The power of social media in opening the widening access conversation

Social media has become a phenomenon in the 21^st century, where almost every single young person has at least one platform on social media whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or Twitter. Even just a decade ago social media was just starting out in its path, so why has this become the case today, 10 years on?

The instant content, the new knowledge, the exciting information, the constant interaction, and the freedom of creativity. Using social media, particularly for young people, is a place of expression and a way of learning about the world, what’s out there, and how to take on new opportunities.

The pandemic elevated this upward spiral use of social media because that was the only way to communicate and interact with people outside of your house. Not only was it an escape from the alarming circumstances with the virus, but it was a way to learn, engage, and project your creativity. New trends were emerging, and innovative content was being posted that young people were highly engaged with.  

 

Now, social media isn’t just a platform for posting a selfie or uploading a photo of your gym progress. Instead, it is increasingly becoming an educational and informative platform, with or without its users being consciously aware. But how?

Take one example, TikTok. You don’t have to be following certain people to see the content they produce, due to the ‘For You Page’ tab, and with the increase of time allowance with each video, creators now have up to 3 minutes to produce a fun and informative video. Since the pandemic, there has been a huge rise in people wanting to visit new places, eat at new restaurants and just get back into exploring the world. TikTok has been a guide for this new wave of information. People are posting videos of recommendations of where to go, what to eat, and what the best things are to do.

However, it’s not just the place for marketing new holiday destinations or places to eat a tasty new dish.

Social media has also become a tool in educating young people about the diversity of society and the push for equal opportunities. In summer 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, was the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign. This was a movement that engaged millions of people across the world, and particularly got young people listening to the problems in society. Instagram was a major platform within this movement because as a sign to show support and alliance with the BLM campaign, people began to post a black square on their page. A simple, yet effective way to start the conversation of inequality and the racial injustice within society, because from that, those people were starting to engage in educational content that was being produced to inform them how to stand against this injustice and how to further support the BLM campaign.

 

Can this power be used for schools then, and particularly as a tool to showcase the opportunities available for widening access students?

Currently some students are missing out on the opportunities available to them and are not fully aware of the support and adjustments they could get to help them reach higher education and this is the gap that social media could fill.

The benefit of using a social media platform to market and advertise the widening access opportunities is that it a widely accessible for most secondary pupils, and by creating an exciting and innovative video, reel, or photo story, it can present the options in a more positive light.

Sometimes widening access pupils are put off the idea of taking up certain support because there could be a negative stigma attached relating to social or economic status. However, if we were to use social media to market this support as an additional, bonus opportunity to take advantage of, it could increase the numbers of widening access pupils reaching higher levels of education.

 

Let’s take Instagram for instance, reels are becoming increasing popular on this platform because the video content allows for more expansion on the information and brings more creativity to the posts. UCAS or admissions staff could use this to show the adjustments made to entry requirements for widening access pupils, this could be done by screen recording an example of a UCAS page looking at a specific course, such as Primary Education, and showing the difference between the standard entry requirements and the minimum entry requirements, at certain universities.

To make this even more effective, it would be engaging for young people to see or hear other young people creating this content. Admissions at universities could request the help and creativity of current students to post these reels, and in this way it would not only be more relatable to secondary pupils watching it, but it would also empower the university students to take autonomy for a marketing task and allow them to express their innovative ideas.

 

But using social media, is not a blanket success, we need to be clever in the way it is used and what platforms work best and have the most engagement. Times are constantly changing in the 21^st century and the popularity of social media platforms fluctuates with this, therefore when marketing for widening access and highlighting the opportunities available, we need to keep up with the current trends.

Previously, Twitter and Facebook were the most commonly used forms of social media, but now this has become more dominated by schools, teachers, and policy makers. Twitter, in particular, has grown in usage from universities and schools, because it was seen as a trendy platform that young people used. But young people are perceptive to this, and once teenage pupils realised that teachers and education staff were using this, they seemed to find alternative platforms themselves. This is why it would be more beneficial to use social media but use current university students or widening access pupils leaving school to create and post the content, because it will continue to be their own platform that they have the freedom to express information on, without the conscious overshadow of educational authority.

 

The most successful types of social media currently would be to use Instagram reels and TikTok videos, because these allow for a few minutes of videography to be created with music backgrounds, filters, and innovative transitions, that young people find interesting and engaging to watch.

So how can we use social media for these widening access pupils?

We have already looked at how the UCAS website information could be presented through an Instagram reel, looking at the difference with standard entry requirements and minimum entry requirements for courses at universities.

Another way could be with bridging programmes and the benefits of completing these. For example, the Top-Up programme run by the University of Glasgow could create a TikTok advert to show what would be involved in the programme, who can sign up, and the benefits of doing so with the outcome of a potential adjusted offer at university.

There could also be content created for the transitional support into university for widening access students, with the additional funding opportunities, support with accommodation, and the help students can receive once they start their university course.

Even colleges could promote the articulation route into higher education, by showcasing the way it works, and why pupils would want to choose this as a route into university and gaining a degree, instead of going straight from school.

 

These are just a few examples of how we could take advantage of this innovative time online and get involved in the social media phenomenon. But we do need to be aware of the potential pitfalls this could have.

We need to think carefully about how this is presented and get the balance right between positively showing the additional support and opportunities available to widening access pupils but trying not to present it as a ‘hack’ or a way of getting into university unethically. If other young people watching the posts get the sense that widening access pupils are being unfairly advantaged and can get a ‘hack’ into university that they aren’t able to do, it could potentially create some conflict.

This means, when using social media, it needs to be clear who the target audience would be, what is being posted and this is why by using other students in creating the content would be valuable because they would be able to relate and understand how it would be perceived by the audience.

 

Instagram and TikTok could be very influential platforms for widening access pupils over the next year or two, particularly coming out of the pandemic, because it is a place for these pupils to access information on how they can reach higher education and how they can overcome the challenges and barriers they face. With the increased use of social media throughout the lockdown, and the lack of schooling and face-to-face education, these pupils might have missed the resources talked about by teachers, and social media could fill this gap and be a good source to get involved in because it is being shown to be what is current and what pupils are engaging with.

Even if pupils are not engaged in school and appear disinterested in teachers and what they have to say, if they are scrolling through Instagram and come across another person their age talking about how to take advantage of the opportunities available to them, it could be the motivating tool to encourage them to follow this route.