https://www.mdu.se/

Date:                                   2018-06-04

Level:                                 Master Thesis in Business Administration (EFO704),

15 ECTS

Institution:                         School of Business, Society and Engineering –

Mälardalen University

Authors:                             Franklin, Oliver (940104)

Johansson, Henric (950614)

Title:                                   Strengthening the Relationship Between Universities

and the Graduates: A Case Study and Project on a Swedish University’s Relationship-Building with the Alumni Network

Supervisor:                       Dr. Andersson, Ulf

Co-Assessor:                    Lampou, Konstantin

Research Questions:                         What are the reasons for alumni increasing personal engagement

in university alumni associations?

What are the opportunities and challenges for universities when

attempting to increase engagement and create closer relationships with the alumni?

Purpose:                            The purpose of this study is to investigate how universities can

strengthen and revitalise their contact with the alumni network to create feeling of belonging, enhanced sense of engagement for the alumni and to build long-lasting relationships between the university and the alumni.

Method:                              Using a quantitative method, an online questionnaire was

conducted with Mälardalen University's graduates as respondents.

The questions and statements in the questionnaire were connected to Heckman and Guskey’s (1998) model of alumni discretionary collaborative behaviour, created to gain an understanding of underlying reasons alumni had for engaging further in the alumni network.

Conclusion:                       From conducting this study, suggestions that might increase

alumni engagement was to outline and gather a data-set, while confirming that the communication is received correctly to the specific graduates and alumni that has graduated from specific educational programmes.

Feedback from the graduates showed that there was a demand for alumni activities in different geographical destinations for international graduates and not require a personal or security number to sign up as alumni, which restricted international students to be part of the alumni network. There was also a demand for more personal communication and invitations to alumni activities such as annual alumni reunion events, and more opportunities to create meaningful long-distance engagement for international alumni.