UK Service Centre goes live

13.10.06

UK Service Centre goes live

The Hobsons UK Service Centre went live today, and is now managing international student enquiries for four British universities

Academics at the ’foundation universities’ – Brunel, Essex, UCE and Robert Gordon – will continue to manage the admissions process, but all enquiries from international students are now handled by the Service Centre team. To the enquirers, it appears that they are dealing directly with their chosen university, but all calls and e-mails are re-routed to staff at Hobsons’ London headquarters.

The UK Service Centre is modelled on Hobsons' extremely successful Australian equivalent, which was launched in 1999 and now serves 14 of the country’s 37 public universities, with several on a waiting list to join the capped service. The UK Service Centre’s foundation clients will soon be joined by Coventry University, and Hobsons aims to be providing an enquiry management solution for up to 15 UK institutions by December 2007.

Gavin Douglas, Head of Student Recruitment at Robert Gordon, said the University hoped to see a 10% increase in conversion rates from enquiries initially. Following a visit to the Service Centre in Australia, where member universities have seen conversion rates rise by up to 20%, he remarked: ‘There was an initial worry that somebody sitting in a call centre would not be able to deal with the level of detail required, but I was very impressed by the strong links between staff in the Australian service centre and their universities. I am reassured that they could handle at least 80% of queries.’

Further information
To find out more about how the Service Centre can help your institution manage its international enquiries, contact Leyla Gilbey  on 020 7958 5030 or Thomas Mason on 020 7958 5093

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