Indiana University Bloomington creates a sense of community amongst international students

The challenge

At a large public research university, student communications can often feel disconnected and impersonal. This can leave students feeling unsure where to direct their questions. For Indiana University, “the biggest incentive to creating a community for students was being able to provide this one-stop shop, home base type of environment,” said Seth Walker, Associate Director of International Admissions at IU.

Walker wanted a platform that made students feel confident that their conversations and their data would be protected and secure.

This was a deal-breaker for Walker when selecting the right environment for his community: “Our biggest goal is to meet students where they’re at while also maintaining our own privacy and security.”

The solution

Walker and team decided to adopt Unibuddy Community, an official hub for students to connect, find their people, and develop the sense of belonging that builds confidence in their institution of choice.

Experimentation was the key ingredient to IU’s Unibuddy Community strategy. They created multiple niche communities, specifically a sub-Saharan prospective students community targeting those at the pre-application stage, and an admitted student community for each of three different regions: Korea, Taiwan and India.

Out of those they trialed, their admitted student community for international students in India proved the most popular.

Unibuddy Community provided a safe, moderated environment for students to meet and chat, all while being supervised and supported by university staff—alleviating the security concerns that the institution had about traditional social media.

Staff  members were able to easily jump in to answer trickier questions around topics like financial aid or specific facilities-related questions, which efficiently allayed students’ concerns. Meanwhile, students started to show they were “more interested in asking questions beyond a transactional nature,” bonding over shared interests and hobbies. Peers started discussing their favorite sports, which included a collective sigh over the fact that cricket isn’t much of a sport in the US!

The results

Getting insights and return on investment were important for IU. Unibuddy Community was able to demonstrate the value they were looking for.

Expecting only to see the qualitative impact of Community, they were impressed by the glimpse into their students’ minds that they were able to get, in particular “the insight we got on how to make IU’s narrative compelling to students.”

Through a mix of quantitative data-driven evidence (such as the number of students in the community) to qualitative messaging insights (being able to oversee the conversations happening in real-time), they were able to produce a well-rounded picture of this group of applicants, taking these insights into their future outreach within the target region.

Did IU achieve their goal to create an explorative space where students felt comfortable asking questions and connecting with their peers? Walker and team feels they did. With 83 members in their admitted student “Future Hoosiers 2022 – India” community, and nearly 1,000 messages exchanged before students even set foot on campus, Unibuddy Community became that safe space for incoming students to develop that strong sense of belonging.