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| INDUSTRY INSIGHT | 13
Enhancing The Student Experience Through Print
Technological developments are allowing universities to differentiate themselves, consequently steering students to select the institution best equipped for their needs, explains Richard Turner, Marketing Manager, Wide Format Group, Canon UK
From your experience, and through working directly with universities, how have student demands changed in recent years? Students are bringing a new found ‘professionalism’ to their selection process when considering university options. Whereas once, choosing a university may have been a decision based primarily on anecdotal feedback on the quality of teaching and course content, students are now seeking tangible value for money. With the cost of higher education on the increase, students are looking at the advantages of institutions beyond their academic prowess and placing importance on the additional learning and support services offered. Initiatives like the National Student
Survey enable students to scrutinise the offering of institutions, with their subsequent feedback upon leaving affecting a prospective student’s selection. This demand for support services is
particularly important for more specialist courses, where students may rely heavily on discipline-specific technology for subjects such as photography, engineering or architecture. Technological developments are allowing universities to differentiate themselves, consequently steering students to select the institution best equipped for their needs.
How has Canon been working with UK universities to improve the student experience? There is a perception held by many institutions that discipline-specific technology is complicated, too specialist or even a luxury. However, in reality the
right technology dispels these myths. Moreover, it can actually present an opportunity to re-invest in student services and lower student outlays. Take architecture as an example. Part of the student’s requirement
(and something they will be marked on) while taking this
ABOVE: Richard Turner
course will be to produce technical documents and presentations in hard copy. Therefore, their experience at university will be
affected by their ability to print these documents easily, on-demand and cost- effectively. Our role is to help institutions make ‘specialist’ functions, such as wide format printing, accessible – in terms of time, resource, cost and usability. We recently worked with Ravensbourne
University to improve its results in the National Student Survey by enabling it to offer improved print services to students. By implementing a student-run facility within the architecture department, we were able to reduce the strain on the Reprographics team, who were particularly busy during deadline periods. Ravensbourne is not the only university
realising the potential of fast and super- efficient printing, we have also installed devices at other institutions that require no operational input from staff. In each case, the solution has enabled the institution to provide exceptional services to students that fit within the resource allocation available to them and offer prints at up to 50% less than outside service providers would charge. As well as having much happier students, the savings made have enabled the universities to re-invest in other technologies to further enhance the student experience, typically within 12 months.
What is making UK universities invest in technology with Canon?
The key considerations of technology are typically cost-efficiency, ease of use, reliability, versatility and good service and support. When it comes to technology in discipline-specific environments however, it is these five plus the ability to overcome the perception of it being ‘too complicated’. What drives a university to invest will differ to what a student will see as adding value to his/her university experience. A student needs the technology to be available immediately when they have a tight deadline, to print in the best quality possible (after all, the perceived quality of the content of their hard work can be enhanced or diminished by the printed output) and for it to cost them as litle as possible. Successfully combining the needs of
the institution and its students is what our partnerships with universities are founded upon.
How might students’ expectations change in the future? And how can universities prepare for this? Higher education has become a highly competitive market driven by well-informed students who aren’t afraid to demand what they want. As well as ensuring they are providing first-class teaching and course content, universities need to ensure they are catering for the course-specific needs of pupils. A student is far more likely to reflect favourably on an institution that helped to replicate their future work environment and provide the ‘tools of the trade’. Crucially, if the institution gets this right, the student will share that positive experience with other prospective students. UB
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