British University launches Tinder-style app to help students find their perfect course
The University of Salford has launched an app and website called "Match Made in Salford", which is designed to match up prospective students with their ideal course, and is hoped to make the experience of clearing &ldquo;reassuring and enjoyable&rdquo;. The app is said to have much in common with Tinder, as it allows prospective students to swipe left or right (or click on a cross or love-heart symbol when using the website) when they are provided with personalised course recommendations based on their grades achieved, preferred subject areas and careers of interest. The app then produces a shortlist of possible courses, with more detailed information about the programme, fees and employability scores, when a &ldquo;match&rdquo; is made. The University said more than 10,000 people have used the matchmaker to find courses so far. 
Female. Late teens. GSOH. Two As and a B. WLTM course in the arts that will lead to a fulfilling and stimulating career.

Searching for the perfect university course can seem a bit like finding the perfect soulmate. But one university has sought to alleviate the stress of the hunt by launching a mobile phone app aimed at helping students find “the course of their dreams”, and with a functionality similar to Tinder, a popular dating app that allows users to search for would-be partners in their immediate vicinity.

On Tinder, users can declare an interest in another user by “swiping right” on their phone (or dismiss them as a potential match by swiping left).

The University of Salford said the Match Made in Salford app and website, which hooks up prospective students with their ideal course, was designed to make the experience of clearing “reassuring and enjoyable”.

Developed by digital company Squiz, the course app has much in common with Tinder. It allows prospective students to swipe left or right (or click on a cross or love-heart symbol when using the website) when they are provided with personalised course recommendations based on their grades achieved, preferred subject areas and careers of interest.

The app then produces a shortlist of possible courses, with more detailed information about the programme, fees and employability scores, when a “match” is made.

The university said more than 10,000 people have used the matchmaker to find courses so far.

John McCarthy, director of marketing and student recruitment at the University of Salford, said: “We wanted to create a campaign that would help people make informed decisions about which course they take at university. Clearing can be a stressful time and we felt it was important to make the experience reassuring and enjoyable – less about panic buying and more about helping people make the right choices.”

According to research from The New York Times, the success rate for Tinder users is almost zero: the app makes just 12 million matches a day from 1 billion profile swipes.

Let’s hope users of Match Made in Salford will have more luck when searching for the course that is The One for them.

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com