The changing landscape of university student recruiting- tapping new resources
After announcing its International University Student Initiative (“IUSI”) in 2019, youtrex is continuing to support higher education during the pandemic by offering universities free use of their platform for connecting and recruiting, for the rest of 2020.
Bad Nauheim, Hesse, DE, 05 August 2020- How will higher education institutions (HEIs) adjust their recruiting strategies going forward, as a result of COVID-19?
The majority of HEIs are already dealing with the challenge of providing quality education in a safe format for their faculty, staff and students. However, the question many admission and program planning committees are grappling with remains: how can new academic talent be best recruited, if not in person? Online networking is the most obvious answer- ramping up presence on social media, leaning more on educational agents, and researching ed-tech and ed-management companies. HEIs are going to need to push their problem-solving boundaries and become even more creative. Another avenue for consideration: the non-profit sector.
Head of Business Development and Community Management at youtrex, Lisa Atkins explains: “Non-profit organizations are often overlooked when it comes to networking with prospective students, mostly because NPOs have marketing budgets and strategies that are different from their for-profit counterparts. This makes it easy for NPOs to become lost or overlooked amongst the larger for-profit companies and they often get buried beneath those with larger marketing budgets. This is seen in almost all industries- education included.
When it became apparent in the spring of 2020 that international education was going to be greatly impacted by the COVID-19 virus, youtrex began discussing how they could support their existing university partners. In keeping with their vision to “achieve more by working together”, the decision was made for the rest of 2020 to offer HEIs youtrex’s normally paid services for free.
Atkins adds, “Our new member numbers haven’t been slowed by the pandemic. Students still want to connect, learn and grow. We truly believe in doing something good and giving back to our members and their communities. Considering the financial hit higher education stands to take, this solution will hopefully encourage HEIs to consider other communication and recruiting avenues than those used in the past. Our platform hosts over 24,000 members- 90% of which are secondary and tertiary students. Universities have a prime opportunity to highlight and advance their undergraduate and graduate programs. Graduate programs looking for fresh talent should give this route consideration.”
Universities, colleges, and other higher education institutions can always register and create a condensed youtrex profile for branding purposes for free. The recruiting and communication tools within youtrex will be offered to HEIs free of charge until the end of 2020.
About youtrex
Youtrex is a Germany-based, non-profit, academic and career platform with members from all disciplines. Pupils (from year 9 and onward), students, and graduates can register for free.
Contact
Head of Marketing & IT: Martin Vogt
E-Mail: Martin.Vogt@dgan.de
Deutsche gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für akademische Nachwuchsförderung mbH
Bahnhofsallee 12
61231 Bad Nauheim