alumni futures

The Future (Part II): The Changing Student Experience & Alumni Relations

This is the second of three articles that I have adapted from my alumni relations keynote at CASE V in Chicago, in December 2013. The title of my talk there was Alumni Relations & Advancement's Future: 3 Questions.

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In the first article in this series, I discussed fundraising's relationship with alumni relations. The final article looks at predicting the future of alumni relations. Here in part II we ask: 

How will the changing student experience
affect alumni relationships? 

Observers are buzzing about several so-called disruptive factors in education. Some of these factors influence the student experience, which in turn affects alumni attitudes and engagement. Here are four that we must think about:

1. MOOCs
Massive open online courses, known as MOOCs, are widely touted to be changing the face of traditional education. They are certainly a departure from the traditional face-to-face classroom: students enroll, usually for free or almost free, and pursue their chosen topic alongside 50,000 or 100,000 other learners. And they do it from the comfort of their laptop or their iPad.

MOOCs' short-term impact on the traditional degree is probably overstated, but their evolution is certain to influence our field.

So far, these online students are not earning degree credit. In fact, according to one recent survey, about 80% of MOOC students already have a traditional degree. And MOOCs are being criticized for their students' low completion rates. But MOOCs are a waypoint en route to some more robust future online educational experience. As the successors of MOOCs become the norm for students enrolled in post-secondary education, the students' sense of loyalty, community, or gratitude to a particular institution is going to diminish – or even disappear. So those of us whose work depends heavily on the residential campus experience must anticipate this challenge.

How do we connect meaningfully with alumni whose education took place online – in their office, in a coffee shop, or on an airplane?

[How do we connect with alumni whose
education took place in a coffee shop?]

2. The Changing Student Profile
Second, the typical student's profile is changing. No longer are the majority of university-goers fresh-faced twenty-year olds. Mid-career changers, single parents attending part time, and those just looking for intellectual enrichment may consider themselves alumni of whichever online platform delivered their favorite lectures. In fact, they may consider themselves alumni of the platform itself, and not a particular institution. Will this diverse body of learners want an alumni organization to connect them with job opportunities, with other learners, or with additional instruction? If so, the traditional affinity model of alumni relations has to evolve, or students will abandon it. 

As the student profile changes so must our profession change. Among the services alumni organizations currently provide, career services and access to specialized networks will be the ones most relevant to alumni of non-residential programs. And they are already proving to be among the most relevant services for alumni of traditional institutions.

3. Expectations of Employment
Criticism of higher education is increasing. The most strident voices are those that reject the rising price tag of a college education.

But another group of critics may cause more stress and challenge for alumni professionals. Those are the people who increasingly want our institutions to somehow ensure jobs for graduates. And those people include the parents of many current undergraduates. The parents are footing much of the bill, assuming debt, and staking their family reputations on the extent to which their sons and daughters turn an expensive and time consuming college degree into a lucrative career.

The root of these complaints is an assumption made before a student even selects a university: that the purpose of a college degree is to help the graduate obtain "a good job" that pays well. Increasingly, this is the definition of alumni success, and increasingly it forms the backbone of numerous rankings and reports, which compare college outcomes on how much a new graduate can expect to earn. We hear little about rankings based on a graduate's inherent satisfaction with a college education, or on the extent to which the college experience turns a young and impressionable student into a contributor to her community. (Notably, the Gallup-Purdue Index will combine the "jobs" factor with the "life satisfaction" factor, measuring "great careers and lives that matter.")

If the student's primary concern is with compensation, alumni satisfaction will be at the mercy of the marketplace. However, the sheer number of students enrolled in fields that do not promise lucrative job offers suggests that the humanities, the liberal and fine arts, and the social sciences are not going away soon. And the passion those students have for their topics will continue for many years to give alumni offices the raw material they need to shape newly minted alumni into passionate and generous supporters of our institutions.

[If the student's concern is compensation,
alumni satisfaction is at the mercy of the marketplace]

4. Internationalization
Finally, a fourth dynamic is influencing the future of alumni relations: the diverse national backgrounds of students.

