As a new academic year approaches, marketing teams across UK universities are reviewing budgets, redefining targets, and mapping out how to attract the right postgraduate applicants both at home and internationally.
With new budgets now confirmed in many institutions, this is a key moment to ensure that every pound of your marketing spend is working as hard as it can.
From our flagship in-person fairs to smarter ways of promoting PhD opportunities, here's how to make your 2025/26 student recruitment strategy more focused, more measurable, and more impactful.
It’s tempting to jump straight into tactical planning once a new budget is signed off - booking ads, scheduling emails, refreshing creatives, etc. But the smartest campaigns start with clear strategic alignment.
This is the ideal time to book a planning session with your FindAUniversity Account Manager to:
Taking time now to align your internal KPIs with external opportunities can save significant budget (and stress) later in the year.
Our Postgrad LIVE events for Autumn 2025 and Spring 2026 continue to be a core part of postgraduate marketing calendars, offering meaningful face-to-face engagement with high-intent students.
Booking your exhibition stand early ensures:
Meeting students at Postgrad LIVE gives you valuable opportunities to have conversations, answer questions, and stand out in a competitive landscape.
While domestic audiences are crucial, the international postgraduate market continues to be highly competitive and unpredictable. One of the most efficient ways to maintain a global presence without the cost or complexity of travel is through our Virtual Global Study Fair, delivered by Keystone.
Benefits include:
With rising scrutiny on international student recruitment strategies, virtual fairs like this offer strong ROI and a measurable way to stay visible in key markets.
Attracting PhD candidates requires a different approach. They’re looking for supervisors, research themes, and funding pathways not just institutional branding.
That’s why we’ve recently launched Supervisor Search, a powerful addition to your Institution Profile, designed to:
With the UK Government and REF focusing more on research visibility and impact, showcasing your PhD supervisors could be a major differentiator.
We know the temptation to allocate budget quickly once it lands. But spreading investment strategically across the year delivers better results and fewer last-minute decisions.
Now is the time to:
Your Account Manager can work with you to build a roadmap that spans the full recruitment cycle - from first touch through to enrolment.
Whether you’re looking to boost taught Master’s conversions, expand your PhD audience, or simply build brand awareness in new regions the next few weeks are critical to setting the tone for your 2025/26 student recruitment strategy.
Let's make your budget work harder, together.