How Alumni Relationship Benefits an institution? Discover Important Facts for Leveraging Outcomes!
Alumni’s feelings of gratitude appear to resonate most clearly towards academic teaching staff. Despite these feelings of gratitude, there are few verbal expressions of gratitude from alumni towards academics. Indeed, alumni have a variety of concerns about saying thank-you to academics including feeling awkward and may even see saying thank-you as a sign of weakness. However, hidden expressions of gratitude are evident. Alumni engage in behaviour which benefits the institution and are prepared to do more if asked, especially by key academic staff. We suggest that it is useful to think of expressions of gratitude as known and unknown.
The inequity between feelings of gratitude and known expressions of gratitude may mean that Universities and academics remain less alert to the evidence and potency of gratitude within Higher Education than reality would merit. Indeed, we argue that gratitude is a central idea with the ability to inform HEIs’ alumni engagement strategies.
"Where should I study?"
"Which institution is going to secure a good quality education and successful career?"
"Who are the successful Alumni of the institution?"
These are some of the questions which confound a student when deciding the perfect Institute to suit their needs. Universities, Colleges and Schools have just mushroomed sallover within the past decades worldwide. Students have plenty of choices when choosing the best and most promising one. With everyone offering the best of syllabus, faculty and infrastructure, Alumni relations have become a strategic asset for any kind of higher education institution willing to stand out from the domestic and international competition.
This means that…
An organization's alumni are the reflection of its past, representation of its present and a link to its future.
Educational institutions are changing the way they see and interact with their alumni community. Earlier, alumni and their alma-mater were treated as separate entities wherein one's existence was independent of the other. Local alumni chapters were formed as a means to interact with other fellow alumni. However, these associations seldom had any interaction with the institution they graduated from.
With the advent of Social Media, alumni relationship has taken a different flavour altogether. Universities have started to harness the power of alumni through various networking platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc. by creating their alumni groups and profiles on them.
Information moves the market—that’s understood. But how information moves through the market to eventually affect stock prices is less well understood. After analyzing more than 15 years’ worth of investment data, we’ve found one way that information gets around and improves investing performance: through alumni networks.
The following are 4 ways in which alumni association are creating a powerful positive impact:
1. Support system
An engaged alumni network allows the University to benefit from the skills and experience of our graduates, by offering their support to our students, to the institution and to each other. If we keep them well informed and engaged, alumni are our most loyal supporters and our best ambassadors, offering invaluable marketing and promotion across their personal and professional networks.
2. Offering expertise
Talented alumni will likely have a wealth of experience and skills to share with current students via talks and meets. In certain cases, this could go even further with alumni offering to practically support students in work placements and help them launch their careers.
3. Assistance in Employability
Alumni network has a real life benefit for current students. Alumni also donate their valuable time to offer career support to current students. This enhances the students' experience and give them that competitive edge in today's tough job market. The alumni network of a college is one of the biggest sources of placement opportunities to the students. Alumni can help students get placed at their respective organizations.
4. Mentorship and Scholarships
Alumni can play an active role in voluntary programs like mentoring students in their areas of expertise. They also play a significant role in contributing scholarships to deserving students. Alumni get in touch with students and share their expertise and best practices in a given field.
Leveraging the alumni community can be a win-win for both the institution and the alumni. Many of them are willing to 'Give-Back' to their alma-mater as a sign of their gratitude and affinity towards the institution.
Reconnect. Find and reminisce with fellow graduates; see what everyone's been up to!
Give back. Make meaningful connections, recruit future Wildcats, speak to students and advise fellow alumni.
Expand. Leverage your professional network to get introduced to people you should know.
Advance. Advance your career through inside connections who work at top companies.
Your school’s alumni may not be thinking about how much has changed since they graduated until something triggers them to relive their old school days. And when they do, they are more likely to provide support in the future. Therefore, including alumni in your email list for newsletters on announcements for fundraisers, networking events, job fairs, and reunions.
Having a clean physical and email addresses database means newsletters, announcements, and invitations are getting delivered. It also allows you to share the event’s success through announcements on how much funding was raised; you can also show transparency with updates on how funds will be used. It’s also how you can publicly thank alumni for their donations, motivating others to participate in future events.
Once people have graduated from the institution, they will become members of various sectors and industries. Therefore, an updated alumni database contains a robust network of connections. You can leverage the list for recruitment fairs, fundraising events, galas, shows, and other networking opportunities.
Alumni who participate in job fairs can offer current students internship opportunities and exposure to other fields. Alumni also remain the biggest and best sources of funding. Therefore, reaching the exemplary alumni when there is a fundraising event could make an event or campaign to support the institution’s financial needs more successful.
These are the strategies to boost interpersonal skills in students with the active support of alumni
1. Enhance their teamwork: Organizing activities that require participation from students helps them get in touch with others of their age group. This gives them a chance to interact and build a connection with them. Teamwork is an important skill that will help them work well with others even in their careers, without feeling out of place.
3. Allow them to make their own decisions: Allowing students to make their own decisions in small matters and giving them a chance to decide what they want to eat or wear, allows them to decisive and be accountable for their choices.
4. Listen to their ideas or thoughts: Children are full of innovative ideas and creative thinking. One must listen to what they have to say. This makes them realize the importance of listening and allows them to be more attentive. Listening also helps them share their suggestions.
6. Let them think outside the box: Thinking outside the box helps students surround themselves with people and subjects that are outside their area of knowledge. This exposes them to new perspectives and ways of doing things differently. Thinking outside the box also helps them to be curious and discover new ideas.
7. Teach them to be themselves: A child needs to know that whatever qualities or talents they have is unique. Copying somebody else or trying to be like someone else will make them insecure of themselves. When children grow up connected to their ideas and needs, they naturally connect to others.
9. Make room for mistakes: Allow children to make honest mistakes. Mistakes help students become better thinkers and problem solvers. Allowing children to make mistakes helps them developing of critical thinking and foresight. Students should also understand that is completely okay to make mistakes while learning something new.
10. Cultivate a positive attitude: A positive attitude helps students learn better. It helps students remember, focus and absorb information. With a positive attitude, students can welcome new opportunities and experiences that can help them grow into well-rounded individuals.
Today, alumni relations is an important part of an institution’s advancement activities for many reasons:
- Alumni are an institution’s most loyal supporters
- Alumni are fundraising prospects
- Alumni generate invaluable word-of-mouth marketing among their social and professional networks
- By engaging alumni, an institution can continue to benefit from their skills and experience
- Alumni are great role models for current students and are often well placed to offer practical support to students as they start their careers
- Alumni are often in the position to engage the expertise of the institution in their professional lives
- Your alumni are your international ambassadors. They take their knowledge of your institution to their hometowns and countries and into their professional and social networks
Maintaining a positive relationship with your alumni means that the messages they share about your institution will also be positive – and current.
Q. How to search Alumni?
Ans.
The Community is much more than just a searchable list of alumni. It is place to share news, ideas, browse content and connect with alumni across the world.
Now, we have made it even easier to search for alumni as well as search across groups and topic - simply search the directory using the search bar at the top of your screen.
There are a number of ways you can search by typing directly into the search bar and clicking/pressing the search icon. Examples include:
Name
Industry
School and graduation year
Job title
Interest
And many more
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