Liverpool John Moores University

Overcoming pandemic challenges to build an engaged undergraduate applicant community

OVERVIEW

About Liverpool John Moores University

With its international student population growing, the University of Limerick implemented CampusConnect as a way to facilitate group-based information dissemination and reduce the volume of email queries staff were receiving from offer-holders.Following the success of the initial implementation, tWith more than 21,000 students and a heritage stretching back to 1823, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) is one of the largest and most well-established universities in the UK. LJMU began using CampusConnect 5 years ago, and since then it has been steadily expanding the scope of the deployment. Today, every international, postgraduate, and undergraduate applicant can take advantage of CampusConnect to find their home within the LJMU community before they even arrive in Liverpool.he University worked with CampusConnect to expand the scope of the service to engage more communities of incoming students, boosting enrolment rates by enabling international offer holders to find and connect with their communities of fellow applicants, current students and alumni, all before they even arrive on campus.

Thanks to a long standing successful relationship between LJMU and CampusConnect, When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, LJMU’s admissions team was ready to expand. With limited opportunities for students to meet in person, CampusConnect empowered the institution to invite its immense cohort of prospective undergraduate students into the LJMU community and showcase all the opportunities that it had to offer.

RESULTS

More than 3,000 undergraduate applicants signed up to CampusConnect in the first year
Over 75% of CampusConnect users went on to enrol at LJMU
80% of users surveyed said that they wanted to remain in the community to help future LJMU applicants

“While applicants couldn’t come to us, CampusConnect gave us a way to bring a taste of the LJMU experience to them.”

— Charlotte Harrison-Smith, Head of Admissions, Liverpool John Moores University

“The reception to CampusConnect has been excellent. People who might otherwise have struggled to find their peers have been made to feel welcome, and applicants can see that LJMU is a good place to enrol because there’s so much opportunity and such a great community.”

— Charlotte Harrison-Smith, Head of Admissions, Liverpool John Moores University

CHALLENGE

A new paradigm for applicant engagement

A university is not just a place of learning; it’s a community. Today’s university applicants are more discerning than ever and when choosing where they will continue their studies, they are choosing the community they want to be part of, not the university they want to enrol in.

This is something that LJMU understands particularly well, and it’s why the university is working to transform its applicant engagement strategy organisation-wide.

“We wanted a way to give applicants a feel for the university and the LJMU community before they arrive,” explains Charlotte Harrison-Smith, Head of Admissions at LJMU. “That meant connecting them with each other and with existing students. We had a peer-to-peer communication platform in place already, but it was mostly limited to one-on-one conversations and couldn’t convey the full scope of what LJMU has to offer.”

CampusConnect quickly emerged as the ideal solution to replace LJMU’s legacy platform. Whereas the old system offered narrow and outdated functionality, CampusConnect was built with modern applicants in mind – placing group chats front and centre, with oversight from current students.

SOLUTION

Connecting a huge undergraduate cohort

“Seeing the success of CampusConnect in other parts of the university, we were keen to provide the service to our undergraduate offer-holders as well,” comments Charlotte Harrison-Smith. “But given the much larger scale, implementation was more complex, and it was a matter of finding the time and capacity for the project.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Charlotte and her team recognised that they had an opportunity available to bring their applicants closer together in a supportive and meaningful way. By simply extending CampusConnect to their undergraduate applicant cohorts, the team was able to generate a strong community among applicants at a time when lockdown restrictions limited such opportunities.

“We were approaching a new year with prospective students unable to even visit the campus,” continues Charlotte Harrison-Smith. “But while applicants couldn’t come to us, CampusConnect gave us a way to bring a taste of the LJMU experience to them.”

Despite the diversity of such a large cohort, CampusConnect successfully adapted the community platform to the requirements of the undergraduate team and new students. CampusConnect developed new functionality and worked together with LJMU to prepare a wide array of groups to help incoming undergraduates connect based on their schools, shared interests, or support needs. Additionally, chat groups for each of the university’s third-party accommodation providers enable students to meet and get to know the people they will be living with before they move in. Every group is overseen by a current student ambassador, so applicants can learn about the university from the perspective of a peer rather than a staff member.

“The ambassadors are crucial,” adds Charlotte Harrison-Smith. “In these types of chat groups you really don’t want staff involved, as it tends to stifle the freedom of the conversation. With ambassadors, students can ask questions without feeling like they’re being watched.”

RESULTS

Engagement, conversions, and data-driven decision-making

LJMU has just completed its first cycle since making CampusConnect available to undergraduates, and the results speak for themselves. Over 3,000 undergraduate offer-holders signed up to the platform, and of that number, 75% went on to enrol at the university. What’s more, in a recent survey, more than 80% of respondents said that they wanted to remain part of the LJMU CampusConnect community as ambassadors moving forwards.

Charlotte Harrison-Smith confirms: “The reception to CampusConnect has been excellent. People who might otherwise have struggled to find their peers have been made to feel welcome, and applicants can see that LJMU is a good place to enrol because there’s so much opportunity and such a great community.”

This first year of undergraduate CampusConnect implementation was highly successful, but it was just the beginning. Based on LJMU’s feedback, new features and customizations are already on the horizon that will make the platform even more effective. For instance, CampusConnect is currently working on improved data insight capabilities that will provide teams with dashboards showing real-time applicant community data.

“The CampusConnect team couldn’t be any more helpful and receptive to our needs,” says Charlotte Harrison-Smith. “The dashboards will be invaluable for monitoring key word usage and trends on the platform, which in turn will help guide our wider communication strategy. We’ll be able to see what topics are most important to applicants at what times, so we can ensure we’re sending out relevant comms.”

Similarly, upcoming integration with LJMU’s CRM system will empower Charlotte’s team to track which applicants have not yet signed up to CampusConnect, so that they can push out reminders to encourage wider use of the platform.

“Attending university doesn’t just mean sitting in your course and getting your degree,” concludes Charlotte Harrison-Smith. “It’s also about the people you meet and all the opportunities that are available to you. CampusConnect lets us shine a light on those aspects of the university, and show the depth and breadth of what LJMU can offer.”

THE CAMPUSCONNECT TEAM

Declan Sweeney

Customer success

Adele Davey

Community Manager

Lauren Valentine

Capturing your stories

Daniel Hinkley

Customer success

Cathal McArdle

Product Manager

Ruby Wrankmore

Capturing your stories

ABOUT CAMPUSCONNECT

CampusConnect is a student peer community that maximises university applicant conversion and progression rates by connecting applicants with each other, with current students, and with graduates from their course. It is a place where students help each other navigate the tricky steps of choosing the right college, university, course, and accommodation based on shared experience and collaboration.