When higher tuition fees were introduced in 2010/11, the number of students enrolling in universities in the UK dropped by 12 per cent. It can therefore be easy to assume that, of those that choose to attend, their main aim is to go to university in order to attain an excellent degree that will earn them a high-paying job. But how should you choose a university? The answer: Visit Twitter!
Getting a high paying job may seem like what students throughout the years have always wanted to do, but there has always been a social and cultural experience associated with university. Now, though, with such high university fees, many students are thinking twice about their options.
A traditional method
For over twenty years, students have relied on university league tables to let them know which universities are the best. These establishments provide students with the best teaching facilities and, as a result, better degrees.
For example, a degree from the University of Cambridge (currently the number one university on the league table) is certainly going to be more impressive than one from the University of Bolton (currently at the very bottom of the table). And, as a result, this will open more doors for Cambridge graduates, giving them access to higher paying jobs.
But, is that how it will always be?
The times they are a-changin’
With the increase in social media use, we have to look at how the internet could affect university league tables in the future. Will they always be the go-to resource for prospective students?
We don’t think so.
Thanks to our extensive data insights, we’ve been able to analyse a number of data sets to show just how social media and university statistics correlate.
We’ve taken the following universities and compared our data to come up with some very surprising findings:
The more prestigious the university is in terms of league table position, the higher the resulting graduate salary is. Heriot-Watt University, which currently sits in 20th position, offers graduates a potential income of just £20,000, whereas Cambridge University students could earn themselves £30,000 straight out of university.
We’ve compared these salary statistics with the number of tweets that each of these universities receives. Why? Because it’s our belief that the more prestigious the university is, the more people are likely to talk about it, which can transform them into hubs. This prestige, in turn, makes employers more likely to pay higher salaries for these universities’ graduates.
But, does it have to be that way? Surely, in this day and age, there’s a way for universities to beat the league table?
In this example, referring IP addresses and graduate salary is compared, with much the same results. You’ll notice though that a few university names have dropped off the radar – Surrey and Imperial College London, for example.
This is despite the fact that these two universities rank 12th and 13th place on the league tables respectively. So, what’s changed? Well, students from these universities aren’t finding their website’s content share-worthy.
There is a direct correlation between the number of undergraduates a university has and the number of Facebook likes their website produces. UCL and Warwick University, for example, both have upwards of 12,000 undergraduates attending, whereas the more prestigious (and harder to get into) Buckingham University has very few Facebook likes.
This is because students are more likely to talk about the universities that they attend on their favourite social platforms. At the time of writing, UCL has 59,157 likes, the University of Warwick has 27,157 likes and the University of Buckingham has just 4,139 likes.
This graph compares the number of tweets and the number of undergraduates that universities have, and at the lower end it looks much the same as the above. Buckingham and Heriot-Watt are in pretty much the same places, but Leicester is a surprise entry. Bath University seems to perform better in term of tweets than Facebook likes, and UCL beats Warwick by a clear mile.
Why aren’t these two graphs the same? Because Facebook users and Twitter users don’t share the same content, so they react differently to the universities’ social networking pages. It could also show that UCL undergraduates prefer Twitter to Facebook.
As this bar chart shows, when you take into account referring IPs as a whole, Edinburgh University and UCL win out against all others, even though Glasgow technically beats UCL in terms of undergraduate numbers and Edinburgh is 15th on the league table. This is because these universities are prestigious enough to get link after link, from students and even from the general public. It’s a classic case of the rich get richer.
So, the figures indicate that being active on social media, rather than simply relying on your students to share, tweet and like your content, could influence the league tables, potentially.
(Image courtesy of Athreya)
Influencing the league tables
At present, there are four university league tables – rankings are published in The Complete University Guide, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Times newspapers. However, what if there was a fifth? What if there was another way to rate universities? Well, our data shows that there is and that’s social media. But, regardless of which reference you use, The Guardian, The Sunday Times or even tweets and likes – one thing is certain, universities at the bottom of the league will not get noticed.