International student enrollment climbs 30% for NCI with the help of Unibuddy Community

Challenge: Provide secure space for international student engagement

In response to global international student retention issues, and recognizing the importance of pre-arrival engagement, the National College of Ireland (NCI) was looking for a solution to help build a sense of belonging among their international applicants.

After initial efforts to meet this challenges using Facebook Groups for their community-building efforts among international students, Brenda de Azevedo, Digital Marketing Executive and her international support team at NCI, identified key pain-points still erecting barriers in subsequent student journeys:

• Due to Chinese access restrictions, Chinese students could not join their Facebook groups. Since this group represented a large portion of their international student cohort, this was not ideal. 
• Members of NCI international student groups on Facebook were receiving spam messages from third-party businesses not affiliated with NCI
• Students expressed concerns about protecting their privacy on Facebook

A successful solution to this challenge would be a platform which was accessible in any country, with exclusive invite-only access to prevent third-parties from messaging prospective students with spam. Ultimately, this tool would need to provide a secure space where pre-enrolled students could engage with one another and receive important updates and announcements from the NCI team.

Solution: Create engaging international student groups on Unibuddy Community

NCI decided to integrate Unibuddy Community into their international student enrollment program. A couple months before start of term, NCI invited their international students, both at undergraduate and graduate levels, to join a Unibuddy Community Group created specifically for them. This group provided international students with an official secure space to meet, mingle, and network with their incoming classmates.

To further encourage uptake of their Unibuddy Community Group, NCI made joining an essential component of their student journey. International students were contacted with invitations on a weekly basis to join their group as part of their pre-arrival program.  Student engagement was encouraged by asking students to respond to a series of icebreaker questions as a GIF – creating a fun and authentic atmosphere.

Results: NCI sees a 30% increase in enrollment for international students

Since integrating Unibuddy Community into their marketing and student support efforts, NCI has seen a 30% increase in enrollment for international students; and a 4% increase in conversion from application to enrollment. Unibuddy Community gave international students an opportunity to connect and build friendships with their future classmates. ​​Facilitating opportunities such as these has instilled a sense of confidence that they’re making the right choice to study at NCI. As Brenda notes: “we found that by removing the hurdles of our previous platform, the students really thrived.”

And NCI also notes a significant increase in uptake since implementing Unibuddy Community. According to NCI, 72% of international students invited to their pre-arrival Unibuddy Community Group have join – compared to 65% for the same figure for their Facebook group. NCI’s enrollment team reports students were keen to join a platform

An impressive 72% of students invited joined the pre-arrival Unibuddy Community, compared to 65% who joined NCI’s Facebook community. As an alternative to Facebook, Brenda reports that Unibuddy Community has been well-received by NCI’s students: “The students loved that the community was not on Facebook and were more than happy to adopt a new platform altogether.”

NCI has also explored using Unibuddy Community at initial discovery/recruitment stages of their higher ed enrollment funnel. Read more here.