In conversation with Tribal Apprentice, Chloe Simpson

How Tribal Engage can increase student engagement amidst the ongoing pandemic

You and your team have most likely overhauled your digital and social media practices over the last few years, ensuring all your content is digital and your website mobile-first. You may have even thrown a Tik Tok dance into the mix for good measure. But all instiutions rely on digital channels to engage with students, so how can you ensure you're leading the digital charge?

Mike Cope spent ten years as CIO at University College London (UCL) before joining Tribal as CTO in 2019. Having seen first-hand the pushback on cloud adoption rates in the education sector for the last decade, Mike discusses why he believes there has been a shift in mindset over the last 12 months. 

Migrating services to the cloud in higher education is happening at a faster rate than ever before. According to Tribal’s CTO, Mike Cope, this is primarily because the sector’s appetite for risk has changed as education institutions seek solutions that provide the most up to date capability, for the maximum number of use cases, whilst also providing enough flexibility to adapt to increasingly frequent business changes.

In times of great change, we are holding our free of charge, online conferences (W/C 12th October 2020) to discuss the significant issues that will help colleges and training providers become more resilient and continue to deliver quality education.

Enrolment during coronavirus

Enrolment day is normally a notoriously busy event in the academic calendar. For further education (FE) institutions, campus is alive with activity as learners are welcomed in, perhaps for the first time, to register for their chosen courses. Learners are often required to queue in different locations around college to complete the necessary paperwork, ID and qualification checks and have their photographs taken. Staff Teaching teams, Support Services, Learner records and Admissions staff are busy too, ready to support students and answer questions. It can be an exhausting and chaotic day!

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced extraordinary challenges for further education (FE) providers in the UK, with colleges, councils, and adult learning institutions facing a new reality of managing sickness absence reporting.

The Coronavirus is having a huge impact on higher and further education, as well as economies and lives across the globe. The education landscape changed, virtually overnight, when on 23^rd March 2020, the UK followed many other countries into ‘lockdown’ in an attempt to slow the rate of infection of Covid-19.

The downturn in demographics and numbers of people going to university and college, competition from international markets, and high dropout rates means that UK institutions need smart ways to demonstrate and deliver the Student Experience they have on offer if they intend to meet increasingly ambitious recruitment and retention targets.