Policy Is Now a Reputation Event for Universities

Show notes

A visa rule change now reaches a family WhatsApp group on the other side of the world before it reaches your website. I explain why policy has become a reputation event, and how to prepare before the news breaks.

• Name someone to track policy in your key markets and its effect on perception.
• Draft and test your message for students before the decision lands.
• List your five likeliest policy decisions and agree who owns each response.

Read the article: Policy is now a reputation event

Full transcript

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Greats in Higher Education. I'm Jonathan Sabarre, your host, and this is where we explore the ideas shaping how universities are seen, chosen and trusted around the world. Everything I share on this show is my own personal view.

A few years ago, a change to visa rules sat on the back pages of the sector press. Today, it lands in a family WhatsApp group on the other side of the world, long before it reaches a university website. I've watched that shift happen in real time. A policy announcement used to be an operational problem. Now it's a reputation event!

Think about the last few years. The UK changed the rules on dependant visas. Canada and Australia introduced enrolment caps. The United States tightened visa scrutiny. England has been debating a levy on international fee income. In every case, the university did nothing differently. Yet the way it was seen moved overnight: how welcome a student feels, how safe a partner thinks an investment is, how confident a funder is in your future.

Most institutions are still reacting. The policy lands, the planning team models the financial impact, and communications are asked for a statement by the end of the day. I've been in that room. By the time the statement goes out, agents, competitors and social media have already told the story. You're no longer shaping the narrative, you're correcting it. The institutions that cope well treat policy as part of their reputation strategy, all year round.

They do three things differently. First, they watch the horizon. Someone is explicitly responsible for tracking policy in the markets that matter most, and for asking what each change will do to perception as well as to numbers. That person sits close to marketing and communications, not three layers of governance away. It's often the difference between seeing a change coming and being caught out.

Second, they prepare the story before they need it. If a change to post-study work rights is out for consultation, the clearest message for students in your top five markets should be drafted, tested and agreed before the decision lands. Speed matters, and so does tone. Reassurance delivered a week late reads as an afterthought. Students and parents can tell who saw it coming.

Third, they speak through others. A statement from the university is useful. A short video from a current student, explaining what the change means for them, is far more credible. So is a clear briefing for agents and partner institutions. They answer the questions on your behalf, often late in the evening, before your own team has reached their desks.

Domestic policy counts too. Decisions on tuition fees, research funding and the financial health of the sector shape reputation just as directly. When headlines talk about universities in financial difficulty, every institution gets read through that lens. Staying quiet is a choice, and audiences will interpret it. The best response is evidence, consistently presented: your impact on the regional economy, your graduates' outcomes and the research partnerships that depend on you.

Make it easy for local MPs, business leaders and journalists to tell a positive story about you. They'll be asked about the sector whether you've briefed them or not. Here's a simple exercise for this term. List the five policy decisions most likely to affect you in the next eighteen months. For each one, agree who owns the response, which audiences will feel it first, and what you want them to hear from you on day one.

It takes a morning, and it changes how calmly you respond when the headlines arrive. I've seen how different that first day feels when the thinking is already done. The message is clearer, and the people who matter hear from you first. Policy will always move faster than university committees. The institutions that protect their reputation will be the ones that did the thinking before the news broke!

Thank you for spending this time with me. If this episode sparked something for you, hit subscribe, so you never miss the next one. And our full season, with guests from leading universities around the world, is coming very soon. Head to Jonathan Sabarre dot com and sign up, so you're the first to know when it launches. Until next time, keep building something great.