Private universities and colleges are uniquely positioned to take advantage of students’ growing demand to be engaged by their college or university on a more personal level and feel like part of a community greater than themselves. But providing enriching, individualized support at scale is not always as easy as one may think. Data is siloed, students are increasingly disengaged, and many individuals are questioning the overall value of a degree.
So how exactly do private institutions differentiate in an increasingly competitive market, getting the right students to enroll, graduate and go on to be successful professionals and engaged alumni?
The answer begins with your student engagement strategy. How are you reaching students from pre-admission to post-graduation and are their experiences unique to your institution, and their individual situations? A unified student lifecycle engagement strategy is a centralized, campus-wide approach that helps to increase enrollment, improve retention, and foster success.
Our recent Private Higher Education Institution’s Student Engagement Playbook shared strategies to advance student success through a unified student lifecycle engagement strategy. Focused on providing actionable advice, the Playbook shares proven strategies for organizations looking to outpace competitors and better support students.
For example, we know providing individual attention is vital to creating an environment that fosters academic and personal growth. But how can an institution provide individualized student engagement at scale? How can they drive consistent experiences across campus? And what about building community? We have the plays that can help.
#1. Connect what already exists
According to the Playbook, the key to delivering deeply customized experiences for each and every student is not in launching a new initiative. Instead, you must connect and analyze what already exists. By integrating existing campus systems (SISs, LMSs, and CRMs) directly with student engagement engines, you ensure every exchange is built using data that is accurate and relevant to individuals interacting with your institution. Advanced AI can also help identify if a student’s inquiry is sensitive and offer the ability to stay anonymous throughout an interaction with the institution. This builds trust and allows students to seek the information they need without having to identify themselves when they would prefer not to.
#2 Keep content consistent
Driving consistent communications across campus is also important in setting up an environment where individuals can thrive – both during and after their time at an institution. But an organization can’t drive consistent experiences if departments are not in lockstep on both information and their approach to communication. Siloed strategies can result in students getting bombarded with too much, or worse conflicting, information leading to disengagement and frustration.
The Playbook outlines how creating a single, unified communication hub where students, families, and alumni can interact with your institution seamlessly can help ensure responses are relevant, compliant, and consistently reflect the institution’s voice and brand. If a student inquires about the housing application process, they should receive personalized, current information that also includes related details from financial aid and student services, all within the same conversation.
#3 Build community through understanding
Even the best organized cross-department communication plans will falter if they do not base their approach in what students are needing on campus. When it comes to connecting students, it is not just doing so by providing relevant information but also in building and making accessible a community for them to engage. And that requires gaining a real-time understanding of the challenges they face.
The Playbook points to how data can be hugely impactful in helping organizations get a fuller picture of what is going on across campus, where students are running into challenges and what kinds of solutions are best going to help them succeed. By analyzing campus conversations, institutions can gain real-time insights into student needs, enabling data-driven decisions for new and existing programs. For example, a student interested in Law could be informed about a Debate Team event, while a re-enrolled student might receive a prompt to contact mental health services for support.
Interested in getting more insight into how Private Higher Education Institutions can activate a unified student lifecycle engagement strategy to set themselves, and their students up for success?
Check out “The Private Higher Education Institution’s Student Engagement Playbook”!
