By choosing a group of peer universities, you can identify where you are outperforming comparable institutions and where there may be opportunities to optimise your recruitment strategy.
You can access this feature under Benchmarking → Peers within your University Dashboard.
After selecting your peer universities, navigate to the Analytics section where your benchmarking insights and comparisons will automatically update.
1. Selecting Your Peer Universities
To begin benchmarking, you must select five peer universities.
Use the search bar to locate specific institutions.
Or select universities from the dropdown list.
The list includes over 450 universities currently using Unibuddy, enabling you to create a relevant comparison group.
Once your peers are selected, the benchmarking dashboards will update to reflect your chosen institutions.
💡 Select universities that are similar in size, geography, academic focus, or recruitment markets to ensure meaningful comparisons.
⚠️ Once peers are selected, they cannot currently be updated directly from the dashboard. If you need to change or update your peer universities, please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) who can guide you through the next steps.
We are currently reviewing how frequently peer selections change, with the aim of enabling peer updates directly within the platform in a future release.
2. What You Can Compare
After selecting your peers, the dashboard generates comparisons across key recruitment and engagement indicators.
Key Metrics
You can compare overall engagement performance between:
Your university
Selected peers
Sector averages
These metrics provide context for how effectively prospective students are interacting with your ambassadors and content.
Top 5 Academic Interests
View the most popular academic subjects prospective students are engaging with across your selected peers. This can help you:
Identify emerging programme demand
Areas where your programs may attract more interest
Review opportunities to promote underrepresented degrees
Top 5 Student Topics
Understand the most frequently discussed topics within ambassador conversations across your peers. Common themes may include:
Accommodation
Scholarships
Career outcomes
Campus life
Admissions requirements
This insight helps highlight student priorities and decision drivers.
Top 5 Countries Reached
Compare the geographic reach of student engagement between your university and your selected peers. This reveals:
Key recruitment markets
Countries generating the highest levels of conversation
Opportunities to expand international outreach
3. Comparing Sector vs Peers
Peer Benchmarking enables you to evaluate performance across three perspectives:
Your University
Selected Peers
Sector Average
This provides a broader view of your position within the market, helping you identify performance gaps, competitive strengths, and areas for improvement.
How to Use Benchmarking Insights Strategically
Use the benchmarking data to guide your recruitment and engagement strategy.
Best Practices for Using Benchmarking
To get the most value from peer benchmarking:
✔ Review dashboards weekly or monthly
✔ Use 30, 60, or 90-day time filters to track trends
✔ Align insights with recruitment campaigns and intake cycles
✔ Share insights with marketing, recruitment, and faculty teams
✔ Use benchmarking data to coach ambassadors and refine engagement strategies
How Peer Benchmarking Differs from Sector Benchmarking
Sector Benchmarking compares your institution against an automatically defined cohort (country, regional, or global).
Peer Benchmarking allows you to manually select five institutions for a tailored comparison.