What key points do you want to communicate?

Key points will usually be facts or features of the University, your departments, research or course portfolio. To help your audience understand why these facts are important you will need to spell out what benefits they offer.

For example, a feature of your department might be that it has an 'Excellent' TQA rating. This means that students will be well taught an advantage over choosing a university with a lower TQA score which should give your graduates a head start in the job market: it could offer the benefit of working for a better employer, their employer of choice or perhaps higher potential earnings.

What does a high RAE score mean to prospective students? We tend to explain this by saying that they will be taught by academics at the cutting edge of their subjects, but it needs more to make it relevant to this audience.

We should add that what they will learn about their subjects will be up to the minute, and that this will make them more valuable as graduates, or that they will stand a better chance of doing a PhD of their choice.

If you make a list of your course or department's strengths, then these will be the features to emphasise and, more importantly, explain.

Don't assume that your audience can easily translate features of the University into short- or long-term benefits to them.