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In my last blog I told you how universities can leverage classroom engagement data, on-campus activity data, academic performance and well-being data, to better understand retention patterns and students who may drop out of classes, programs, or the university as a whole.
The third area where there is often a fit for data and analytics in higher education institutions is the alumni arena. Students are not only important to get in the door and retain, but also to keep engaged after graduation. Many universities rely on alumni donation special projects like capital campaigns. The ability to identify the best time and outreach medium is invaluable for alumni departments.
Looking at national employment and labor statistics data, completions and certificate or degree detail and alumni engagement post-graduation can help your alumni department discover attributes of previous alumni who have donated versus those who have not, create profiles of those most likely to donate, and improve the effectiveness and timing of donation asks – huge pluses for a college or university!
Because institutes of higher learning have so much data, it only makes sense to leverage it to help make smarter decisions that positively impact university departments. As with many organizations, the inherent expertise to leverage this data isn’t always available "in-house", and also isn’t usually easy to find or hire. As a result, many universities outsource data analysis. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Companies like Alteryx make the blending of these various data sources easy for those in university departments – folks who work in enrollment, registrar and alumni departments in universities. With a drag-and-drop workflow, these non-technical, often part-time analysts can answer the pressing questions we’ve discussed – questions related to student recruiting and enrollment, student retention and alumni donations – in hours, not weeks.
Download our new white paper, "Faster Insights for Higher-Ed with Data Blending", for more information on how data blending and analytics can deliver faster results to higher education institutions.
