Using service design to understand digital preferences for improving applications for tertiary education in under-represented markets

Participation in tertiary education is an important factor in achieving social parity and access to opportunity for Australians. The current government agenda is to increase participation amongst low socio-economic, culturally and linguistic diverse, Indigenous and remote peoples to be representative of their proportion in the population. This paper draws on the field of service design to bring an innovative approach to developing social marketing strategy. This research reports the findings of two qualitative studies involving 211 participants across Australia to elicit a psychologically based approach to segmentation and generate innovative digital solutions that will increase applications to participate in tertiary education. This work is the result of a multidisciplinary team that brought together practioners from the widening participation and equity fields along with social marketers and service marketers.