The Confidence Index 2025: Why Independent Schools Must Rethink Marketing and Admissions

By Emily Hargest, Director of Marketing at MTM Consulting

In today’s independent school sector, marketing and admissions are under greater strain than ever. Rising costs, demographic shifts, VAT changes, and higher parental expectations have created an unpredictable recruitment landscape. Yet, despite their central role in driving enrolment and revenue, many schools continue to underinvest in these vital functions.

The Confidence Index 2025, launched at the AMCIS annual conference, delivers a clear message: if independent schools want long-term financial security, marketing and admissions must be treated as strategic drivers – not secondary services.

The State of School Marketing and Admissions

• Only one in three leaders describe their market as healthy.
• Two-thirds lack confidence in recruiting enough full-fee pupils.
• Three-quarters worry about persuading families to choose the independent route.
• 85% face real-term budget cuts.

These numbers highlight a major risk: when recruitment falters, revenue falls. Yet too often, the resources and tools needed to reverse this trend are missing.

Why Cutting Marketing Budgets Is Risky

Marketing is often the first budget to be reduced in tough times. But evidence shows this is a short-sighted move. Research by McGraw-Hill found that companies maintaining or increasing marketing spend during a downturn grew 275% more over five years compared with those that cut back.

Independent education is a high-value decision. Reducing visibility or failing to adapt to parent expectations hands an advantage to competitors. In a price-sensitive market, schools must communicate their value with clarity and confidence.

Marketing Is Strategic, Not Support

As Irfan Latif, Headmaster of Royal Hospital School, stated at AMCIS:

“Marketing is reputation. Marketing is recruitment. Marketing is retention. It is as strategic as finance and as critical as curriculum.”

Despite this, too many schools still see marketing and admissions as administrative support rather than as central to growth, reputation, and financial resilience.

Four Steps School Leaders Must Take

To achieve results, Heads, Bursars, and Governors should strengthen marketing and admissions in four key areas:

1. Professional Development – Half of teams lack CPD in SEO, analytics, and conversion tracking – critical for keeping pace with digital-first parents.
2. Technology and Data – 42% of schools lack integrated marketing tools. As Helen Clapham of GSAL puts it: “We must work with actual data, not anec-data.”
3. Whole-School Culture – Every touchpoint shapes reputation. Marketing is everyone’s responsibility.
4. Leadership Inclusion – Half of admissions and marketing leads lack a seat at the leadership table, limiting their ability to align recruitment with school strategy.

A Strategic Imperative for Independent Schools

Some schools are empowering their marketing and admissions teams with the voice, budget, and authority they need. Others unintentionally hold them back. The difference is often reflected in enrolment success and long-term financial security.

The choice is clear: cut marketing to save pennies today, or invest in marketing and admissions as revenue enablers to secure tomorrow.

Read the full Confidence Index 2025 report at https://mtmconsulting.co.uk/confidence-index-report-2025/.