As students find it more appealing and easier to enroll across borders, the student body becomes ever more international. At my institution (all locations), almost 40% of enrolled students came from outside the United States in 2012. Many overseas students in North America have English as a second language, and their language proficiency heavily influences their student experience. They are in an unfamiliar land with strange customs and unexpected influences. In this situation, most of us would prefer the company of classmates whose language, backgrounds, and cultural references match our own.

These students often travel back to their home country as new alumni, without having truly joined our institutions' broader community. As alumni, they are much less likely to respond to the same messages and images that generate engagement with so many "traditional" alumni.

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The challenges and changes I've listed here are only a few of the forces guiding the evolution of alumni relations. Other trends, such as the demographics of younger generations, will add additional fuel and data to future discussios.

Many of us may not feel like we have time to think about the futures these trends are creating. But observing the profiles and experiences of current students may determine our success at engaging the attention and enjoying the support of these students during their lives as alumni.

 

The third and final part of this series will ask, "Can we predict the future of alumni relations?"

Related articles

The Future (Part I): Fundraising's Relationship to Alumni Relations

Alumni as Volunteer Course Facilitators: 7 Reasons it Makes Sense

The future of MOOCs

Design QR Codes and Higher Education: Andrew Gossen

This article is written by Andrew Gossen (@agossen), Senior Director for Social Media Strategy in the Division of Alumni Affairs & Development at Cornell University, and informal advisor to Alumni Futures.

QR ("quick response") codes are finally entering the North American mainstream. Just a year ago, most advancement professionals had never heard of them. Now all you need to do is read a magazine or check out the Twitter activity around #qrcode to discover how much interest there is in the codes' unique ability to connect physical objects to the mobile web.

As is often the case, higher education lags behind the private sector in adopting a new technology. It’s an encouraging sign, therefore, that people are experimenting and beginning to take advantage of QR codes. QR codes add additional dimensions to the static print pieces that have been staples of institutional advancement for so long – business cards, postcards, posters, and more. Most of the attention thus far has focused on the connection between the real and online worlds. However, Asian and European designers have realized that QR codes have potential as visual objects in their own right. This approach, called design QR, has enormous implications for branding in higher education.

[Design QR has enormous implications for branding in higher education.]

Take a QR code that you’ve generated, using one of the many QR code generators now available, to provide a link to a mobile-ready website. This one points to Cornell’s Reunion Mobile website:

The QR code gets the job done, but there’s not much to recommend it graphically.

However, these basic QR codes contain much more data than is actually needed for a scanner to read them. This means we can alter a percentage of the image without making the QR code unreadable. And code designers can include colors and logos or illustrations in their designs. As long as the colors stand out in sufficient contrast, the scanner doesn’t care if it’s black and white or purple and blue.

Combine these two variables in the hands of a good graphic designer, and you have a branding opportunity. Here at Cornell, we’ve begun to experiment in this area.

For Reunion, we wanted a new, unconventional QR code for our Reunion Mobile website. University Communications’ Design Director Clive Howard worked the iconic McGraw Tower into the design, adding visual pizzazz and a Cornell theme (click the images to view larger versions).

By selecting sufficiently contrasting colors, he provided a number of choices for the design. All of them point to the same site:

 

Thanks to these options, our marketing collateral appealed to alumni more than last year's merchandise. Which of these t-shirts would you rather wear?

Based on this experience, Clive took a different approach when producing a design QR code to link to the website for Cornell's New York City Tech Campus effort. 

He used Cornell’s red and white color scheme over a silhouette of the city skyline and the Statue of Liberty, elegantly evoking the prospect of a formal Cornell technology and applied science presence in New York City.

The use of QR codes in North American higher education must continue evolving in this direction – it simply makes sense to do so.

 

[What are the challenges of using Design QR in your marketing efforts?]

Clive shared his thoughts on the practical challenges of design QR:

• The goal is to create a strong graphic that is easily understood but that does not add to the busy-ness of the existing QR code.
• Once you have selected a visual element (such as McGraw Tower), you delete elements of the original code and test to see if it still works. The added graphic should be as large as possible without interfering with the code's translation. Test the code on as many devices as possible and monitor successful web page launches.
• Color contrast plays a huge part in readability by scanners. The code needs enough contrast to register the differences. Once again, test to verify that it works.
• Color also plays a large part when reproducing the QR code on promotional pieces. For example, for Reunion 2011, we adjusted the screening process for the t-shirt application to make sure that the QR code could be read on fabric.

