Getting past “good enough” in responding to prospective students

We all know the trends: There are more institutions in more destinations actively competing for students than ever before, and at the same time, students are now applying to more institutions and holding more offers before making a decision.

What then does this mean for how we respond to student enquiries? A new edition of Edified's Enquiry Experience Tracker (EET) project has some important answers to share. In a departure from earlier cycles, the 2026 edition of this ongoing study focuses on domestic students in Australia and the UK. However, the insights the research yields again this year can be readily applied to international recruitment as well.

First, the study invites us to consider why the student is reaching out in the first place. After all, they can find a great deal of information online before they contact an institution. Or they can ask an AI, in which case, there is a better-than-fair chance that they will get the information they are looking for.

So why write to a university? To ask some specific questions? Maybe. But, as the EET report explains, "An enquiry offers students a glimpse of what life at a university might feel like ... For some students, this may be their first meaningful interaction with the university. How that interaction feels can shape their perception of the institution and their willingness to take the next step."

But here's the punchline: Only about four in ten (37%) of the mystery shoppers in the EET study said they would be very likely to continue engaging with an institution after that initial enquiry. Turning that number upside down for a moment, six out of every ten students are basically saying that they are going to quietly exit after the initial response (or non-response) from the university.

What the study finds is that those students are not disengaging because they are unhappy. It is more that they are "broadly neutral," which is to say they are neither especially inspired nor discouraged. They're meh. They got a response from a university that was "good enough" but that didn't speak to them or encourage them to keep interacting.

The EET report says that improving engagement rates is about getting a reply out to the student, answering fully and tailoring it to the individual, and doing so in a friendly, welcoming way. Students who received a tailored response were seven times more likely to say they'd continue engaging than those who got a generic one. Yet only half of responses in the 2026 EET were perceived as warm and approachable, and just two-thirds fully answered every question a student asked.

"Students aren't walking away because they got bad information, they're on the fence because universities don’t give them enough confidence to take the next step," said Elissa Newall, senior partner and EET project director at Edified. "Warmth and a properly tailored answer show that you value the student."

"When all the five factors were handled well in a student’s enquiry, the result was striking," adds the report. "97% of students came away with a positive impression of the institution and 94% said they would be very likely to continue engaging ... The opportunity is to think strategically about where effort can make the greatest difference. Identify the prospects who are most important, most undecided, or most likely to benefit from deeper engagement, and make sure your teams have the capability to give them a genuinely considered experience. The goal isn’t perfection at every interaction. It’s knowing where excellent service can have the biggest impact."

Getting those fundamentals right is perhaps the biggest call to action in the 2026 EET. But there is also a recognition that those great enquiry experiences don't just happen. Rather, they are enabled by building good systems, workflows, and teams.

"That means equipping teams with the knowledge and confidence to give relevant advice, and having enough people to hold that standard at peak periods, not just when volumes are light," offers the report. "It also means treating enquiries as recruitment opportunities ... To grow enrolments, the opportunity is not simply to generate more interest. It’s to build an enquiry operation, and an enquiry mindset, that can get more out of the pipeline you already have."

For additional background, please see:

• "Offering reassurance to international students after they apply is increasingly key to securing enrolments"
• "ICEF Podcast: Are you using the right digital channels to reach international students?"
• "Survey highlights a growing 'engagement gap' between international student expectations and institutional response"