UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK
How UL went from a staff productivity initiative to an international applicant engagement transformation
OVERVIEW
With its international student population growing, the University of Limerick implemented CampusConnect as a way to facilitate group-based information dissemination and reduce the volume of email queries staff were receiving from offer-holders.
Following the success of the initial implementation, the University worked with CampusConnect to expand the scope of the service to engage more communities of incoming students, boosting enrolment rates by enabling international offer holders to find and connect with their communities of fellow applicants, current students and alumni, all before they even arrive on campus.
1,200 NEW APPLICANT TO APPLICANT CONNECTIONS FORMED EVERY CYCLE
Through the analysis of this community engagement, CampusConnect now provides UL with a growing wealth of data on their applicant behaviour. This intelligence helps inform UL’s decision-making for future recruitment cycles, driving year-on-year improvements to the university’s recruitment strategy.
RESULTS
Enhanced offer-holder engagement and conversion rate via peer connections
Greater insight and intelligence into the needs of their incoming students
Minimised email queries by empowering staff to answer questions through themed group chats
Student-centric app design and continuous development in response to student needs ensures outstanding customer experience
“
Developing strong community among our new international entrants, current students, and global alumni is a key part of our growth strategy at UL Global. Entering our 6th year UL CampusConnect continues to strengthen the connection our international students have with each other, and with the wider UL community.”
— Jo Page, Director of UL Global
“
Transition to university from second-level education can be daunting and overwhelming. We aim to introduce CampusConnect to year 1 undergraduate students in 2022 to make that transition a little easier. CampusConnect can facilitate knowledge sharing and allow applicants to connect before they arrive in UL. It also provides us with a platform to share important news with our applicants.”
— Laura Moloney, Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions
“
It’s a fantastic service. Choosing a university isn’t just about picking an education institution, it’s about finding a community. The way that CampusConnect puts information and social interaction at users’ fingertips makes it a great way to bring that community together and encourage students to take up their offers.”
— Liam Ryan, International Education Regional Manager, University of Limerick
CHALLENGE
Modernising information dissemination
The University of Limerick is home to a large and rapidly growing population of international students. In fact, of the University’s approximately 16,000 students, more than 3,000 come to Limerick from abroad each year.
As the size of the international cohort grew, the UL Global team found that it was spending a considerable amount of time responding to individual email queries and trying to ensure accurate information was being disseminated across the various university social channels. Staff were often answering the same questions over and over again, and clarifying correct details individually on email and across multiple social channels simultaneously.
5 years of partnership with CampusConnect supporting a growing community of over 600 international promoters, alumni, and UL ambassadors
Liam Ryan, International Education Regional Manager at the University of Limerick, explains: “The one-to-one approach was time-consuming for staff, and more importantly, inconvenient for offer-holders. They had to go out of their way to request valid information, and email is far from the first-choice communication method for today’s students. It was clear that we needed to rethink our information dissemination strategy.”
80% of UL applicants considered it ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to be part of the UL community before they enrolled.
UL has a strong focus on customer service, and that is not just empty marketing; in 2019, the University had the highest rating of international student happiness in the world according to the i-graduate International Student Barometer survey. So when Liam and his team realised that they had an opportunity to both improve internal productivity and enhance the customer experience, they did not hesitate to act.
SOLUTION
From emails to group chats
The University set out to find a new solution that would enable staff to deliver key information and manage, moderate and support applicant communities more easily, and with less friction on the students’ side.
That search soon led to CampusConnect.
Purpose-built with university applicants in mind, CampusConnect is a community platform that enables UL to invite their international offer holders to a variety of dedicated group chats where they can freely ask questions on a range of topics. UL staff members across various teams input into dedicated spaces to support query management and the in-app live chat format empowers them to answer questions quickly. Chat groups are filtered, so students only see and join those directly relevant to them. This means comms. can be targetted effectively and efficiently, UL staff are able to provide every group member with important information in a single post.
89 subject, accommodation, regional, and social groups for applicants to join
“CampusConnect was precisely what we were looking for,” confirms Liam Ryan. “Rather than dealing with individual emails, we can answer questions in real-time where assigned groups of applicants can see them and benefit from them. That cuts down the need for repeat generic queries, making life easier for us and much more convenient for our offer-holders.”
14 UL staff members and more than 30 ambassadors assigned to themed groups to support new UL applicant communities
“Best of all, the CampusConnect app is the kind of communication platform that today’s students are most comfortable with. It puts student-driven priorities at the centre and leads to a much smoother customer experience – which translates to better offer-enrolment conversion.”
Embracing peer-to-peer
As part of UL’s customer service commitment, the University is constantly seeking feedback and suggestions from students for ways it can improve. While CampusConnect had proven a resounding success as a tool for information dissemination, user feedback convinced UL to try taking it a step further.