The mobile web is growing rapidly, and QR codes effectively connect the physical world to the Internet. At the same time, they can serve as an additional component of an institution's or an event’s graphic identity.

How will your institution take advantage of this opportunity?

Leave a comment. 

Related articles

• 14 Million U.S. Adults Used QR Codes in June [STUDY] (mashable.com)
• 7 ways higher education can use QR codes... (blog.noellevitz.com)
• Examples of custom design QR (www.setjapan.com)
• A list of QR code generators (www.708media.com)

The Misconception About Alumni Admission Interviews

In a Bloomberg article titled Ivy League Alumni Quit Admissions Interviews as Success Slips, Ivy admissions volunteers complain that they have less "influence" than ever in the undergraduate admissions process. They recommend many students for admission, hardly any of whom are selected by the university. According to the article, an alumnus interviewing applicants for the University of Pennsylvania saw

his acceptance rate [fall] in the past five years. None of his recommended students made it in. The frustration was part of the reason he stopped donating to the school a few years ago, he said. 

I will refrain from sharing here my thoughts on this donor's logic. Meanwhile, though, the University's web site describes the volunteer's role as "an exceptionally meaningful way" to remain involved with the school. So there's a conflict between the intended outcome (a meaningful way for the alumnus to be involved) and the actual outcome (a disgruntled alumnus publicly criticizing the university).

For several years I was an alumni interviewer for Brown University. As an experienced alumni professional and as an admissions volunteer, I have always been baffled (and frankly, irritated) by alumni who complained that they "didn't get anybody in this year."

The volunteer's job isn't to "get people in." It's to meet candidates and share their impressions with the admissions staff.

The Director of Admissions is the one who "gets people in." 

[Alumni interviewing is not really an admissions function...]

A seldom-mentioned aspect of alumni interviewing is that in most cases it's not even an "admissions" function. Alumni admissions work is a volunteer opportunity first and foremost. It keeps alumni engaged with the school, without handing them enough responsibility to make the professional staff uneasy. The biggest risk is that it alienates people like the Penn alumnus quoted above, who think their job is to be an advocate for almost every would-be undergrad they meet.

As volunteer roles go, alumni admissions work has much to recommend it. But institutions should be transparent about just how much influence alumni will have in admission decisions. Failure to lower alumni expectations may contribute to the problem at institutions where alumni are complaining.

[Failure to lower alumni expectations may contribute to the problem...]

Alumni should see the admissions volunteer role as a way to meet smart, ambitious young people in their own community, and to help admissions professionals calibrate their definitive judgment about individual applicants.

Alumni and admissions staff members, for their part, should be honest about the relative importance of alumni interview reports and try to find other, more meaningful volunteer roles for alumni who think of the process as a contest whose goal is to "get kids in." 

 

Photo of Brown University's bear statue by Flickr user mikegunh via Creative Commons.

Related articles

• Ivy League Alumni Quit Admissions Interviews (bloomberg.com)
• The Lament of the Disappointed Alumni Interviewer (chronicle.com)
• Admissions Interviews: Still an Art and Science (chronicle.com)

7 Commonly Missed Opportunities in Alumni Relations

CASE president John Lippincott recently asked alumni relations professionals for their thoughts on "common mistakes in alumni relations." His upcoming column on this topic will be a welcome follow-up to his pieces on common mistakes in advancement communications and fundraising.

I sent along my own thoughts, but they may not be among those published in CURRENTS Magazine. So, in the spirit of John's request, here are seven commonly missed opportunities in alumni relations.

In no particular order:

Failing to balance institutional needs with alumni needs
Your institution needs engaged, loyal, generous alumni. Your alumni need a supportive, communicative, responsive alumni organization.

Ignoring the academic side of the institution
Guest blogger Scott Mory wrote about this for Alumni Futures, and his article remains one of the more visited ones on the site. I like to ask alumni directors, "When you walk across campus, do the professors you pass know you're the alumni executive? If they do, do they know what you do? Would they say you do it well?" 

