Either they are heading to a new city to start their university life, with a little help from a well-thumbed prospectus, or they are waiting patiently for their graduation ceremony invitation to arrive.

Yes, print still thrives in the halls of academia. Digital options might be popular for many institutions, but when it comes down to it, printed marketing material is still at the heart of key moments of university life.

“The role of print is morphing,” explains Sally Sykes, head of communications at Manchester University. “For us, the prospectus and brochures for our programmes are still a vital part of university marketing. People still want the prospectus, because choosing your university is a decision you probably make with your parents. Everyone crowding round a laptop or iPad to look at a document isn’t as much fun. The printed version is portable, shareable and is still highly regarded.”

“Market research tells us that prospectuses are still one of the top three ways in which students research universities, so it continues to play a key role in our overall marketing strategy,” points out Sophie Miller Wallace, PR and communications officer at Leeds Arts University. “As an arts specialist university, we know our students like print – both producing and consuming it. They enjoy the tactile nature and the visual element of a prospectus. Much of our marketing takes place through face-to-face events, like student recruitment fairs and open days. Having printed collateral to hand out is vital in ensuring the students we speak to have some way of recalling us after the event; something digital can’t do,” she adds.

Samantha Pearson, senior sales executive at Chapel Press, which has worked with Manchester University for over a decade, dismisses any mention of educational institutions falling out of love with print. “I think the future is bright – the market is finding a better balance between printed and digital marketing material. People like to have something physical to take away. Plus, the universities are investing a lot of time and resources into making their prospectuses and material look different.”

Nigel Stubley, managing director of Sheffield-based Northend CPS, outlines how this morph has impacted its workload: “We do more digital and wider format print. It still feels that print is fairly buoyant. But the days of doing a big prospectus run are gone.

The company works with universities across the North and the Midlands, including Sheffield Hallam, Nottingham University and Huddersfield University and Stubley adds that Sheffield Hallam, for example, probably spends around 80% of what they spent 10 years ago. “But it’s not down by 20%,” he stresses. “It’s just a different spend. Print definitely isn’t dead. We’re just producing different things now; like any part of the industry, it’s changed.”

Weighty tomes

Manchester University continues to put its faith in the weighty, printed 150-pages-plus prospectus, producing them for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The University spends a healthy £2.5m annually on print products comprising the prospectus, brochures and magazines and other key marketing collateral. 

Sykes emphasises that print is so often just a much more convenient format than some form of digital version, which can have its own frustrations. “The number of times I’ve been on an exhibition stand and had to wait while someone finds a wifi signal so that they can show me a PDF that then won’t open...” she laughs.

“Manchester won a Gold Award in July for the Best Undergraduate Prospectus in the 2019 Heist Awards – it’s important to us and our students. We produce 34,000 copies of each prospectus – 13,000 sent directly following online requests and 21,000 used at open days and placed in careers libraries.”

Leeds Art University gained university status in 2017 and is the only specialist arts university in the north of England. The institution moved into a new £22m state-of-the-art building expansion earlier this year which enabled it to widen its course offering, benefiting students. The University’s annual spend on printed marketing material is approximately £30,000-£40,000 and includes a main prospectus that covers undergraduate, postgraduate and further education courses. It also produces a prospectus targeted at students from overseas.

Miller Wallace says: “Aside from our course prospectuses, we print materials in support of our open days, accommodation guides and facilities, and workshop tours and information. 

“The university runs an events and exhibition programme for which we print a bi-annual guide, promotional postcards, and posters which are displayed and distributed around the city centre. This includes our annual graduate shows, as well as visiting artists and speakers. 

“Our spend on digital marketing grows, but I can’t imagine not doing some form of print to complement it. Cost and quality are important when considering what recruitment materials will attract new students, but print will always fit our brand as an arts specialist university.”

Pearson adds: “Choosing a university isn’t just about the course, it’s about what the city has to offer. 

“Part of the print we do for Manchester University includes a campus map and a pocket version of the map that people genuinely love. Many people prefer to look at that instead of Google Maps.” 

This is picked up by Samantha Moulson, account manager at PlatinumHPL, a print design and marketing business in Harrogate that works with Leeds Arts University. She says the younger generations find print intriguing: “Students are so used to seeing information digitally, so it’s refreshing for them to have something physical, with the touch/feel element, print is actually quite novel to younger audiences. Emails are so easy to delete without even opening them and you can’t have a website sat on your coffee table. Having printed materials sat in the home that students can access and share remains highly valuable.”

“We’ve seen a rise in more boutique, indie-style magazines,” says Sykes. “When redesigning our thrice-yearly magazine that promotes the university, our team spent a good deal of time comparing mags that they, as readers, loved. We dissected what made them great – in terms of size, stock and print as well as content – before deciding what would work best for our objectives. In the end, we relaunched the magazine and repositioned it from being a staff-focused magazine to an external-facing publication that showcases what’s exciting and distinctive about the university. 

“The majority of distribution remains on campus, but we also send more than 2,000 to key external stakeholders, national and international, and place it in key corporate locations around our city region. It’s now more of a long-read format and feature-led and it’s printed on really nice paper stock.”

Graduating in style

Graduation from university is a rite of passage and an occasion to celebrate. Whereas once newly gowned graduates received just a letter and invitation inviting them to the event, these days stylish graduation packs are as much a part of the occasion as the cap and gown, as Northend’s Stubley explains. “We’ve worked on a big project with Sheffield Hallam, ahead of the November graduation ceremonies that includes letters, certificates and invites, plus a lanyard, and it all comes in a luxurious wallet. 

“It’s a whole pack of stuff which we personalise using digital print. This has a lot more added value than years ago when we would have produced thousands of the same communications. Now it’s personalised packs for each department. Students have their name on it, instead of it just saying, ‘well done’. It means a lot more.”

Sykes echoes this: “Our graduation book is very important. We’ve got thousands of students and we’ve got to print all the names. 10% of our students come from China, so proofing the finer details is key. Our graduation book is a memento of a special day.”

Foiling and special-effect inks are proving popular with universities as they use them to differentiate themselves and produce marketing literature for different audiences, as Pearson from Chapel Press explains: “Foiling is a popular finish; it adds a higher-end look and works well with the brand identity. For more of the student-focused publications we’re using a lot more fluorescent and UV inks, which gives the material less of a corporate edge. When it comes to paper we are using uncoated, which has more of a sustainable feel to it. People are also tending to move away from recycled because some of it is so expensive.”

Moulson from Platinum HPL says universities are generally eager to pursue new and different finishes: “They are usually looking for elements that add that extra special look and feel. I’ve noticed an increase in the use of foil in recent years along with more bespoke items to help them stand out from the crowd: branded light boxes, bespoke exhibition stands and merchandise. 

“Whilst I can’t deny some more traditional printed items are being phased out, educational institutions look for ways to stand out amongst the huge volume of digital content, so we have seen increasing demand for direct mail, events materials and highly personalised items.”