In recent years, universities and educational institutions have recognized the need to build a more holistic relationship with students. This relationship should extend beyond purely academic matters to foster greater engagement and a stronger sense of belonging.
It is precisely this positive experience and sense of belonging that will enable universities to:
- Attract prospective students through current students who become the institution’s best ambassadors.
- Convert students into alumni by maintaining the relationship and connection established throughout their student life.
For this reason, universities must place the student at the center, offering a positive experience on academic, social, and interpersonal levels, and making them feel involved in the daily life of the institution.
If you’re wondering how to achieve this, we’ll tell you below.
Some practical ways to strengthen the relationship and engagement with students
1. Go digital
Technology can be your greatest ally. And without a doubt, it should be the first step in connecting with students.
Technology and smartphones are their first choice, their everyday language, their daily life… so how can you not be present in their lives?
If you’re not part of their environment, you’ll hardly be able to create a relationship with a high level of engagement.
And for that, a student app like UNIFIT’s is a good solution for strengthening that relationship.
2. Do not overload communication channels
We know you want to communicate a lot to students. And you’re probably not getting good open rates with your announcements. So, you’re likely bombarding students through every channel available to keep them informed.
But this practice is completely counterproductive: the channels become saturated, and students find it increasingly difficult to consume all the information they need to know, making it impossible to distinguish what’s relevant from what isn’t.
Whether you maintain your current channels or consider incorporating a university app like UNIFIT’s into your strategy, you’ll need to set some limits to avoid saturation.
Because overwhelming students with emails will have the opposite effect of creating a positive experience.
3. Ensure student-centric communication
In recent years, all industries and sectors have accelerated and transformed themselves along two main axes: placing technology and people at the center. The field of education should be no different.
Therefore, educational institutions must consider new communication models based on understanding students’ needs, not their own. And, of course, adapting their communication methods to new realities and new technologies.
To this end, having a responsible team dedicated to ensuring this student-centric communication can be invaluable in avoiding the temptation to continue with traditional methods.
4. Establish a real dialogue with the students
If you want to build a relationship with students, what better way to start than by having a real conversation with them? And by that, we mean involving them, asking for their opinions beyond academic satisfaction surveys.
The university should strive to understand its students’ mood, their opinions about organized activities, student associations, or what they would improve about the university bar.
Only in this way will a genuine dialogue be established, one in which students can freely express their opinions and feel like they belong to the institution.
And besides… wouldn’t you like to get to know the students at your university better?
Start with easy topics, perhaps even ones they can answer anonymously, and incorporate ways to gather this feedback into the dynamics of the relationship.
A great way to do this is through the social surveys available in the UNIFIT app, which boast an 85% response rate.
5. Find out what they really want
Have you ever wondered if there’s something your students want that you’re unaware of? It might seem like a surprising practical suggestion, but sometimes student requests are quite easy to implement and can significantly improve their perception of the institution.
We’re talking about small changes like having free meeting rooms, adjusting workshop or library schedules, offering new merchandise options, improving copy services, or anything else that impacts their daily lives and can be implemented by the institution.
So… why not find out and consider whether it’s possible to improve it?
And as a bonus…
If you want to improve engagement with your students and offer them a better experience, contact us and we will explain in more detail all the possibilities offered by the UNIFIT app for universities.
