Get a 360-Degree View of Students with Master Data Management
To successfully recruit and retain students in this post-pandemic era, universities are having to reimagine themselves. Data and digital services for students, faculty, and staff are central to that effort. To meet these demands, institutions need high-quality data that provides a seamless, 360-degree view of the educational lifecycle of a student across departments and functions, including recruitment, academic studies, on-campus and off-campus life, and educational program transitions. As students graduate, institutions also need visibility into alumni data, such as the degrees conveyed, extracurricular activities participated in, and the nature of alumni engagement.
Personalizing the Recruitment and Admissions Process
Admissions and recruiting personnel rely on a complete view of trusted data to better manage and track their interactions with prospective students. With high-quality data, they can personalize and target communications for better results and match the right students to the right programs.
Once students matriculate, administrations can forge and maintain stronger connections with students by having complete, accurate information. Student data profiles consist of a large number of ever-changing attributes. For example, a student might maintain seven or eight different addresses during a four-year term. However, at any given time, they could have three correct addresses: a home address where tuition is billed; an assigned dorm that accounts for residency; and a summer internship location. In this case there is no “single version” of the truth.
Providing a Frictionless Student Experience
Today’s students expect to be able to access everything they need online. Accustomed to using personalized consumer apps, they are primed for a similarly frictionless experience when interacting with a university, whether it’s to view their class schedule, contact an academic advisor, or check the details of their financial aid package. By providing a better holistic experience across academic, social, athletic, and extracurricular functions, universities can help keep students happier and increase their retention rates.
A comprehensive view of a student can also help provide early warning signs that something might be amiss. For example, if a student suddenly stops badging in regularly to the cafeteria, staff can check in with the student to see what’s behind the change in behavior.
Boosting Alumni Outreach Efforts
Similarly, alumni organizations need accurate, up-to-date data to maintain alumni engagement. Good data fuels productive outreach efforts to alumni, who are an integral source for funding and future recruiting efforts. By having a complete view of alumni data, including accurate contact information and a profile of past and current activities, advancement officials can have more productive conversations with potential donors.
Getting a 360-Degree View of Students With Master Data Management
From the quantity of touchpoints that students and alumni maintain with the university environment to the broad range of source systems that maintain constituent data, the need to track and align this data to the correct sources is paramount for higher education.
Informatica tackles this hurdle by identifying the constant at every touchpoint, presenting a profile view that captures the full lifecycle that a constituent has with the institution as they move from applicant to student to alumni. Informatica’s master data management solution enables you to capture, account for, and present the correct attributes upon request at each distinct stage of the constituent lifecycle.
Next Steps
To learn more about how a 360-degree view of the student lifecycle can benefit your higher education organization, please visit our Data Management for Higher Education web page.
