Education Recruitment Advertising and Resourcing Services
- Buyer
- Southern Universities Management Services (SUMS)
- Value
- £80,000,000
- Closes
- 19 February 2027
- Where
- Reading, the South East
- Type
- Sets up a framework (suppliers apply to join)
In plain English
Southern Universities Management Services (SUMS), a body that runs shared services for universities, wants to set up a framework of approved suppliers to help universities find students. The work covers advertising, online marketing, student listing platforms, and recruitment agents for UK and overseas students, with an estimated total value of £80 million across six separate lots.
What the buyer wants
• Plan, buy and manage advertising and marketing campaigns to attract UK and international students, including digital, print and creative content in multiple languages. • Provide or run student recruitment platforms, course listing sites, or networks of overseas agents and in-country student counselling that deliver enquiries, applications and enrolments. • Report on campaign performance and results, with fees often linked to outcomes such as applications or enrolments.
Lots
- Lot 1 – Education Recruitment Advertising & Resourcing
- Lot 2A –UK Student Recruitment Marketing and Attraction Services
- Lot 2B –UK Student Recruitment Platforms and Marketplace Services
- Lot 3A - International Student Recruitment Marketing and Attraction Services
- Lot 3B - International Student Recruitment Platforms, Agency and Partnership Services
Likely requirements
Our reading of the notice. Always check the tender documents.
The £80 million total value, multi-year scale, and requirements for proven university-sector references and, for the international lots, established overseas agent networks would rule out most small businesses unless they bid for a single lot or join as a subcontractor.
How to bid
This is a framework: the buyer picks a set of suppliers now and awards work to them over several years. If you are not on it when it is awarded, you usually cannot win work from it until it is re-tendered, so this is the window to bid.
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