme by placing 73 mentors online including programme alumni, college counsellors and industry experts, to guide students through their way to college.

Nick Golding, Strategic Development & Partnerships Director at TAP, commented: “We are delighted to extend our work with The Sutton Trust into the international arena to give students, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, access to degree course study in the US.”

“The platform will act as a mentoring interface between UK state school pupils and alums of the programme who are now studying in the US, as well as counsellors and other experts, in order to encourage and support their aspirations to study in America. This builds on similar Widening Participation work we have been doing in the UK, not only with The Sutton Trust, but with 10 or so colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as niche use cases, such as The Inns of Court.”

“One of the great aspects of our platform is that it can be used to reach out to and engage very different types of student: from post-graduate career changers to learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who are exploring whether study abroad is right for them, with access to some of the most prestigious universities in the world”.