Alumni: Your Ace Card
Your university's current students have the potential to serve as influential advocates, possessing the potential to positively impact your marketing and international student recruitment efforts. Additionally, the extensive pool of graduates from your institution acts as distinctive brand ambassadors, each armed with personal narratives illustrating how your university has transformed their lives and advanced their careers. Prospective students, seeking considerations beyond conventional recruiter industry pie charts, prioritise employability.
Reasons to involve alumni in international student recruitment
Similar to many organisations relying on customer referrals or "word of mouth" to promote their offerings, international student recruitment similarly benefits from harnessing the support of alumni. Your university alumni are likely to be fervent advocates with first hand, credible insights to share with prospective students.
As the most authentic voice of your university brand, alumni have consciously chosen your institution, experienced what they sought, and their testimonials carry considerable weight with potential students. Deploying alumni as brand ambassadors for outreach into international markets represents a cost-effective, large-scale strategy with a high return on investment. Engaging alumni for talks, tours, blog posts, or interviews necessitates minimal financial investment, primarily involving the alumni's time.
Authenticity through alumni experience
Incorporating alumni into the recruitment process serves as a beacon of authenticity, infusing a unique perspective that resonates with prospective students. The value of this approach lies in the peer-to-peer connection it establishes, where students find genuine and relatable insights from those who once walked the same halls. In an era where personal connections matter, this strategy stands out as a powerful tool, countering the impersonality often associated with large institutions. The authenticity injected by alumni transforms the recruitment experience into a personalized narrative, fostering trust and strengthening the prospective student's bond with the university.
Furthermore, research consistently highlights the impact of authenticity on student decision-making. A study published in the Journal of Student Recruitment underscores that prospective students, overwhelmed by information in the digital age, seek authentic connections to guide their choices. Alumni, through their firsthand experiences and candid reflections, bridge the gap between institutional messaging and the real, day-to-day student experience. This bridge not only influences the decision-making process positively but also cultivates a sense of belonging before students even set foot on campus. The recruitment journey, enriched by the authenticity of alumni involvement, becomes a dynamic and engaging narrative that resonates with the aspirations and expectations of future students.
Selecting the right alumni as brand ambassadors
Not all alumni possess identical qualities, and each can contribute unique elements to your student recruitment efforts. Career-focused alumni may share success stories but could have limited time for extensive case study utilisation, such as video conferences or brief Q&A sessions. Conversely, recent graduates - often overlooked by university alumni teams - provide fresher perspectives. What these graduates lack in providing monetary value, they often make up for in offering time. They may not have necessarily yet achieved significant professional success but they can speak from the perspective of a recent student and alumni.
Incorporating the appropriate graduates into your alumni network benefits all students, past and present. The wealth of knowledge and experience alumni bring, from both their study days and post-graduation, proves invaluable when the right graduates are involved. An alumni mentor can offer support, career advice, and share wisdom gained from unique experiences. This additional layer of support attracts prospective students, highlighting your university's commitment to helping students achieve their goals and demonstrating a lasting relationship with the institution.
Expanding reach through alumni
Expanding reach through alumni engagement constitutes a significant advantage in student recruitment, underscoring the importance of strategically selecting alumni based on their locations to support recruitment efforts. The University of York exemplified this by establishing a team of ambassadors to extend the reach and impact of international student recruitment, particularly in larger countries like the US and China or emerging countries where resources are low. While primary recruitment activities occurred in major cities for maximum return, more remote locations were underserved due to resource limitations. Alumni in these areas were recruited as international ambassadors during their final term to represent the university in harder-to-reach areas.
Alumni can address prospective student concerns about all stages of their university experience, including post-graduation, using a tone and language that resonates with the audience. However, universities must utilise their alumni networks effectively to achieve success.
We’re enabling universities to embed alumni advocacy into their student recruitment and marketing strategy. Find out how it works here.
