At least two institutions – Anglia Ruskin University, based in Chelmsford and Cambridge, and Glasgow Caledonian University – have taken the plunge to offer personalised prospectuses to potential students.

Anglia Ruskin has begun working with SR Communi­cations, the south-east London print and direct mail house, to produce the customised prospectuses.

Separately, Elanders in Newcastle, which already produces bespoke prospectuses for Glasgow Caledo­nian’s part-time courses, is talking to a number of other institutions and expects to sign up more by the end of the year.

In both systems, prospective students can order the personalised document through the universities’ websites and can choose which courses to receive information about.

Kevin Rogers, sales and marketing director for Elanders, said: “Glasgow Caledonian were very brave to drop production of the full version of the part-time prospectus. But it’s paid off both in cost and environmental terms.”

He said that the university had previously produced 15,000-20,000 copies of its part-time prospectus, but that since moving to fully personalised production of the A5 document, had cut volumes by 40% and costs by 60% for no loss in enrolments.

The prospectus has a personalised inside right-hand page, inside back cover and back cover.

Rogers added: “Beyond the cost, a big advantage for the universities and colleges is the data capture on prospective students. We expect to sign up another university for this by the end of the year.”

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UK HIGHER EDUCATION
Institutions 168
Applicants 2006/7 390,890
Students 2004/5 2.3m
Source: Universities UK

SR Communications uses its XMPie software and HP Indigo 3050 press to produce the Anglia Ruskin prospectus with a personalised cover.