Advertising watchdog rebukes student site over ‘misleading’ posts

A student website has been warned by the UK’s advertising industry regulator over “misleading” job listings.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told StudySmarter that the three postings “cannot appear again” and has referred the matter to its sister organisation, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP).

After the rebuke, the website, which offers educational resources as well as connecting students to work opportunities, has said it is “committed to maintaining transparency” concerning its job postings.

In a ruling released on 17 June, the ASA reprimanded the German company for a trio of job listings including a “part-time hourly lecturer” role, purportedly posted by a company profile belonging to Norwich University of the Arts.

However, the university disputed the post, which went live on the StudySmarter website in March.

The other affected companies included Kent-based debt recovery firm STA International Ltd, and Downlight Electrical, with all three saying that the jobs “had either been posted without their consent [and] with incorrect salary information” or that the vacancies simply did not exist.

After the ASA contacted StudySmarter, the company apparently failed to respond.

“We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future,” the regulator’s ruling states.

Following examination of the listings, the ASA found that the ads had presented the job opportunities as legitimate, with role titles, locations of work and salary estimates, meaning “consumers” stumbling on them would probably believe them to be “accurate”.

But the ads were instead designed to capture applicants’ contact information, rather than help them find a job.

“When the specific roles were clicked on, consumers were taken to the job listing page with an ‘apply now’ button,” the ruling states.

“However, the information available to us indicated that the purpose of the ads was to collect consumers’ data for lead generation.”

The ASA has since told StudySmarter to “ensure that its ads did not mislead” and to guarantee the “commercial intent” of postings is “made clear”. The authority has passed on the matter to CAP’s compliance team, a division that helps non-compliant advertisers bring their work in line with existing advertising codes and can in some cases apply sanctions.

A StudySmarter spokesperson told Times Higher Education: “We take matters like this very seriously and are committed to maintaining transparency regarding our job listings.

“At StudySmarter, we continuously strive to ensure that all our listed job vacancies are accurate and genuinely represent available positions. We regularly review our content and work closely with our partners to maintain high standards in our offerings.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com