Moving to university is one of the biggest moments of most of our young lives â and can also be one of the most nerve-wracking, especially if youâre an overseas student.
This is where CampusConnect, the first platform from edtech company StudyBundles, comes in says the companyâs co-founder Dan Hinkley.
The platform goes out with studentsâ offers and lets them set up a profile, ask questions about the university and meet fellow students based on profile matching.
âMy co-founder and I were both working in education and noticed international students were struggling with lots of things when they arrived in the UK,â Hinkley told ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.
âItâs a big change of scene â a new academic culture, a new everything really. Itâs hard enough for the rest of us moving to university.
âThe pair of us were involved in inductions and started experimenting to help the process.
âInitially we sent out remote media â little videos about where students were going to be living and the university culture â which gave us the kernel of the idea.â
The platform is free for students to use and universities pay a licence-based fee. It is designed to help institutions keep students once theyâre there too.
âAt least one in ten students in every UK university drops out in their first year,â says Hinkley.
âSome factors we canât impact but even if they run out of money maybe itâs because they havenât had access to support services.
âThere are lots of areas when better communication and a stronger network would help.
âWe want the transition to be smooth and to have support networks in place before students arrive.â
Currently mainly aimed at overseas students planning to study in the UK and Ireland the platform is available for institutions such as Liverpool John Moores and the University of Manchester, which uses it to connect current students and staff under its wellbeing initiative.
âWe look at what unis perceive as their pain point,â said Hinkley.
âManchesterâs a Russell Group university so doesnât struggle to get applicants but it has such a large campus it can be hard to communicate across the student body.â
Using the platform will also help institutions reduce the large amounts of âone-way marketingâ which Hinkley says isnât helping anyone.
âUniversities are desperate for international students so they send marketing videos like drone footage of the campus,â he said.
âThey donât let prospective students have any interaction or sense of community because itâs hard to scale that service.
âWe wanted to empower prospects to ask questions and not just be directed to a website for the answer.
âEven if theyâre at least reading a real studentâs words it can help them know if theyâve made right choice â or even if they havenât it means they can find out earlier.â
Going forward technology will continue to have a huge impact for universities as long as they continue to have studentsâ best interests at heart says Hinkley.
âIn my experience as a teacher tech has been the single biggest change in the whole sector,â he said.
âFrom using blackboards to whiteboards to smartboards, iPads and apps that link up what youâre doing to parents, itâs permeated every aspect.
âLike anything it can be fantastic or a real pain and take away from the experience.
âIt really depends whoâs in charge and in my experience decisions often havenât been made based on the studentsâ best interest.â