TikTok Is Changing. Higher Ed Needs to Be Ready.

Few platforms have reshaped higher-education marketing for student recruitment through brand storytelling like TikTok. Over the past five years, it’s become the digital heartbeat of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. A space where prospective students explore campuses, find their people, and choose where to spend their college years. But as policy debates and ownership changes loom, higher-education marketers face a pressing question: what happens to their strategy if TikTok evolves–or even disappears?

TikTok in 2025: What Marketers in Higher Education Should Know

With 1.6 billion monthly active users worldwide and roughly 135 million reachable adults in the U.S., TikTok has held its ground as one of the most influential social platforms of 2025 for universities and higher education marketers. The app continues to dominate attention among younger audiences, with users aged 18-34 making up over 65% of its global base and spending nearly an hour per day consuming its content. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, TikTok has evolved from pure entertainment to a discovery engine – 77% of users say they use it to find new ideas, products or information, including colleges and career paths. 

As TikTok’s influence deepens, it’s no surprise that colleges have embraced it as a recruitment powerhouse. According to Sprout Social, over 68% of high school students use social media to research schools, and nearly one-third of TikTok users say they’ve explored educational programs through the app. Universities are seeing tangible results: education accounts average 9% engagement rates – more than double most industry benchmarks. Schools also note a weekly follower growth of about 2%, according to Hootsuite and Brandwatch. This data proves that TikTok remains an essential platform for reaching prospective students authentically and at scale, reinforcing its value in higher education marketing, even as its long-term future faces changes.

The End of an Era—or Just a Transition for Higher Education?

While TikTok remains a dominant force for student engagement for universities and higher education marketers, its future in the U.S is likely to change. In 2024, Congress passed the “divest – or – ban” legislation targeting TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent, ByteDance Ltd. Despite thousands of content creators publishing ‘farewell’ videos, enforcement of this legislation has been repeatedly delayed, as regulators and the app’s leadership negotiate a major restructuring. The current proposal involves a U.S.-based entity taking roughly 80% control of TikTok’s U.S. operations, while ByteDance retains a much smaller minority stake. Among the major investors in this venture are Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake. Oracle is set to handle U.S. user data and help oversee a “domesticated” algorithm separated from the global version. 

For higher-education marketers, these developments raise practical questions and potential risks: What happens to audience reach, content archives, and ad tools if the U.S. app migrates or rebrands? Will conversion metrics and algorithmic behavior shift under new ownership? While TikTok continues to function today as a high-value recruitment channel for higher education marketing, savvy institutions are beginning to hedge – preserving their momentum on TikTok while building flexible, platform-agnostic content strategies that can pivot if the landscape changes. For higher ed marketers, these structural shifts don’t just matter at the policy level, they could reshape how ad targeting, data reporting, and content distribution work for higher-ed institutions.

From TikTok to Tomorrow: The Pivot for Higher Ed Marketing

TikTok has been a masterclass in authentic connection for higher education marketers – proving that authenticity beats production value every time. A shaky iPhone clip of a student sharing dorm move-in day can outperform a polished brand video. The platform’s magic lies in its micro-moments. Those short, raw, and relatable stories that make students feel seen. “Day-in-the-life” videos, candid campus moments, and student-led content have consistently outperformed polished ads, proving that Gen Z craves authenticity over perfection. They want content that feels real. 

Even as TikTok transitions under Oracle’s new structure, these lessons remain the gold standard for higher-ed marketing. The platform’s success wasn’t just about algorithms – it was about how universities learned to speak the language of the next generation: real, quick and emotionally resonant. 

Now, as Gen Z and Gen Alpha – diversify where they spend their time, universities that have built strong engagement through TikTok must evolve. Audiences are shifting toward closed-community spaces such as Discord, BeReal, and group chats that prioritize belonging and trust, while YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels emerge as stable, short-form ecosystems with steadier ad infrastructure and discoverability.

For universities navigating TikTok and other emerging social platforms, these best practices can strengthen higher education marketing efforts:

• Invest in long-term brand story telling that builds affinity beyond viral spikes.
• Lean into student-produced content to inject real voices, real stories, and real campus energy into your brand.
• Tell your story across channels and re-shape content so it thrives in every format and feed.
• Shift metrics from vanity (views, likes) to outcomes – inquiries, applications, and enrollment influence.

The overarching lesson here: tools will change, but human connection remains constant. TikTok taught higher education marketers and universities that genuine voices and communities drive conversion – and those lessons are the best insurance policy for whatever platform comes next. 

The future of higher-ed marketing isn’t just about predicting the next big app – it’s about preparing for change. Whether TikTok thrives under new ownership or gives way to a new wave of digital spaces, one truth holds: students trust people, not platforms. The institutions that invest in authenticity, adaptability, and long-term storytelling will continue to win their attention – wherever they click, swipe or scroll next.