For decades, the printed college prospectus has been a familiar cornerstone of student recruitment. Each year, thousands of copies are printed, distributed at open days, posted to prospective students, and handed out at schools. But in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, are these traditional approaches still relevant… or even effective?
To get to the heart of this question, Prospectus Plus partnered with the College Marketing Network (CMN) to survey 26 colleges across the UK, exploring their current prospectus habits and strategies.
The findings not only challenged prevailing assumptions but revealed significant gaps between perception and reality, particularly around sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and engagement measurement.
In this article, we’ll share the top 10 most surprising insights uncovered in our 2025 CMN prospectus survey. These findings shed light on hidden inefficiencies, widespread misconceptions, and missed opportunities, particularly in leveraging digital, personalised experiences – something today’s students actively prefer.
Additional Research: 2 Key Studies
The Prism Report – in November 2024 we collaborated with UCAS to establish a groundbreaking report on pre-application marketing to students. In that report we found that:
77% of students said they would prefer or strongly prefer a personalised prospectus over a general one,
93% considered receiving personalised content tailored to their course or subject as either valuable (38%) or highly valuable (55%),
That students wanted choice when it came to prospectus format.
The SMRS Media Mapper report (June 2025) showed that students are more than twice as likely to prefer online prospectuses over printed ones. That’s just 6 months after our Prism report. The trend of audiences preferring digital formats is shifting. And it’s happening even faster than we expected.
Whether you’re a marketing director, budget holder, or senior leader; these insights from our college prospectus research provides valuable insights into how your prospectus strategy might need to adapt to better serve your students and your institution’s goals.
The Top 10 Insights
1. Colleges Still Print Thousands More Prospectuses Than You Think
The average college prints over 17,000 copies annually, far exceeding what many would anticipate. With increased preference for digital formats among students, this represents a significant misalignment.
What’s even more telling is the near-total absence of data on digital prospectuses. While we can confidently report on how many are printed, how many pages they contain, and what they cost, we have very little insight into how colleges are approaching digital alternatives… because few are using them.
This highlights a huge opportunity. While the sector has over-invested in print, digital remains vastly under-explored, under-measured, and under-utilised. For those of you looking to capitalise on student trends, let’s remember that students now preference the digital format over printed prospectuses.
2. Colleges Print Over Half a Billion Pages, Annually
In total, responding colleges (in the CMN prospectus survey) print over 47.7 million pages every year. This staggering number highlights the extensive resource use and potential environmental impact.
But that’s just the beginning. When extrapolated across the entire UK FE sector (comprising approximately 277 colleges) the estimated total rises to over 508 million printed pages annually. That’s more than half a billion pages, the majority of which are destined to be out of date or discarded within months. The scale of this alone should be prompting serious reflection on sustainability and efficiency.
Bonus: If you were to stack all of those 508 million pages on top of one another you’d have a paper tower that almost touches the edge of space. In just 4 years, if we kept printing the same amount, we could have a prospectus skyscraper that went all the way to the moon.
3. The Average FE College Prospectus, is 60 Pages Long
With approximately 34 pages dedicated exclusively to course listings (and your typical prospect only being interested in just 1 of them), printed prospectuses can quickly become outdated and cumbersome for prospective students to navigate.
Long publications are a burden for the team or person responsible for putting the prospectus together too. 54% of respondents said that the biggest challenge when putting their prospectus together was getting information from the curriculum/course teams in the first place.
We all know how it goes: You send out a zillion emails and fight back and forth for months about the tone of voice. It’s an archaic practice. It baffles us that no one else has tried to build a system to help.
At least you now have Prospectus Plus, and it’s CMS where you can gather content in one place, and give all your colleagues an account to help you out. Not got Prospectus Plus yet? It might be time to take the plunge.
4. Colleges Spend up to £60,000 Annually on Prospectus Printing
When looking at those creating a full-time 16-18 prospectus, the average printing bill clocked in at just over £10,000.
When we combined one colleges different prospectus permutations, the highest reported annual spend was over £60,000.
Whilst budgets vary amongst the different types that are produced, it highlights substantial budgetary implications in maintaining print-heavy recruitment strategies.
5. Nearly 40% Report Hundreds of Leftover Copies
Most colleges said that they gave out of all of their printed prospectuses 🤔 But about 39% of colleges admitted to having a few hundred copies left over, annually. That’s significant waste. Both in college cash, and for your sustainability goals.
6. Over Half of Colleges Don't Track Prospectus Engagement
Perhaps the most baffling stat from our research: 56% of respondents don’t track engagement metrics at all, making it nearly impossible to determine ROI or effectiveness.
