The beginning of 2020 saw our number of users on Postgrad.com significantly up on the previous year and this trend continued into March. However, once Covid-19 hit mainland Europe in a big way, we saw a dramatic drop in our users, a drop that seems to have been repeated throughout our industry according to the information we have gleaned from partners such as Chevening Scholarships. Our Google Analytics statistics clearly show the psychological effect of the pandemic hitting Europe, which significantly reduced interest in researching postgraduate study options online, as would-be students focused their energies on how to cope with the present crisis, rather than investigating what they might want to do in their future.
Looking back at two complete months of data from 1st March – 30th April 2020, the sharp drop in users has now made a significant recovery. This is extremely reassuring for the postgraduate sector as a whole. From Monday 5th April onwards the recovery of the sector was clearly evident, and we are delighted to report that this bounce back has continued with the last week of April showing a 37.2% increase in traffic year on year. These users are also spending 22.5% more time on the site. This significant upwards trajectory looks likely to continue suggesting bumper traffic may well be hit in the next few weeks as students become totally refocused on their future study plans. The overwhelming message we are receiving loud and clear from this fast upturn is the fact that students are once again starting to plan their postgraduate future.
Postgrad.com is focused 100% on prospective students, not those PG students already studying, making the trends highlighted above all the more interesting. Postgrad.com is used at varying stages of a student’s decision-making process, from as early as two years before the student is due to start their postgraduate program right up to a matter of weeks before they start their course when they are still looking for funding opportunities or last-minute applications. As well as being very strong in the UK and Europe, Postgrad.com has a well-established international presence, which means the behaviour we are seeing on our website should give a good overall global perspective of prospective postgraduate student activity.
These user statistics are just one snapshot of what is happening in the postgraduate marketplace as a whole, but it is some great news that we wanted to share with you. It is a positive message for the postgraduate market, indicating that students are now recovering from the initial shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic and starting to look seriously into where they want to study their postgraduate programs for both 2020 and 2021.
The government support package announced this week is an important first step in protecting the diverse skills and expertise that UK universities provide and we hope that more measures follow. With this in mind, we wish you the very best with your postgraduate recruitment despite the extreme challenges we have ahead. We hope this mini message of good news providing evidence of full traffic recovery is just one of many more to come from our much-loved postgraduate sector.