If you’ve ever applied to university in the UK, you know UCAS. It’s the single platform that every undergraduate application passes through, and nearly every student, parent, and school advisor knows exactly what UCAS is and what it does.
And with that comes a captive audience going through one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking experiences of their lives. The uncertainty of waiting, the thrill of an offer and the anxiety of results day are all key moments in prospective students’ lives and the UCAS community.
UCAS is already doing a brilliant job of educating its audience through useful how-to’s, tips and explainers of the application process. But there’s a natural next step: creating a space for their community to come together through the shared experience of one of the most emotional moments of their lives so far.
This edition of Made Human looks at what they’re getting right, where the opportunity lies, and how a more human-first approach could turn UCAS from a trusted resource into a genuine community.
Who is NatWest?
UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) is the UK’s centralised university application system. Founded in 1992, it is the single point of entry for undergraduate applications across the UK, processing hundreds of thousands of applications every year.
Although their core audience is prospective students, they also regularly connect with parents, school advisors and teachers as part of the process. Beyond university admissions, UCAS has also expanded into apprenticeships and careers, which further broadens their relevance beyond the traditional A-level route.
What makes UCAS unusual as a brand is that they’re not fighting for an audience with competitors. They are the one and only option for the service they provide. But that doesn’t make the relationship with their audience any less important to nurture. UCAS has to work to make the process of applying to university as stress-free and simple as possible, and trust is built from the expertise they demonstrate and the engagement in emotional moments that are universally felt across their audience.
What’s Working
Despite not having to fight competitors for attention, UCAS puts a lot of effort and resources into their social media presence. They are active across the majority of platforms and publish content that delivers genuine value to their audience, like how-to guides, application tips and process explainers. Their content is clear, jargon-free, and helps reduce their audience’s stress at a time when anxiety can be pretty high.
Their YouTube channel is particularly successful at delivering valuable content for their audience. They are producing long-form, guidance-led content that works naturally with how users like to consume content there. They are breaking down the application process in a format that students can work through at their own pace, making it a particularly useful resource for everyone involved in the process.
Where It’s Falling Short
Where UCAS has an opportunity to grow is in how they are communicating with their audience across social platforms. Right now, the same content appears across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and while the content itself is good, the approach is very broadcast-focused and lacks a consistent understanding of their audiences. Each platform has a distinct audience with distinct expectations, and content that works on one isn’t necessarily going to perform the same on another.
Facebook’s audience, for example, tends to lean slightly older than the other two, and is likely reaching parents and advisors rather than the students. A parent has a very different set of questions and needs to the student who’s actually going through the UCAS application process, but right now that audience isn’t being spoken to in a way that reflects that.
TikTok and Instagram, on the other hand, are where the students can be reached. These platforms are built for shared experience and community, but UCAS’s current presence feels more like a notice board than a conversation. The content delivers a lot of valuable information, but it doesn’t invite a response.
And that’s the bigger missed opportunity. UCAS is at the centre of one of the most communal experiences in a young person’s life, yet there’s no space being created on their social media for students to come together over the experiences or feel less alone in the process.
How We’d Approach It
UCAS have already built a foundation of trust with their audience, and their content continues to cement their expertise. But if we were to give their accounts our signature “Human-First” treatment to take them to the next level, here’s what we’d do:
Tailor the Platform to the Person
The starting point for us would be platform tailoring. It doesn’t need a complete overhaul, but there should be a more intentional approach to who is actually being targeted on each platform and what they expect to see there.
Facebook probably needs the biggest adjustment. The audience there is predominantly parents and advisors, and right now they’re receiving the same content as everyone else. We’d create a content strategy that speaks to the anxieties and questions of a parent watching their child navigate one of the biggest decisions of their life so far. What should they be doing to help? What are the key dates they need to know? How do they support without taking over? These are questions UCAS are more than qualified to answer, and Facebook is the right place to answer them.
For Instagram and TikTok, we would continue with the useful how-to guides aimed at prospective students, but adjust the messaging and tone to invite more of a community element to the content and profiles. We’d lean less into the “here’s what you need to do” and more into the “let’s work through this together” kind of message.
Switch from Information to Conversation
The content UCAS produces is good. The issue is the communications only go one way.
Human-First Marketing is about the relationship you build around the content you are publishing just as much as the content itself. Right now, UCAS’s social media presence feels like a very helpful brochure or guidebook, not a community space.
We’d start by creating content that requires a response – genuine prompts that invite students to join the conversation. “What subject are you struggling to weave into your personal statement?” gets students talking to each other in the comments. “Parents: what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about results day?” invites a conversation with UCAS on their profiles, without needing to force it.
We don’t want to replace the how-to guides and educational content, just weave the community engagement into it.
Lean into the Emotions Around Moments
The final human element we think is missing from UCAS’s current content is tapping into the emotional side of the application journey. Things like offers, results day and clearing are moments that students and parents remember and are shared universally across the entire UCAS audience, generating a lot of emotions. Currently, these moments are largely being highlighted with dates and deadlines, rather than genuine human experiences.
We’d post content that goes beyond simple information posts about what to do if you don’t get the grades you need, and tap into content that acknowledges the emotion of the moment and creates a space for students to share it. A simple “share your results day story” prompt could generate more authentic, community-led content than months of scheduled posts.
UGC would be key to this strategy, amplifying real student voices in the moments these conversations are already happening. The stories about the students going through clearing who end up somewhere they love, the ones who got the offer they’d been waiting for, are the ones that make UCAS feel less like a process and more like a community. The content is being shared on personal profiles already, so why not utilise this for UCAS?
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