The Student Sentiment Index
The student sentiment index (SSI) is an indicator designed to measure student sentiment, which is defined as the degree of optimism/positivity that prospective students exhibit toward the education system, and their personal educational ambitions.
The Student Sentiment Index
The student sentiment index (SSI) is an indicator designed to measure student sentiment, which is defined as the degree of optimism/positivity that prospective students exhibit toward the education system, and their personal educational ambitions.
Introducing the Student Sentiment Index
The Student Sentiment Index is designed to measure prospective student’s optimism or positivity towards the education sector and how it reflects their likelihood to commence study.
The Index began in 2016 and has continued every month since. The index is calculated each month on the basis of survey responses from a strategically representative audience. The survey focuses only on prospective students (people wishing to commence study within the next 24 months). It therefore acts as a lead indicator for the education sector. We work with a leading actuarial consultancy to build and continually improve the Index.
Much like the Consumer Confidence Index acts as a realtime indicator of spending and saving habits by Australians, the Student Sentiment Index acts as a leading indicator of prospective students enrolment behaviours.
Understanding the sentiments, motivations and behaviours of prospective students is invaluable to anyone operating in the education sector in Australia. The Student Sentiment Index reflects how prospective students are feeling, which is of even greater importance to education stakeholders than data about existing and past students.
Why We Created The Index – Data in Realtime
There is no key indicator in the education sector which shows how prospective students perceive the system. The only real indicators are lagging, like enrolment data and reports issued by government departments. Due to the enormity of collating, analysing and producing these reports, they can often be 12 months or older when they are released. Therefore, they do not prove very useful in forward planning for key stakeholders.
Changes in the sector can have a flow on effect to the operations of many different stakeholders, so the SSI is primarily concerned with how government and education providers can shape policies, strategic decisions and operations to suit prospective students who are looking in the market to further their education.
We created the Index because we found a number of issues in the education sector including:
How it Works
The Student Sentiment Index has been an on-going data collection project that has been in effect since 2016. Responses are gathered monthly where each question is weighed proportionally against four key sub-indices–student urgency, motivation, sensitivity to funding options and confidence in the sector.
The index uses a quasi-representative survey to capture insights, where tools are used to generate responses. The reason for us taking this approach was that as mobile technology becomes more prevalent, quasi representative data is becoming more widely embraced, providing a unique opportunity to access audiences that use the same technologies that are being offered in our marketplace.
We use a quasi-representative approach to data collection, which means that:
Who We Surveyed
The Four Sub-Indices
Understanding the sentiments of prospective students is complex, so to help with this, we’ve created four distinct sub-indices that work together to create deeper insights into this segment. In simple terms, increased student sentiment across the indices indicates a healthier education sector, where prospective students are more likely to act on their desire to engage in further education.
Student Confidence Index
Measures how confident are prospective students that the eduction system will meet their needs
Student Motivation Index
Measures how likely are prospective student to complete their studies and perform well
The Student Sentiment Index
The four sub- indices combined create deeper insights into the sentiments of prospective students. Increased sentiment overall indicates a healthier education sector, where prospective students are more likely to act on their desire to engage in further education. The trend line in the SSI below shows a gradual increase in student’s optimism or positivity towards the education sector since data collection began.
Collection
Ongoing
The SSI shows that potential student confidence has gradually returned over the last two years
Candlefox, (2018)
Key Takeaways and Insights From the Index
Who Benefits From the Index?
The Student Sentiment Index is high relevant to anyone working, operating or delivering education in Australia. From education providers, policy developers and government bodies, through to industry and research bodies; the Student Sentiment Index is an ongoing data source which will continue to deliver key insights into the education sector for a range of stakeholders.
Education Providers
Policy Developers
Industry
Research Bodies
The SSI covers demographic data such as age, region, level of education and even marital status which can prove invaluable to marketing and strategic operations.
This is a great resource in knowing where to target, what message is important to different student segments and what approach to take. For instance, is a particular age bracket showing a greater level of urgency? How can this segment be more effectively targeted to increase acquisition? Knowing if a segment of the market is more confident can help with developing ways of treating these student enquiries.
Another benefit of understanding the sentiments of prospective students is that it can change the way they are first approached after initial enquiry, with less focus on immediacy of sales and instead shifting to a more relaxed sales structure if they show signs of decreased confidence levels or motivation.
Explore Our Latest Data Publications
As part of the Student Sentiment Index, we’ve published a series of articles that explore the sub-indices in more depth, providing greater insights to demographic influences.
