From application to enrolment Wenneke Meerstadt Hub 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 leads in spring 2015 = 8431 leads in total : 1069 completed applicants 608 accepted 461 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 yearApplicationsAcceptedRefusedWithdrawn Enrolled (1st October) Conversieon Accepted/ enrolled ,2 % ,9 % % ,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 advisor Admission Office Applicant Acceptance by the applicant Starting point 2013: 9 days6 days19 days5 daysoften months later In total: 39 days Target 2014: First 4 stages within 1 month Results admission : 2 days2 days13 days1 day= 18 days in total

Broader: more enrollments Too many candidates don’t complete their application in Osiris. 28 % complete for FNWI in December Now: much better. Too many refusals: the wrong students apply. 57 % is accepted to the Master’s in 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 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 : 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 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 (Germany) (Canada) ions (Irish database worldwide links) ions European Grade Conversion System: EU: Unesco: portal-to-recognized-higher-education-institutions portal-to-recognized-higher-education-institutions

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 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 ?

More suggestions and questions?