Not partnering with other administrative units
Career services, admissions, the libraries, academic departments (or schools and colleges), athletics, student life, tech transfer, public events...the list is endless. These are all potential partners for your programs and services to alumni and to the campus. 

Not engaging students early enough
Many alumni organizations, it seems, still wait until students are in their final year before they pay any attention to undergraduates at all. You have to build awareness from day one. They'll be students for a few years, but alumni forever. 

Wasting valuable volunteer resources
Your board, committees, and regional volunteers are a formidable force for work and change. Don't just let them show up, get a free dinner, and leave without harnessing their affinity, experience, and energy on behalf of alumni and the school. This goes for "virtual volunteers" too – the alumni who help manage your Facebook content, reunion class pages, and LinkedIn Groups.

Not seeing oneself as part of the fundraising team
Some alumni professionals still cling to the idea that something called "friendraising" exists independently of fundraising. It doesn't. Any successful fundraiser is a "friendraiser" too, whatever that might mean. Alumni relations, executed successfully, enhances front line gift officers' ability to raise the financial support your institution needs. Alumni relations is part of fundraising – an important part, if done right.

Not seeking true innovation
Many alumni offices define "innovation" as "implementing something that has already worked elsewhere." Sure, it's new to your institution, but it's not a new idea. There are limitless opportunities to experiment with programs and services that nobody has tried before. 

What would you add to the list? Do you disagree with anything above?

Questions from Europe: Educational Marketing, Authenticity and Web 2.0

Two weeks ago, a small group in a big room in France had a compact conversation about several expansive topics. 

The Web 2.0 workshop I co-chaired for the European Association for International Education included 27 individuals from organizations across 14 countries. Their roles ranged from advancement to public relations, but emphasized student recruitment. Sweden and the Netherlands were the most prominently represented, with one-third of the participants between them.

Participants absorbed a number of case studies, showing how various institutions have used Web 2.0 tools to engage wide-ranging audiences (with equally wide-ranging degrees of success – a couple of them being outright failures). Along the way, we discussed the trials and tribulations of relying on user-generated content, trying to obtain institutional support, and receiving uncertain returns on investment. 

A few key ideas cropped up, and I share them here for consideration or comment.

Despite the talk about "user-generated content," many of the cases and examples discussed involved universities talking about themselves on user-dominated platforms. There's a difference between a university's communication officer using Facebook to share information about the institution, and alumni or students using Facebook to share their opinions about the place. 

Some questions arise: 

• Will university managers eventually adapt to the collaborative, networked aspects of the Internet? 
   
• Will they eventually stop relying on one-way content, using social platforms to broadcast magazine articles and press releases? 

The research side of the academy relies heavily on network effects to share and publish information. Scholarly journal citations are proxies for connections in a network – they connect authors whose work depends on mutual relevance. Furthermore, they publish publicly and as widely as possible so as to benefit everyone. But many of the international student recruiters at EAIE are publishing information primarily (or solely) to benefit their own institution.

When will institutional leaders fully support and invest in distributed communication (like the content on social platforms), instead of assuming it's something "young people do"? Probably not until the people currently in lower- and mid-level management positions rise to the top ranks of institutional leadership themselves. They're the ones who best recognize, through first-hand experience, the outcomes that widespread use of social technologies is generating.

A final thought occurred to me as the group dispersed and our workshop discussion faded from the hall.

Which of these two alternate futures is more likely?: 

Scenario 1: At some point soon, mere marketing will cease to attract any attention at all. Ads that rely entirely on manufactured images and broadcast "stories" will be invisible to an audience increasingly accustomed to so-called authentic voices and content. This will make the recruiter's or fundraiser's job one of brokering true stories that reflect users' experiences, instead of manufacturing fantasies designed to appeal to people's desires.

Or...

Scenario 2: Marketers become so adept at manipulating content that users will be left wondering what is authentic and what is hype, which stories, profiles or brands are the real thing, and which ones are made up to fill a niche created by the demand for the services or programs they are in the business of providing.

Are you facing these dilemmas already? 

How are you approaching them? 

Are you succeeding? 

How do you know?

Leave a comment...