“Students told us that they wanted a way to interact not just with staff, but between themselves,” recalls Liam Ryan. “They wanted to be able to connect with one another before they arrived on campus.”
More than 52,000 interactions between applicants themselves each cycle
UL relayed this feedback to the CampusConnect team, helping to drive the evolution of the app into a fullyfledged peer community platform.
Now, international offer-holders can use CampusConnect to meet fellow students well ahead of the first semester. They can connect with other people from their country, people applying for the same course, or people with shared hobbies. Various categories of group chat help users easily find others with similar interests or backgrounds, and they then have the option to splinter off into private discussions.
1,200 new applicant to applicant connections formed every cycle
The key role of Ambassadors
Offer-holders and staff aren’t the only ones present on the platform – there’s also an active community of current UL students and alumni.
40% of new entrants are retained into UL ambassadors and advocates for future cycles
These ambassadors help take the strain off staff by providing their unique perspective on the university, responding to queries, and importantly guiding new students in finding their community of peers via the app. Their involvement helps prospective students feel connected with the existing UL community. Offer-holders can then see that they won’t be heading into the great unknown when they attend UL; they’ll be going somewhere welcoming, with people looking out for them.
Offer-holders can then see that they won’t be heading into the great unknown when they attend UL; they’ll be going somewhere welcoming, with people looking out for them.
What’s more, ambassadors work closely with CampusConnect to identify those struggling, further minimising the burden on UL staff and making communications via the platform more efficient and effective.
The service is awesome and the connections provided are invaluable. I wanted to connect with a current student from MSc in Advanced Materials Engineering to find out more about the course and work opportunities. I was connected with a current UL student from the course and an alumni who is now working in Ireland. Both have been extremely helpful and I’m looking forward to seeing them when I get there”
— Frank (Prospective student)
BENEFITS
Harnessing the data and intelligence available
Despite being entirely optional, UL’s CampusConnect service sees hundreds of active users each year. The solution now serves as a central component of the University’s customer engagement, differentiation, and conversion strategy – with those students who are active on the platform being significantly more likely to go on to enrol at the university.
At 60% applicant conversion, UL CampusConnect delivers 3X conversion yield compared to other applicant channels to university.
A key element in the success of UL’s new approach to information dissemination is that the answers and insights that get shared on CampusConnect remain on the platform for the benefit of future students, ensuring that future cohorts will benefit from the experience of the existing applicants.
Similarly, CampusConnect provides UL with a growing wealth of data on user behaviour. This intelligence helps inform UL’s decision-making for future recruitment cycles, driving year-on-year improvements to the university’s recruitment strategy.
Accommodation & community/friendship’ were the two main concerns for UL international applicants in 2021
Jo Page, Director of UL Global, highlights the service aligns with their strategy: “Developing strong community among our new international entrants, current students, and global alumni is a key part of our growth strategy at UL Global. Entering our 6th year UL CampusConnect continues to strengthen the connection our international students have with each other, and with the wider UL community.
Giving students the confidence to enrol
The peer-to-peer aspect of the service has been a game changer. As soon as applicants have their offers, UL is able to invite them to a lively, welcoming community that can support them through the anxious process of picking a university. And feedback has shown that this positive first impression has played a key role in many students’ decisions to choose UL over alternative universities.
Giving offer-holders the opportunity to speak directly to current students and graduates also provides UL with a significant competitive advantage.
“I was able to connect with some of my classmates before I came to Ireland which was amazing”
—Ita prospective UL student
Giving offer-holders the opportunity to speak directly to current students and graduates also provides UL with a significant competitive advantage.
Liam Ryan explains: “It’s a fantastic service. Choosing a university isn’t just about picking an education institution, it’s about finding a community. The way that CampusConnect puts information and social interaction at users’ fingertips makes it a great way to bring that community together and encourage students to take up their offers.”
Giving students the confidence to enrol
Looking ahead, the University is evaluating plans to expand the scope of the CampusConnect service to include domestic applicants as well as international, which would enable the entire cohort of incoming students to start building connections early and hit the ground running when they start their courses. Furthermore, the CampusConnect team is continuously working with UL to improve the platform based on student feedback, with new features being added each year.
“Transition to university from second-level education can be daunting and overwhelming. We aim to introduce CampusConnect to year 1 undergraduate students in 2022 to make that transition a little easier. CampusConnect can facilitate knowledge sharing and allow applicants to connect before they arrive in UL. It also provides us with a platform to share important news with our applicants.”
—Laura Moloney (she/her) - Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions
ABOUT CAMPUSCONNECT
CampusConnect is a student peer community that maximises university applicant conversion and progression rates by connecting applicants with each other, with current students, and with graduates from their course. It is a place where students help each other navigate the tricky steps of choosing the right college, university, course, and accommodation based on shared experience and collaboration.
To learn more, visit
http://www.campusconnect.ie/
