Creating a sense of belonging is a key ingredient to a successful student recruitment strategy and stems from the human connections that we make on our journey.
One of the key reasons students cite for choosing an institution is not just the connections they make with new students like them, but the connections they’ve made with University staff and lecturers before enrolling.
Consider…
Incorporating lecturers within your community to give prospective students deeper insight into their area of study and future opportunities.
Making sure key support Staff are accessible in your community, from the finance department to academic support—try to cover as much ground as possible.
Introducing office hours for your Staff so that they don't feel pressured to keep up conversations around the clock.
Inquiry Stage
As your students make important decisions about where they want to go for their higher education, now is a great time to bring them together. You can use Community to complement and reinforce your recruitment campaign messaging, and provide a space for students to feel reassured about choosing your institution. Here’s how:
Create groups based on subjects of interest, and include the relevant Ambassadors.
Include professional services staff so they can address those early concerns about financial aid and career prospects.
Start building relationships between students who might already have their offers in hand.
Orientation Stage
The orientation stage is a pivotal point in the student journey. This is the time when students have the most questions, so it’s important to create spaces where these burning questions are welcomed. Use Unibuddy Community to:
Create an open forum for students to ask the questions they really want to ask, this will help students feel prepared to enroll confidently, knowing exactly what to expect upon arrival.
Enable students to meet others who will be studying on their course, living in their accommodation block, and with shared interests, by creating groups within your community based on these criteria.
Promote your orientation events through the channel of Community, so that students are prepped with key dates for their diaries.
Retention Stage
The key is to provide prospective students with a space to create genuine bonds with others like them, whether it’s through shared life experiences, interests, or backgrounds. Unibuddy Community facilitates these conversations and provides an organic way for friendships to be formed. We’ve put together some ideas below on how to use Unibuddy Community to help with your retention efforts:
Create special interest and region-specific groups so students can bond with other students within the Community (ie. a drama & theatre group, the university/college football team, students from China, students from mainland Europe mature students, commuter students, etc).
Encourage socializing within your community with some fun icebreaker activities.
Enable your existing clubs & societies to recruit new members through Community, so students can feel part of your thriving campus community before they’ve even joined.
Continue to showcase the great facilities, events, students, and services your institution can offer.
Remind your incoming students that Unibuddy Community can be accessed via their mobile device - making it accessible from anywhere at any time.
We’re open to trying different use cases to see how it works! Get in touch with your Customer Success Manager for more information on Community use cases.