 

Photo of EAIE reception in Nantes, France by Andy Shaindlin

Overseas Workshops and Presentations: France

As I mentioned in July, I'm heading to France this week to co-present a workshop for the European Association for International Education...

 
EAIE Workshop in Nantes, 15-16 September:

I will co-present with Illuminate Consulting Group's Dr. Daniel Guhr at EAIE's annual meeting. I've been lucky enough to deliver workshops and training at EAIE programs in Norway, Hungary, Spain and France, and am grateful to be invited back. 

This year, Dan has developed an ambitious workshop called How to Strategically Deploy Web 2.0 Platforms, Tools and Communities. 

ICG research interns have compiled a number of detailed and diverse case studies that will form the basis for part of the workshop. In a few weeks I'll let Alumni Futures readers know how to purchase copies of the reports, which I have been editing for ICG.

 

AFF Breakfast Program in Paris, 21 September:

Next week, on Tuesday, 21 September in Paris, I will deliver a breakfast talk sponsored by the Association Française des Fundraisers (AFF). The topic is Alumni Community Management. I will discuss how to use social networks and the web (including blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms) to listen to alumni and build a dialog with them. You can still sign up online.

The presentation will be in English, although I can stumble along in French as well, if needed. I am very grateful to Céline Morel for helping to make this event happen.
 

Note: I'll be away from the blog for a couple of weeks, but will return at the end of September. Until then, in the spirit of social media, enjoy this series of alumni-related messages from a Twitter user last winter:

 

 

 

The Bologna Process and Alumni Relations, Part II

[Updated 18 February, 2010: InsideHigherEd interview with Paul Gaston, author of The Challenge of Bologna: What United States Higher Education Has to Learn from Europe, and Why It Matters That We Learn It.]

Back in November of 2009, I looked at the Bologna Process of European higher education standardization and how it might affect alumni relations in Europe. In this second and final post on the topic, I'm sharing a few more comments from Dr. Daniel Guhr and Simon Lange of Illuminate Consulting Group. Illuminate's consulting practice focuses on international strategic development in higher education.*  

In this post Guhr and Lange address:

 

• Threats and challenges to alumni engagement under Bologna
• The prospects for alumni loyalty to a specific institution
• The most likely time frame for changes to appear

Will threats or challenges to engagement make it harder for institutions to maintain already tenuous connections with alumni?

Daniel Guhr: Yes, but this is independent of the Bologna Process. If institutions ignore alumni demand patterns, the alumni will walk away. Down the road, having effective alumni networks will be a recruiting benefit, and it already works this way for small, elite private institutions (primarily business schools). It will be more than three years before we see concrete examples emerge – once the first full cohort of Europe-wide "Bologna System" alumni leave universities.

 

 

How does this relate to traditional "study abroad" experiences?

 

Daniel Guhr: It will have a negative effect on intra-European mobility, as fewer students can move around. This is being hotly debated however.

Simon Lange: Dan is right. Though the process encourages mobility when obtaining your degree abroad, the reforms have significantly increased students' workloads, and introduced the element of time pressure. In the end, this discourages students from spending a desirable semester in Sevilla, or elsewhere.

 

 

Will alumni be likely to transfer their affinity or loyalty to a university, a country, an academic program or perhaps a host institution in their target country?

 

Daniel Guhr: I would ask this differently. What makes alumni more loyal in the European context? First, the presence of effective alumni relations to begin with. Second, the impact of the international experience on the alumnus's life. Third, the brand effect. You can create a matrix that displays these factors and put in the respective values. We'll see very different dynamics emerge. In short, we should ask, "What works for the alumni?"

Simon Lange: It is likely that the European Union's goal of fostering a European identity among future professionals will succeed. For scholarship recipients, loyalty to the donating country or organization, or to the EU, is likely to be higher. ICG recently conducted a nationwide survey of alumni from all eight universities in New Zealand, and found that non-New Zealand citizen alumni felt more closely connected to New Zealand if they received a New Zealand-sponsored scholarship. We compared their affiliation levels with those of alumni who received funding from other sources, and those who received no scholarship funds.