So for something that colleges are spending upwards of £10,000 on (each year), they’re unable to tell you what that spend achieved for them.
You wouldn’t accept that for any other marketing spend/project – so why is that the norm for the prospectus?
7. The Most Common Reason for Printing: 'Students Expect It'
Do they though?
Despite prevalent belief, leading research indicates that students prefer digital and personalised content, dispelling this commonly cited justification.
Students are actually more than twice as likely to prefer online prospectuses over printed ones. And 93% of students consider receiving personalised content tailored to their course or subject as either valuable or highly valuable.
We put to you that students do not expect a printed prospectus. Your senior leadership team does. The majority of survey respondents told us that Marketing Directors are in control of the prospectus spend. So, Marketing Directors assemble! It is time to fight for your audience!
8. Updating Printed Prospectuses is Painful for Many
Over 50% of respondents described updating printed materials as painful, with 73% leaving typos and errors uncorrected until the next print cycle.
It’s easy to dismiss this as an inconvenience, but the reality is that it’s a compliance risk. Outdated or incorrect information in a printed prospectus can have real consequences. From inaccurate course content or entry requirements to misleading financial information, the failure to update materials in a timely fashion may fall short of Consumer Markets Authority (CMA) expectations.
In sectors where accuracy and transparency are paramount, relying on static documents that can’t be amended post-distribution is a serious operational weakness.
9. Only 1 in 10 Colleges are Extremely Confident in their Prospectus Strategy
A mere 9.4% reported being extremely confident in their prospectus strategy, indicating widespread uncertainty and dissatisfaction with current prospectus methods.
And yet, this is a huge task, given serious budget. A cycle that your institution has been honing since it opened it’s doors. Decades.
If you don’t feel good about your prospectus strategy: something is wrong. It might be normal in the UK FE sector to feel that way, but it’s not right.
Prospectus Plus can instil the confidence that you deserve and be your competitive advantage for student recruitment. Speak to us about your strategy and we’ll show you how we might be able to help.
10. Sustainability Tops Considerations for Future Prospectus Decisions
87.5% of colleges identified sustainability as a critical factor for future decisions, despite continued widespread reliance on printed formats. And yet, if the sector refuses to change, it will produce 2,500 tonnes of CO₂e. That’s the equivalent emissions after burning 1.1 million litres of petrol.
The best time to act was 10 years ago.
The second best time, is today.
The Broader Impact
The cumulative findings from our CMN prospectus survey point to substantial inefficiencies within traditional prospectus strategies across the sector.
The gaps in sustainability, budgeting effectiveness, and engagement tracking paint a clear picture of outdated practices. Consumer behaviours have changed. In an era where students increasingly prefer personalised, digital interactions, reliance on print materials not only leads to waste but also fails to meet student expectations.
The Prism and SMRS Media Mapper reports underscore these issues, showing that digital-first strategies not only reduce operational burden but also deliver stronger engagement, clearer ROI tracking, and a smaller environmental footprint. Colleges maintaining outdated strategies risk falling behind peers who proactively embrace innovative, digital-first solutions.
Our Recommendations, and Your Next Steps
Colleges looking to address these challenges can take several practical steps:
Audit Your Current Strategy: Identify areas of waste and inefficiency by conducting a thorough audit of your current prospectus workflow and spending. At the bare minimum, your prospectus editor will thank you for checking in!
Adopt a Digital-First Approach: Move towards digital, personalised prospectus solutions that align with student expectations and improve overall engagement. And no, a PDF won’t cut it. If you don’t know where to start, speak to Prospectus Plus for a demo.
Enhance Engagement Tracking: Implement advanced engagement metrics to clearly track ROI, student interaction, and the effectiveness of your prospectus. In case you wondered: Analytics are at the heart of Prospectus Plus.
Prioritise Sustainability: Recyclable paper isn’t enough anymore. Give sustainability a true seat at the table and align your marketing strategies with institutional sustainability goals, significantly reducing your environmental impact.
Prospectus Plus can assist colleges in seamlessly transitioning to a more effective, digital-first prospectus strategy. Contact Prospectus Plus for a tailored consultation, access additional resources, or explore our digital solutions designed to enhance student recruitment outcomes.
Nathan Monk
I'm proud to work for some of the world’s most influential brands that shape cities and define lives: Universities and colleges.
I provide advice to forward-thinking senior leaders on how to exceed their organisational targets by creating user-focused, digital-first strategies.
