There’s not much worse for a VC than the prospect of having to close a subject. The internal repercussions together with external reputational damage can be horrendous. Some closures might be understandable, including the recent spate of modern universities dropping humanities courses. But others are the product of a failure of what we might call micro-marketing. 

With finite and often stretched resources, university marketing departments have to focus on macro-targets and concern themselves less with individual subject recruitment. And human nature being what it is, it’s easier to sell what’s easiest to sell. Which often leads to some subjects going into decline for no other reason than inadvertent neglect. 

So here’s what you do to turn them round.

1. Put a small team together: You’ll need a reasonably senior marketer, a junior and a data analyst. Give them a month or two to produce a report, which might well mean relaxing their other priorities.

2. Start with a market and competitor review: What are the key market dynamics? Is it growing, static or declining? Identify the winners. What are their success drivers? Ditto with losers. Hone down to your subject’s UCAS Decision Tree competitor set. Within this mini-group, who is winning an above average share of business? And why? Where’s their business coming from? UK? EU? Or beyond? What can you learn from others’ success?

3. Honest self-assessment:  Review your university’s subject offer. Is it distinctive? Or generic? Does its presentation provide a compelling reason for students to choose? What’s holding it back? Is it the programme content? Presentation? Tariff? Lack of industrial experience? Weak employability record? Poor subject ranking? Lack of electives from Year 2? Rate your subject pitch against five key competitors – strengths, weaknesses, similarities, points of difference.

4. Write a new and distinctive proposition: Craft a fresh student pitch for the overall subject and each of its variants. Keep it focused, simple and clear. No kitchen sink lists allowed. It has to provide a competitive and relevant reason to choose. It also has to be based on a truth, so don’t mess with empty rhetoric or magnifying the marginal. Evidence the proposition wherever you can, and don’t worry about it being copyable. Whoever takes the ground, owns the ground.

5. Now re-write the programme descriptions: Most programme descriptions are wholly written by academics, and few are natural marketers. Respecting the academic content and without dumbing down, re-write the programme descriptions as a key marketing communication designed to be highly attractive to young students. Take out language which they are unlikely to understand – and write in clear English. With obvious enthusiasm and passion! Begin and end with the new subject proposition which you have defined, weaving the supporting evidence into the copy. Apply the same to the module descriptions – at least for their first year – then get academic lead approval to all. 

6. Apply the new proposition to open day presentations: Again, top and tail these with the new pitch: why should students choose you over competition? And evidence the reason why throughout their decks. In my experience, academics welcome help from marketers in making their presentations more competitive and persuasive.

7. Beyond presentation: Is your employability offer competitive? How can your students be better prepared for the world of work? Do you offer internships, placement years or years abroad? What transferable skills can you cite to support your case? Could the subject portfolio be made more attractive? Should you focus on core variants and drop the weak? Would a foundation year help? Should you offer more choice of modules from Year 2? Tariff. Is there an argument for change? Too low and you invite doubt as to the quality of your offer. Too high and you risk not being considered. What’s the optimum strategy?

Do all this, from beginning to end, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll see a return. I know, because I’ve done it now with so many universities. Even with subjects which appear to be in terminal decline – there’s almost always a way of turning them round. 

And if you have trouble getting the resources together, you know where to come to give your VC a good night’s sleep.