As universities grow, managing alumni communities becomes increasingly complex. Effective alumni engagement is vital for long-term success. Discover common pitfalls in alumni engagement strategies.
"Where do I belong?" is a question I often ask myself. I recently earned my Master's in Business Analytics from City University—an incredible experience! In addition to gaining deep subject knowledge, learning from outstanding faculty, and securing a promising role at a startup, I spent countless hours networking with classmates and fellow Master's students from the Faculty of Engineering. I never expected such a well-rounded and enriching journey.
During my time on campus, I had the opportunity to party—or should I say, network—with students from various faculties, including Business and Architecture & Design. It was an incredible experience meeting such a diverse group of individuals. Some of these friends will also join me in the start-up.
A few months into my job, I wanted to attend a fascinating Design Thinking session hosted by the Faculty of Architecture & Design. While my friends from that faculty joined easily, my participation was denied—it was exclusive to Faculty of Art & Design alumni. We studied at the same university, so why are we divided into separate alumni groups?
Though Eduardo is doubtful, just imagine a small university with 3 faculties and an annual intake of 2,000 students across BA Degrees and Masters. Within 10 years of operation, they have amassed an alumni network of around 13,000 students.
Managing this group of alumni is a difficult task in itself: Assuring updated data, creating engagement opportunities, and staying on top of mind when the whole world is competing for their attention.
Splitting the task across faculties might make sense as they build more affinity with their respective faculty. Alumni might feel a stronger sense of belonging to people they know, hence faculty and administration. It doesn't seem easy to relate to a group of people that alumni get to know only when they have already graduated.
Though those are valid reasons, it creates as well a range of challenges:
Ownership
With alumni assigned to faculties, those become ultimately the "owners" of the relationship. "These are my alumni", you might hear from the Head of Alumni from the specific faculty. It creates a silo for every stakeholder that wishes to reach out to "their alumni", namely Marketing, Admissions, Recruitment, or even External Relations personnel engaged with rankings and accreditations.
This might create a sense of entitlement that works against institutional goals and might deter the relationships even with the alumni when relevant institutional initiatives get blocked.
Budgets
Surprisingly, in many universities, the budgets for Alumni Department are a small fraction of the budgets of Admissions and Student Recruitment. Often considered as a cost center, Alumni Departments are at the end of the student journey and far beyond the academic relationship. So, erroneously, they lack of strategic importance.
Given the constraints of limited resources, these departments face significant challenges in fostering an active and involved community, let alone considering ambitious long-term initiatives.
eduALTO's University Success Loop considers the community building one of the most valuable assets of an institution. Just imagine the engaged alumni community of City University with 15,000 alumni. If only 15% of the alumni community would recommend one new student every year, the university would need to open up a waitlist.
Marketing
Besides operational budgets to organize events, many universities lack the marketing know-how to foster community building and create a sense of belonging. It becomes almost an alumni initiative to not lose the links to the institution rather than an actively crafted engagement strategy implemented through well-curated marketing campaigns.
Promoting diversity and interdisciplinary collaboration is vital for universities to thrive. This becomes even more important after graduation, as it is during this time that synergies are most likely to occur. For example, an engineer may need the expertise of a lawyer and a business expert to establish a successful technology firm. Likewise, a lawyer may require the skills of a UX designer and a computer scientist to create a disruptive, AI-driven law firm. These diverse profiles all acquire their education from City University, so why shouldn't they be able to connect and collaborate after graduation?
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* a fictitious university without the intention to resemble any existing institution.
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