With Gold Status in the Teaching Excellence Framework, recognition as Best Music Production School by DJ Mag, and the title of Best Independent HE Provider at the 2023 IHE Awards, Point Blank Music School is operating at the top of its game.
Now, with new power to award degrees, the school is determined to ensure the widest range of students can access its world-class training.
That commitment depends on accurate, reliable data. Specialist datasets such as POLAR (Participation of Local Areas) and IMD (Index of Multiple Deprivation) help institutions understand patterns of higher education participation and deprivation. When linked directly to student addresses, this data supports funding, regulatory reporting and widening participation.
Gabby McLaren, Head of Data and Insight at Point Blank, explains:
“Institutions need to track how effectively they attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented areas.
Previously, we had to take each student postcode, find the relevant POLAR and IMD data using various online lookup tools, then manually copy and paste each item into the student record. The process was slow, resource-heavy and prone to error. As a result, reporting could be inaccurate, interventions were often delayed, contextual offers were not always applied correctly, and there was a real risk to funding.
We first contacted AFD Software three years ago to discuss our requirements for validating student addresses at the point of entry and reporting on POLAR and IMD data. When we realised this additional data could be returned automatically, removing the need for manual, error-prone work, implementing AFD’s solution was an easy decision.
Our partnership with AFD was strengthened further last year when TUNDRA (Tracking Underrepresentation by Area) data was added by the Office for Students to our reporting requirements. AFD added this dataset at our request, saving us from returning to manual lookups.
The impact of adding these datasets has been significant. Before AFD added TUNDRA to its solution, we carried out an internal review of the October 2025 cohort for regulatory reporting and found that around 30% of records required correction. That figure is now just 1.67%. We also save two full weeks of staff time each year, and our data remains continuously up to date.
Instead of chasing data, the team can now trust it – supporting better decision-making, stronger reporting and more timely student support.”
When Poor Data Breaks the Connection
There was a second issue – and this one had a direct impact on revenue.
Online enquiry forms were intended to speed up engagement, but free-text entry meant that mistakes in email addresses and phone numbers could easily slip through.
Gabby explains: “We were losing around 20% of leads simply because we could not contact the enquirer. For international students, the impact was particularly clear – an estimated 10 lost students, representing around £400,000 in student lifetime value. We identified this through ongoing analysis of our enquiry and conversion data. The fix was again straightforward: real-time validation for phone and email fields.”
“With accurate email and phone data captured at source, those lost connections – and lost revenue – can now be prevented rather than recovered. With AFD, we capture addresses, enrich them, and validate other contact details automatically, reliably and confidently.”
Gabby McLaren,
Head of Data and Insight at Point Blank Music School
Expert Insight
Point Blank’s experience shows the value of treating routine data as a source of intelligence, not just administration. By linking additional datasets and validating contact details at the point of capture, the school reduced manual work, improved accuracy, strengthened reporting and protected valuable opportunities.
The wider lesson is clear: when contact data can be trusted from the start, teams spend less time correcting problems and more time acting on the insight already held within their data.
The next step is to make that standard practice, not the exception.
To explore how your organisation could improve its own data quality processes, speak to one of our experienced data quality experts today on 0333 433 0711 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk.
We serve thousands of organisations and a network of hundreds of partners across multiple industry sectors, enabling them to have full confidence in their contact data.