Enrolment is always a challenge. We come back from our holidays to an empty college. Like someone organising an open house, we’ve stocked up on a range of snacks and drinks for our guests but we can’t really be sure that anyone will actually turn up. It’s conceivable that every single person who said they would come will find something better to do. We start with no students and we have to enrol every single one before we can start doing our job and actually teach them.

Ideally, of course, our future students are already out there, having made their minds up ages ago after visiting, given much though to their application, attended an in-depth interview, been well advised and made a well-considered choice. They turn up with the results they expected and enrol on the course they said they wanted. Everything goes swimmingly and before you know it the…