The definitive 2014 Higher Education Web Survey

Today we’re doing something a little different on the blog and sharing with you something we’re very excited about here in Terminalfour. We've just released our first annual Higher Education Web Survey report which focuses on the use of the web in higher education institutions around the globe.

We launched the survey earlier in the summer and were overwhelmed with the response: Over 240 individuals from 169 global higher education institutions completed the survey.

A higher education survey has always featured prominently on our ‘wish-list’ radar and we  felt that now was the right time to undertake this research due to the shifting landscape of higher education.  As you’re all no doubt familiar, universities, colleges and community colleges are now competing on a global stage and more than ever before are relying on the web to promote their brand to an expanding international audience and also to support student recruitment and retention goals.  

We wanted to set about creating a survey that would be beneficial to marketing and IT professionals who work in higher education. The survey has been designed to give a snapshot into the global marketing and IT trends occurring within higher education institutions at this moment in time.

The survey was completed by IT and marketing professionals who work within higher education institutions primarily from the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and Ireland.

When we set out to create this survey, we weren’t sure what kind of insights, trends and opinions it would uncover so suffice to say we’ve been pretty bowled over by the results. Some of the interesting results that can be found in the report include:

• 70% of institutions have a published organizational strategy
• 57% of those surveyed stated that leads (enquiries from prospective students) are not measured by a CRM system
• 43% of those surveyed indicated that their institution’s website is responsive
• 65% of those surveyed indicated that their institution had a dedicated international website
• 27% of respondents surveyed believe that Facebook is less effective today than it  was 12 months ago

The full 2014 Higher Education Web Survey report is available to download here in a handy PDF format.  We hope you find it informative, interesting, thought-provoking and above all else useful! 

We would also love to hear your thoughts and feedback too so please feel free to leave a comment below.