It also found that 78% have refused to provide personal information because of privacy concerns, and 41% have stopped doing business with a company after a privacy breach.
It’s a shared feeling in the U.S., where Pew Research Center found that 67% of adults say they understand little to nothing about what companies are doing with their personal data and thus are hesitant to provide it.
Higher education isn’t immune to that behaviour shift.
Prospective students may not use the language of "data governance" or "consent architecture," but they do recognize when an experience feels unclear, excessive, or sketchy.
This is important because modern enrolment marketing depends on your ability to collect data. This means ensuring privacy doesn’t only live in your policy footer. It needs to show up in:
➡️ How much information an inquiry form asks for ➡️ Consent language that’s easy to understand ➡️ How clearly the value exchange is explained ➡️ Follow-up that matches what your prospect expected ➡️ How easy it is to manage preferences or opt out ➡️ Personalization feels helpful, not intrusive
Done well, privacy-conscious marketing strengthens the student experience and shows your institution is transparent about the relationship it’s trying to build.
Higher Education Strategy Associates has also noted a major long-term increase in first-year students reporting disabilities, from 9% in 2013 to 33% in 2025, especially after surveys began explicitly including mental health.
This changes how institutions should think about the digital journey.
Before a student ever reaches an accessibility services office, they may already have encountered:
A program page that’s hard to scan A PDF that isn’t screen-reader friendly A video without captions An inquiry form that’s difficult to complete on mobile A confusing application pathway Important information buried in dense blocks of text A landing page that relies too heavily on visual design
From the institution’s perspective, these may look like small technical issues. But from the student’s perspective, they can feel like signals that say:
"This wasn’t built with me in mind." "This might be difficult to navigate." "I may have to work harder here." "I may need to ask for help before I’m ready to ask."
A quick accessibility lens for marketing teams.
Before launching or refreshing a program page, landing page, campaign asset, or nurture sequence, it’s worth asking:
➡️ Can this page be understood quickly? ➡️ Are headings clear and useful? ➡️ Is the content easy to scan? ➡️ Are PDFs necessary, or could the content live on an accessible web page? ➡️ Do videos have captions or transcripts? ➡️ Are forms simple, clear, and mobile-friendly? ➡️ Is the next step obvious? ➡️Is the experience built for different ways of reading, processing, and deciding? Accessibility shouldn’t be something added after the fact. It should shape how the program is planned from the beginning.
Continuing education needs its own strategy.
Continuing education is no longer sitting quietly on the edge of enrolment strategy.
➡️ A 2025 national survey by the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education found that continuing education enrolment grew by 16.1% across reporting Canadian universities since 2022.
➡️ Statistics Canada also reported that 29.7% of Canadian workers participated in job-related training outside the formal education system, with participation especially strong among workers aged 35 to 44 and 45 to 54.
Continuing education can be brought to market faster and is generally more responsive to labour needs, but only if the strategy reflects the realities of working adults.
It needs to answer the immediate questions quickly, like:
Will this help me move forward right now? Can I fit this around work and life? Is the investment worth it? Will this help me stay relevant, advance, or pivot? Can I use what I learn quickly?
That means continuing education can’t be marketed like a smaller version of a degree program, or in the same way you’d market to an 18-year-old choosing an undergraduate degree.
Enrolment marketing has evolved from a secondary tactic to a strategic necessity for higher education institutions. As the 2026 enrolment cliff approaches, this guide explores why a shift toward data-driven enrolment marketing is essential for maintaining tuition revenue, improving lead quality, and building long-term institutional resilience through full-funnel optimization.
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