Based on both ICG's research and my personal experience in Europe, I'd say that students who go abroad feel a strong connection to their host institution, either for an exchange or for an entire program. For example, there are two Facebook groups for Erasmus students at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain), each with more than 1,300 members. This is anecdotal evidence, but worth looking into more systematically. 

Over what time scale will changes play out?

Daniel Guhr: Some changes are already taking place. It will be three years or more before we have early examples to use as case studies. In 5 to 10 years we'll see major initiatives that will produce good results. Some will come earlier, but will likely not be well-conceived. It will be more than ten years however before mainstream European universities will see any benefits – and only if they commit to building alumni networks.

* I serve as a volunteer member of ICG's Academic Advisory Board.

 

Global Competitiveness Ten Years Out: Download the Report

Last week I quoted Daniel Guhr on changes to European higher education and implications for alumni relations. This week I am staying with the international theme.

In September I was an invited presenter at a day-long seminar in London (UK), co-sponsored by Dan's firm, Illuminate Consulting Group and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Imperial College London hosted the event, which was attended by some 45 higher education leaders from more than half a dozen countries around the world. The event was titled:

How the Global Economic Crisis is Shaping Competitiveness Ten Years Out: 
 International Recruiting, Research and Relationships

The proceedings of that meeting are now available and you can download them in PDF format via this link: 

Download ICG-Chronicle-Imperial London Proceedings 09 09 [2.4MB PDF] 

The seminar was moderated by David Wheeler, Managing Editor (International) at the Chronicle, and the other speakers joining Dr. Guhr and me were Mary Ritter (Pro-Rector, Imperial College London), Maurits van Rooijen (President, Compostela Group of Universities), and Madeleine Reeve (Pro-Vice Chancellor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia). 

Presentation content from our talks is in the Proceedings. Anyone seriously interested in the future of international higher ed recruiting, research and relationships should find the contents provocative and useful, and I encourage you to download it and read it. It is free and doesn't require you to provide any contact information.

During 2010, similar invitation-only seminars will take place in conjunction with major international academic meetings, providing senior leaders with opportunities to

• focus on strategic issues,
• share intensive discussion of issues critical for professional success, and
• network with peers across international borders.

Note: I serve in a volunteer capacity on the Academic Advisory Board for ICG.

The Bologna Process and Alumni Relations, Part I

The Bologna Process is radically changing European higher education. According to the European Universities Association, this reform process is designed to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in which university degree levels (undergraduate and graduate) will be "harmonized" and "connected." The goal is to maintain diverse national education systems,

...while the European Higher Education Area improves transparency between higher education systems, as well as implements tools to facilitate recognition of degrees and academic qualifications, mobility, and exchanges between institutions....Most importantly, all participating countries have agreed on a comparable three cycle [bachelor's, master's, and doctoral] degree system.

The EHEA currently comprises 46 countries, and while the Bologna Process (like any multinational policy framework) is subject to criticism, it is here to stay for a while, and it is influencing higher ed policy across Europe.

I wondered how Bologna might affect the development of alumni relations across the countries involved? I asked two people who are very knowledgeable in this area: Dr. Daniel Guhr and Simon Lange of Illuminate Consulting Group. Through Illuminate's consulting practice (which focuses on international strategic development in higher ed) and their own diverse educational experiences, Dan and Simon have well-informed, high level perspectives. With their permission, I am sharing some of their basic thoughts on Bologna and alumni relations.

With the goal of keeping this post a readable length, I am presenting their answers to just two questions here. A future posting will look at additional aspects of this topic.

What will Bologna mean for international alumni relations?

Daniel Guhr: There are domestic and international aspects. The domestic outcome is unclear. In practice, many universities are encouraging bachelor's degree alumni to stay on for a master's degree. Since alumni relations in most of continental Europe is still in its infancy, there is not an established framework that Bologna can change in practical terms. Global brand leverage will be important, and Bologna can provide a more globally recognized degree. But there is a missing component in practical terms: a well-established framework for international alumni relations. Alumni themselves may increase the demand for this, but that doesn't require Bologna. It is happening already, albeit at modest levels.

