Enclosure EAlumni Board

22 January 2016

Alumni Week – April 2016

Author(s): Christian Burden, Director of DevelopmentJean Almond, Alumni Engagement Manager

1. Overview/Summary

Plymouth University's alumni community is made up of over 100,000 graduates in more than 100 countries, all with a special connection to the University.

Like most other UK universities, we are beginning to explore and develop the many ways in which we can partner with our alumni to support the strategic priorities of the University, including student recruitment, the student experience, student employability, internationalisation, and financial sustainability . Over the last 18 months, a renewed connectivity with our alumni and a refocusing of the work of the Development Office has produced a strong and well defined alignment between alumni engagement and the strategic priorities of the University. Specifically, the Alumni Engagement team has been reorganised and has led a number of new projects with measurable outcomes against core business objectives. Projects such as the alumni portraits, alumni case study bank, an enhanced database focus, and Plymouth Connect mean that more than ever before alumni are able to play a key role in the future success of the University.

In order to raise engagement and awareness among students, staff, and the alumni themselves of this renewed approach to alumni engagement and partnership, it is proposed that the University launches the inaugural PU “Alumni Week” in 2016. The proposed date for this is the week commencing 25 April 2016. The Alumni Engagement team will work with the Alumni Advisory Board to lead on the planning and delivery of Alumni Week.

2. Aims

Alumni Week will provide the University with an annual concentrated focus on outreach and engagement with our alumni around the world. Broadly speaking, the objectives of Alumni Week are to:

1. raise awareness and profile of alumni ‘as partners’ to our students, staff, and the alumni themselves:

o students would have a better understanding of what alumni are and how alumni can help students – this awareness will then carry through with them after they graduate and translate into a stronger ongoing relationship with the University. University staff would better understand the infrastructure, staffing, and projects which are in place to support their work, and embed alumni engagement as part of routine planning

2. showcase the benefits and outcomes that alumni engagement is providing for the University, and promote ways in which alumni can support the University

3. Promote ways in which the University can support our alumni community and accelerate rates of engagement

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The purpose of this paper is to provide the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) with the intended approach for Alumni Week during April 2016

The Alumni Advisory Board is invited to note the event, and provide any relevant feedback, advice, and support. It should be noted that the AAB is NOT expected to run or manage this initiative.

Enclosure EAlumni Board

22 January 2016

3. Proposed format

Alumni Week is intended to shine a light on key alumni activities and good practice in alumni engagement across Plymouth University:

Proposed activities include:

launch a digital Lost Alumni campaign utilising social media to find and reconnect with lost alumni worldwide, strengthen our alumni data and increase our followers

launch of the Alumni Portrait Exhibition in the Cube3 Gallery, Portland Square(4-29th April 2016) with a keynote speech by one of the alumni featured in the portraits and alumni networking

national alumni events in key cities and regions (tbc). London and Plymouth are focal points for 2016

Faculty forums for staff to find out about alumni engagement and discuss collaboration and introduce Faculty Alumni Ambassadors

mentoring events to promote Plymouth Connect mentoring opportunities to students (TBC -run in Faculty by Careers and Employability)

launch and installation of Faculty case studies in locations where there is student foot fall, (5 per Faculty TBC)

encourage alumni to donate to the Plymouth Fund project

4. Desired Outcomes and key milestones

As a result of this week, we will:

improve understanding and raise awareness amongst staff and students about alumni engagement (measured via a perceptions survey)

o 100 new student menteeso 10 new staff ‘alumni engagement’ ambassadors

increase alumni awareness about University successes and ambitions increase alumni engagement with the University (for example):

o Improve the quality of our alumni database by updating alumni records and finding ‘lost’ alumni – aim to ‘find’ 5% of our selected lost alumni community

o generate 100 new alumni ‘employability ambassadors’ as mentors for students via Plymouth Connect

o generate 10 new alumni ‘recruitment ambassadors / volunteers’o generate 50 new alumni case studies to support recruitment and employabilityo generate 1,000 new alumni social media followers across all platformso consolidate alumni groups / volunteers in key international regionso secure 100 alumni donors to the Plymouth Fund

encourage staff to engage and collaborate with the Alumni Engagement Team encourage staff to embed alumni engagement and outreach in their annual teaching,

learning and research plans

Budget

No additional budget is required for this activity.

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