Where do I Belong?

I just graduated with my Master's in Business Analytics from City University*. What an amazing experience! Besides a solid understanding of the subject, tremendous faculty, and a promising job in a start-up, I spend a lot of time networking with classmates and other Master's students from my Faculty of Engineering. I wouldn't have expected such a complete journey. 

During my time on campus, we 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 my friends also from the Bachelor's programs will join me in the start-up.

A couple of months into my job, I wanted to join a cool session on Design Thinking from the Faculty of Architecture & Design. While my friends from that faculty could join without a problem, my participation was rejected as the event was only for alumni of the Faculty of Art & Design. We studied at the same university, why do we belong to different 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. 

It might make sense to split the task across faculties 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 seems difficult 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 of fostering community building and creating 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?

* a fictitious university without the intention to resemble any existing institution.