Simon Lange: We can expect a modest increase in alumni demand for university support. Over time, Bologna's relative emphasis on more vocationally-oriented degrees (especially at the undergraduate level) will create a pool of alumni whose educational experience is essentially a targeted preparation for the job market, more so than in the past. Future alumni and their universities will gradually improve their understanding of brand leverage, and the potential impact of well-designed alumni programming.

Are there any examples yet of international educational brands adapting to the Bologna Process?

Daniel Guhr: The standardization of degree structures officially concludes this year, but some transitions will take years. It's a bit early to say how Bologna might affect the educational brands, although we should expect some impact eventually.

Simon Lange: One example is Berlin's Einstein Foundation, in part an early attempt to push brand differentiation (ironically, by creating an umbrella organization to promote the research excellence of several institutions). In addition to attracting research funding, the Foundation's goals include increasing the visibility of Berlin as a center for science and research. I have my doubts, but alumni could potentially benefit in terms of brand leverage.

A future posting here will look at 

• the prospects for alumni loyalty to a specific institution; 
• threats and challenges to alumni engagement under Bologna; and 
• the most likely time frame for changes to appear.

We Should Learn About Network Science

 

Last week I spoke at two events in Europe. First, Illuminate Consulting Group (I'm on their academic advisory board) and the Chronicle of Higher Education teamed up to deliver a day-long seminar for senior university leaders from the UK, Australia, Canada and other countries. Imperial College London hosted the program, titled How the Global Economic Crisis is Shaping Competitiveness Ten Years Out: International Recruiting, Research and Relationships.

 

Second, with Illuminate's founder, Dan Guhr, I spoke at the annual meeting of the European Association for International Education (EAIE) in Madrid. I first spoke at that meeting in 2007. The topic this time was technology's role in changing international student recruiting and alumni relations.

 

 

The presentations generated thoughtful discussion and useful insights (for me, anyway). Here's a brief general treatment of one specific idea for readers of Alumni Futures. 

 

It's Time We Learned About Network Science

Both meetings last week consisted of multiple presentations stitched together by a single thread: how networks behave. Many of the discussions were built almost entirely on the idea of the many networks that hold together the educational disciplines: alumni networks, student networks, academic networks, research networks, business or professional networks – and of course, social networks.

 

This theme occurs more and more frequently in our professions, and that's one reason I write about it here. But mostly, I think it can help us be more effective at maintaining a useful role in the lives of alumni. (I also just think it's interesting.)

 

But only one of the presenters I heard explicitly acknowledged that we were talking about the formal aspect of how members of networks behave, influence each other, and relate. Of course, for decades (centuries, I suppose) we have known that we belong to networks – families, companies, towns, sororities, sports teams, graduating classes, political parties, religious groups, and more. But only recently have the structure, behavior and characteristics of networks under different conditions become a systematic scientific pursuit.

 

The mathematics behind network science is beyond me (which won't surprise anyone familiar with my academic achievements in that field). However, there is a wealth of accessible literature that explains in understandable ways what we do know about networks, and it is past the time for fundraising and other advancement professionals to learn about the simple ideas that underpin network science. Learning about scale-free networks, power law distributions, Metcalfe's and Reed's Laws, and more has completely changed my understanding of what alumni and student networks are, and what their members can do with them.

 

We constantly talk about "the alumni network" but I don't think we have a very good idea what a network really is, how it works, what its potential value is, and how networks evolve. Even common sense observations seem to be beyond some (otherwise sensible) people's ability to understand. For example, people often blame the network when they don't get results – in a job search, a business deal, or a simple referral. I've heard this from people who had recently joined LinkedIn, expecting job offers to appear with no effort on their part. One speaker in London said, "Networks don't fail. Network members fail." With a few specific exceptions, I think this is generally true.

 

Below are links to some general resources that you can use to get started thinking about networks. If you have your own favorite sources of information on this topic, or constructive criticism of the ones I've listed, please share links or citations in the comments.

• Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
• How to Build Your Network by Brian Uzzi (Harvard Business Review)
• Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan Watts

In future postings I'll mention a few other ideas I absorbed at last week's interesting meetings. And I'll also talk about what might influence the success or failure of alumni networks in particular.

 

 

Photo from the EAIE meeting in Madrid by Andy Shaindlin, all rights reserved.