Prime Highlights
- Mark Balneger said current students and alumni serve as the most effective marketing tools, regardless of their follower count.
- Universities including Carleton, Arizona State, and UCL have begun formalising student storyteller and content creator roles.
Key Facts
- UpperClass is a student creator platform co-founded by Mark Balneger, who advocates for peer-to-peer marketing in higher education.
- ETS, the organisation behind the TOEFL iBT test, has shifted its campaign strategy toward student-centred storytelling and creator-driven content.
Background
Universities and education brands are increasingly formalising student content creator roles, investing in peer-to-peer campaigns, and experimenting with digital student ambassador models to reach prospective learners.
Mark Balneger, co-founder of student creator platform UpperClass, said the new generation stays immune to traditional marketing and sales tactics. He argued that current students and alumni make the most persuasive influencers, regardless of their follower count. What matters instead, he explained, is credibility within a specific niche, such as a business student in Lagos connecting with someone similar at a campus in Toronto.
Balneger described conversations that rarely appear in official prospectuses or webinars, such as a Russian student in Korea answering questions from peers back home about food, discrimination, and geopolitical tensions. He said these are exactly the issues agents and universities often avoid, yet they can influence whether a student applies at all.
While many institutions already run ambassador schemes to convert shortlisted prospects, Balneger noted that this new wave of creators works much earlier in the funnel, spreading content through overlapping personal networks the institution cannot directly access.
Universities including Carleton in Canada, Arizona State in the US, and UCL in the UK have begun formalising these roles by hiring student storytellers. Balneger warned institutions that students are already creating content regardless, and schools risk losing the chance to structure and benefit from it.
A similar shift is reshaping how test providers engage students. ETS, the organisation behind TOEFL iBT, has repositioned its brand around student-led storytelling, inviting influencers and educators to take the updated exam and share authentic reviews as part of its ongoing campaign strategy.
