from application to enrolment wenneke meerstadt hub nijssen
TRANSCRIPT
From application to enrolment
Wenneke MeerstadtHub Nijssen
Targets
• To counterbalance the number of students who leave the RU after their Bachelor’s. Facts 2014: 423 leave RU, 2013: 332.
• To increase the number of international students
• Catching Up Project: from 161 students in 2013 to 385 in 2017, without the German students. Long term, with the Germans: 450.
4437 leads in autumn 20143994 leads in spring 2015= 8431 leads in total
2014-15:1069 completed applicants
608 accepted461 refused
259 enrolled = 42,6 % of 608 and 24% of completed
42% is quite well. Average Dutch universities is 35%.
Numbers of Applications versus Enrolled students
Academic year Applications Accepted Refused Withdrawn Enrolled (1st October)
Conversieon Accepted/enrolled
2011-2012 952 334 422 196 131 39,2 %
2012-2013 783 320 315 148 134 41,9 %
2013-2014 808 411 397 - 189 46 %
2014-2015 1069 608 461 - 259 42,6 %
How can we make the funnel shorter and broader?
Shorter: less time for the whole admission process
Admission Office Student counsellors
Examination Board/
Student advisorAdmission Office Applicant
Acceptance by the
applicant
Starting point 2013:9 days 6 days 19 days 5 days often months laterIn total: 39 days
Target 2014: First 4 stages within 1 month
Results admission 2014-15:
2 days 2 days 13 days 1 day = 18 days in total
Broader: more enrollments
• Too many candidates don’t complete their application in Osiris. 28 % complete for FNWI in December 2013. Now: much better.
• Too many refusals: the wrong students apply. 57 % is accepted to the Master’s in 2013.
• Examination Boards find it hard to judge about a student only basing “on paper”. They play it safe by taking no risk = refusal = also waste of time.
Solutions & Results admission 2014-15
• Solution: define clear selection criteria about the knowledge and proficiencies the applicants should have. But: most examination boards find this hard to do.
• Result FNWI: 67 % accepted to the Master’s, 3 % is accepted to a pre-master.
• Osiris has been improved. Admission Office contacts incomplete applicants and offers help. Result: more complete files.
• Develop repair kits of English taught courses to fix deficiencies. > admission in pre-master (30 ECTS) or direct to Master’s (1 or 2 courses)
Best practice
• A short cycle time of the operational process.• Strong relation management before & after
admission: active study advisor.• High % of accepted students. Means: the right
students apply. Means: good defined prerequisites. Biology: 88% accepted.
• High return on investment: 2/3 enrolls. Conversion rate RU 2014-15: 43 %.
Conclusions and Questions
• We have made steps in the good direction• But they are just a beginning• Further improvements/changes are necessary• How does the faculty staff think about these
changes? What are their experiences?• What do the faculties need to improve the
process and conversion rates?• Can we learn from best practice examples?
Thesis 1: skip the Student Counsellors
• The advise of the student counsellors is in most cases just a copy from the country files of the Nuffic. So the Admission Office could copy this immediately and skip the SCs.
• The student counsellors are only needed to check the legal validity of the documents. = a side-road of the process.
• Means: 2-3 days gaining in time. But more work for the Admission Office.
Thesis 2: More information needed about the applicant’s BSc level
• Is the information of Nuffic sufficient?• What information does the examination board
need?• Can we find this information somewhere else?• Would it be good to add the information from
www.anabin.de or others?• Who should supply this information? Admission
office? Student advisor? Student counsellor?
Thesis 3: make a database
• We could make a RU database of accepted diplomas and reasons why they were accepted
• For each study individually• Eventually add: results from admitted
international students in the past and their results at RU
• Advantage: Examination board could consult someonelse’s work and his own from the past > faster and perhaps better
Examples of databases
• www.anabin.de (Germany)• www.wes.org/ca/wedb/ecountrylist.htm (Canada)• http://qsearch.qqi.ie/WebPart/Search?searchtype=recog
nitions (Irish database worldwide links)
• European Grade Conversion System: http://egracons.eu/• EU: http://enic-naric.net
Unesco:• www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/unesco-p
ortal-to-recognized-higher-education-institutions• www.ibe.unesco.org/en/worldwide.html
Questions about the database
• What information should it contain?• Who should add the new analysis? Member of
Exam.Board may write this into database? Who can write/comment/only read?
• Who should add new statistics? Admission office only?
• Who is responsible for updates? > fte’s• Make the database together with
Nuffic/VSNU/partner universities in NL ?• Add results of rankings?
Thesis 4: Reduce the countries of recruitment
• Exclude several countries by listing them on our website: your diploma will not be accepted for immediate access. You’ll have to do a pre-master’s of at least (half) a year which means extra costs of 10.000 euro. Twente: a short list of accepted certificates.
• Develop an interactive questionnaire on our website which leads to a first evalution of the applicant’s degree.
• Our recruiters only visit fairs in countries which we all accept. OR we tell them that the diplomas are only accepted by faculty X, Y etc.
Thesis 5: RSP/Orange Tulip Scholarships
An early applicant who has been accepted in December has to wait till May until s/he knows if s/he gets an RSP/OTS: in the meantime s/he might be looking for other financial solutions: > withdrawel of the application at the RU or non-acceptance of it in May.• Solution 1: Applications only possible from February-April >
peak activity for the examination boards & fair visitors from November might have forgotten us.
• Solution 2: Sholarship selection twice in these 6 months (early bird & regular)
• Solution 3: more client binding mails from student advisors and recruiters DCM (but what?)
Communication to client
• How can we ‘bind’ an accepted student so he’ll really come to the RU?
• Is this a task for student advisors?• Or International Office?• Or Admission Office?• What content is interesting? Nuffic App?• Newsletter of Marketing Department?
Future developments Admission Office
• Acceptance form in Osiris• Personalize the reasons of rejection by the
Examination Board• Workflow management: show the Ex.Board
how much files are waiting/is done• Track & face for the applicants• Handling fee payment via e mandate• ?
