The welcome and initial contact are key factors that will determine the relationship and connection established between the student and the educational institution. It’s an aspect to consider to ensure students feel supported by the institution from the very beginning.
For this reason, it’s important that your university, business school, or educational institution define and implement an onboarding strategy for new students.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is a plan with a series of initiatives implemented by the educational institution for new students.
This plan aims to help new students integrate and adapt easily to the institution’s dynamics, feel welcomed, and be part of the community from the very beginning.
The main objective should not only be to ensure they have a good first day and a positive first impression of the institution, but also to make them feel they have chosen the right educational institution to join and pursue their higher education.
How to implement onboarding in your educational center?
To successfully implement onboarding for new students at your university, business school, or higher education institution, you need to define:
- Objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve with the onboarding process and the target audience.
- Duration: Determine when the process begins and ends. For example, will it start at the beginning of the semester, last only the first few days, the first few weeks, or continue throughout the first term?
- Messages: Define the messages you want to convey and how they can be helpful without overwhelming students with information.
- Frequency: Don’t do it every time you think about it; instead, define and select the key moments when this onboarding process can be most beneficial for students.
- Channels: Select the channels and formats you will use for onboarding.
- Results: Establish how you will gather feedback on the student onboarding experience to make improvements for future processes.
Why is onboarding important at a university?
A good onboarding process undoubtedly benefits new students: a greater sense of belonging, a better understanding of the institution’s culture and values, and improved integration into the new institution and its dynamics.
But this onboarding process is also important for the university, as it allows it to:
- Improve new students’ engagement from the very first contact with the institution.
- Enhance student integration by offering valuable content and being perceived as a facilitator with relevant messages tailored to each key moment.
- Identify potential dissatisfaction, doubts, and concerns of new students and offer solutions.
- Identify early warning signs of student dropout in order to address the situation and ultimately reduce the dropout rate.
- Increase student satisfaction.
And yes, it’s relevant because 1 satisfied student = 1 recommendation = 1 potential enrollment.
Okay, I want to implement an onboarding process for new students at my school.
You can also check out this article for some onboarding ideas for new higher education students.
