Beyond Rankings: 10 Ways to Sustain Alumni Engagement Long-Term

Some universities limit alumni engagement to three years post-graduation, often due to ranking metrics. However, strong alumni ties bring long-term benefits. Here are eight actionable strategies to foster lifelong engagement and maximize alumni impact.

Did you also have a fantastic MBA journey? Eduardo graduated with his MBA three years ago. Thrilled and excited!  

Upon graduation, his university was supportive, organizing career-related webinars and group meetings. But then it stopped…

What happened?

He is lucky to have been able to attend a Top 50 university. His university differentiates between YOUNG ALUMNI and ALUMNI. After 3 years, young alumni become alumni, and the relationship starts changing.

Why so?

Many university rankings assess graduate career performance within the first three years after graduation. To maintain or improve their ranking, universities go to great lengths to influence career outcomes.

They maintain regular communication, offer personalized career coaching, and create strong alumni support networks—all to ensure their graduates secure great jobs.

But once the ranking window closes, the Alumni and Careers Department often goes…

Silent.

Is this the right approach? Alumni engagement shouldn’t be tied solely to rankings—it should be a lifelong commitment. What can universities do to keep alumni actively engaged?

Here are five impactful strategies to sustain alumni connections beyond the ranking cycle.

1. Share the success stories of the so well-tracked young alumni. Their journeys can become references for future graduates.
2. Engage your alumni as a Career Ambassador. They provide industry or function-specific insights that are especially handy for recruitment processes.
3. Identify engaging leaders who can support your local activities worldwide and recruit them as Chapter Champions.
4. With the institution's growth speed, the Admissions Teams usually stay stagnant. Turn your alumni into Admissions Interviewers. Alumni will take pride in selecting future cohorts.
5. We are sure the marketing team is always looking for storytellers who can support the commercial message through their stories. This gives more authenticity to your events.

Do you want more?

1. The most challenging way of engagement is to turn your alumni into lifelong learners at your university. Doing it wrong turns alumni against the institution as it is perceived as only selling more. Doing it right builds a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.
2. Create a platform where alumni can easily share job and internship opportunities. Alumni will appreciate the top talent, which takes the pressure out of the young alumni's relations.

Still more? Ok, one bonus idea:

1. It’s cultural: you might convert some alumni into donors who financially contribute to the institution's success.

Alumni engagement naturally vanishes over the years. Alumni get busy with other things in life. Even so, there is no reason to forget about them.

Why not?

Some alumni become successful, and you want them close to the university.

How to do that?

1. You can create an alumni board or invite them to be part of the institution's Advisory Board. This drives visibility for alumni as much as for the university.
2. At universities, many events are organized. Some events will attract high-profile attendees. Explore to create a VIP alumni group that you can invite to such events.

The final thought is how to manage and measure the success of the engagement.

Technology can help to manage your alumni and their engagement. To measure it, you need to define the KPIs, compare them, and benchmark them even with other institutions.

Engagement does not happen overnight, but if you don’t start today, there is nothing to manage or compare to create successful engagement.

Graduate Success at a university is not limited to fulfilling jobs for the graduates. Thinking about the Circular Framework, graduates should not disperse into the professional world but converge to give back to nurture future generations of alumni.

Unsure how to do this? Reach out and learn about our Services. 

About this blog: EDU, short for Eduardo, is a great guy! He is your lead, candidate, student, and alumni. He helps you see things from his perspective. You will understand why things matter to him. On his blog, he will pose questions to which you hopefully have answers - or we help you to find them! So, go ahead and explore more stories at edualto.com/eduardo.