Four Strategic Approaches for Smart Investment in Student Support Services

Universities across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada are under increasing pressure to enhance student satisfaction and outcomes. The pandemic accelerated already growing student expectations, which coupled with a more diverse student body, has resulted in a competitive landscape where delivering an 'outstanding' student experience has become essential. 

With ongoing financial constraints exacerbated by declining teaching revenue, changes in government funding, and inflation pressures, universities are now grappling with the challenge of making investments in student and teaching support services which yield genuine benefits. 

The Myth of Higher Spending

A seemingly obvious approach to improving student experience is increased spending in this area, yet as data from Nous Group's inaugural student experience study shows – in reality, higher spending on student and teaching support services does not correlate with better student outcomes, such as improved graduate results or higher satisfaction scores. The report reveals that only 28% of university leaders consider increased investment as the most effective approach to enhancing student experience. Instead, improved technology, building staff capabilities, centralising services, and co-designing with students are deemed more impactful strategies by the study. This insight prompts a critical question: how can universities make investments that lead to better student outcomes, deliver fulfilling roles for staff, and also satisfy the financial prudence of CFOs?

Strategic Approaches from UniForum Member Universities

UniForum members have made smart investments leading to better student outcomes with these four core approaches: 

1. Match your service model and levels with customer need 

Tailoring service models and levels to align with the specific needs and journeys of different student cohorts is essential for maximising the impact of support services and allowing universities to allocate resources where they will have the greatest effect. To enable this, it is key to first understand the distinct needs of your student population. Needs assessments by means of surveys, focus groups, service use data and analytics can provide valuable insight into needs, preferences, and challenges which in turn can inform more targeted support to specific student groups. Trialling new service approaches and tracking service usage is an important part of the process, enabling iteration of the service over time to ensure it is addressing the user needs defined at the outset. The University of Toronto is an example of a UniForum member which designed its student support services model with these considerations in mind.  

2. Build areas of critical mass and expertise to drive excellence 

Building critical mass is a key enabler of high-quality services, supporting scalability, consistency and excellence in service delivery. In student support, this often involves consolidating resources and expertise in shared service centres, central units, or faculty centres, to enable better resource allocation, streamlined processes and consistent service quality. For example, one UniForum member improved the effectiveness and cost efficiency of its frontline student enquiry services by moving from a school-based model to a one-stop centralised student hub for all enquiries. This improved the experience for students by greatly reducing the number of touchpoints (e.g. number of email addresses and physical helpdesks), enabling fewer handovers, and providing a simpler way to navigate the system. Some specific student services where we see our members benefitting from building critical mass include: 

• Administrative support (e.g. admissions & enrolment, course registration, graduate support, financial aid processing); 
• General academic advising (e.g. general enquiries related to course planning and graduation); 
• Career services which can enable a unified approach to job placement, internships and career counselling and ensure strong relationships with employers, streamlined organisation of job fairs and consistent resume and interview preparation assistance.  

While centralisation enables efficiencies, some services necessitate specialised roles and may benefit from more localised support. For example, disability support embedded within schools can ensure accommodations are directly aligned with the particular demands of the discipline. Similarly, more specific academic advice and mentorship might be best delivered by advisors who have deep familiarity with the curriculum and research opportunities associated with that field of study. By balancing centralisation with specialised support, universities can ensure they provide high-quality, efficient services while also addressing the specific needs of diverse student populations and making the best use of staff capabilities. 

3. Use technology to focus support staff on what matters most 

Leveraging technology is crucial to remain on the front-foot of service delivery and match the evolving expectations of students. For example, one UniForum member was an early adopter of incorporating chat bots (Chat365) into their student enquiry management system, fully integrating this with their CRM and knowledgebase. This enabled increased handling of enquiries at Tier 0, reducing pressure on Tier 1 and Tier 2 support staff and improving the speed with which students could access important information and advice.  

Use of technology to enable self-service for students is becoming an increasing priority for universities, which see it as an important way to provide students with the information and support they need, when they need it. Beyond self-service support, emerging technology can be leveraged to automate administrative process and free up support staff time, while also enabling a better experience for the student. For example, student admissions is a target area for technology enablement with universities adopting tools like pre-fill enrolment forms, automated reminders and prompts, and automated checks for fulfilment of prerequisites to enhance service delivery. 

4. Implement mechanisms to capture robust, timely feedback from students 

Student support needs and expectations are constantly evolving. To better inform service improvements and investments, universities need ways to regularly capture reliable student feedback. National surveys are one source but focus more on students’ broader academic experience and often have long lead times. Therefore, universities supplement these with more frequent internal surveys and student voice mechanisms that focus on specific student-facing services. However, these internal surveys lack the benefit of comparisons with other institutions. 

In response, NousCubane is developing a Student Experience Benchmarking (SEB) to complement national and internal surveys. SEB will help universities answer key questions about student-facing services, such as: 

• How satisfied are students with student facing services relative to peers? 
• What matters most to students in their experience of student services? 
• How important are different services to students and how frequently do they use them?  
• What can be learnt from peers on how to invest and innovate to improve services to students? 

By answering these questions and integrating with other UniForum data sources, SEB aims to provide university service leaders with actionable insights to meet changing student needs and target services enhancements to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of students facing services. 

You can learn more about NousCubane’s Student Experience Benchmarking (SEB) here. 

In conclusion

Improving student satisfaction and outcomes amidst financial constraints requires universities to rethink their investment strategies. Higher spending alone does not yield better results. Instead, focusing on the approaches listed in this article can help universities to better target services to the needs of students, leading to better student outcomes, fulfilling careers for staff, and prudent financial management.