Why We Survey Alumni About Their Student Experience
High value topic points, as opposed to talking points, come from a different question construct although they also play a role in the definition of equity-of-degree. Here we rely on questions about what is important to alumni about their student and alumni experience and where there are the greatest differences between importance and effectiveness. We ask student-related questions not to try and change the memory of that experience or even to use it as a primary source to influence current activities on campus. Rather, we are looking for the topic areas that are most related to value-of-degree for alumni and where they most want to hear about how things are better or different than when they were students.
If, for instance, we find that the alumni from an institution think that skills and training for the career is now considered one of the most important elements of their student experience and that they wish the university would have done a better job on this, there is a real opportunity to strengthen affinity by writing newsletter articles and development pieces that focus on how this is better now than it has ever been, and how the school is using the student alumni group or other alumni related activities to enhance this experience for the university.
At the AAS, we use the student-related questions as an important element of defining these distinctions for a given institution and to help ensure that they are focusing on the topics in this part of the questionnaire that might become highlighted items in their communications to alumni. This can be a critical link in enhancing alumni affinity and engagement.
Another reason for the inclusion of student experience questions was established by the original AAS survey questionnaire design focus group participants (senior alumni relations executives from 11 major universities and colleges in 2001). Those executives wanted these student related questions included as a way for alumni to remember their days on campus since that is the cornerstone of the affinity between the alumnus/a and their alma mater. All of the design participants recognized that a survey is an important outgoing marketing piece as well as a data gathering process. As part of that engagement process, everyone felt that we had to make sure there were plenty of opportunities for the respondent to reconnect to their original experience of their university or college.
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