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Universities are battling to get the best undergraduates through their doors - and recruiters are now using social networking web sites as a means to do it.
Some universities have put their profiles on sites popular with young people, in a bid to get potential students' attention.
Warwick University is one of the first in the UK to have taken this approach, the Guardian reports. Students can now add the university as a "friend" on MySpace and keep up with the latest university news and course information.
Tom Abbott, content editor at Warwick, said: "We are bringing the academe to audiences in a very new and exciting way. This is a rich window into what the university experience is, which may be impossible to articulate in a brochure."
Many universities are exploiting the explosion of interest in "new media" in similar ways. But are prospective students going to be happy with these institutions trying to get a foothold in their web social circles?
Barrie Clark, Swansea University's UK recruitment manager, remains skeptical. He told the Guardian: "I feel that potential students, being very media-savvy, would see universities' use of social networking and text messaging as intrusion into what they use as a recreational spaceĀ
I'd counsel caution here."
It seems likely that before long, companies aiming to recruit the best graduates might start "social networking" in the same way.
Probably best to check who your friends are before you post those "hilarious" photos of yourself on your site of choice.
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