Alumni Altruism: Added Value from Retired Employees

Lieutenant Colonel Leon E. Pennington, Ph.D., is a U.S. Army assistant professor of national security studies, Air University, Air Command and Staff College, Department of International Security and Military Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 36112-6426

LinkedIn groups in higher education - Maximising community benefits for students & alumni in fashion & textiles: Establishing a tool-kit.

LinkedIn has become the premier social media site for professionals, most employers will search for a job candidate on LinkedIn despite this many students use a range of other social media. LinkedIn has many powerful tools and inherent capabilities that facilitate the range of networking that students engage in to find internships, placements, jobs, and to make professional connections, and keep them. The aim of this project is to leverage the social capital within the networks of our alumni by creating a LinkedIn group to connect Fashion and Textiles academics, alumni and undergraduates. The course team of BA (Hons) Fashion & Textile Buying Management has been encouraging undergraduates to join the University of Huddersfield alumni group on LinkedIn since 2013. This enterprise employability initiative has provided new focus and updated information on graduate destinations and career progression, as well as enhancing networking opportunities for undergraduates. Additionally, recent graduates have been invited back to give a presentation of their experiences and advice to undergraduates. This indicates an increased potential to more actively utilize alumni as role models and mentors as well as a willingness of alumni to act as mentors and facilitators. We recognised in previous cohorts a slow build take-up to engage as “future professionals”, and this year we have adopted the University of Huddersfield ADA Teaching and Learning project framework to facilitate a series of workshops and activities during the 2016/17. This academic year 2016/17 we have started immediately to launch Linkedin with Year 1, in Term 1, in Week 1. BA FTBM year 1 students have responded enthusiastically and very professionally, and the project has attracted increased numbers of alumni and business partners to connect with the School of ADA, Department of Fashion & Textiles

LinkedIn Groups: Building a community to create real connections to benefit students and alumni in Fashion and Textiles

This Fashion & Textiles Collective community presentation focuses on updating and encapsulating progress in the School of Art, Design & Architecture Teaching and Learning funded project. The project team include Fashion and Textiles Design and Business academics, International careers advisor and undergraduate researcher co-presented the latest results, evolving strategies and user experiences on how the project has leveraged and increased the social capital within this professional Fashion & Textiles Higher education community network. LinkedIn has become the premier social media site for professionals, most employers will search for a job candidate on LinkedIn; despite this many students use a range of other social media. LinkedIn has many powerful tools and inherent capabilities that facilitate the range of networking that students engage in to find internships, placements, jobs, and to make professional connections, but compiling a profile takes time with a slow build to engage as “future professionals”. The project team have encouraged undergraduates to join the UoH alumni group on LinkedIn since 2013. The ADA funded T&L project (2016/17) aimed to link these early disconnected undergraduate and alumni activities into a community hub, and recently this initiative is now providing data on graduate destinations (including data for DHLE) and fast paced career progression, as well as sharing current professional resources and encouraging and enhancing networking opportunities for undergraduates and postgraduates to exist in a vibrant online community. The project has demonstrated the potential to more actively connect with and draw upon the experience of alumni as role models and mentors. We have started immediately to launch LinkedIn with our first years, who have responded enthusiastically and very professionally. The project has attracted increased numbers of alumni and business partners to connect with the LinkedIn group

The alumni narrative of the connection between university skills and knowledge, and industry: An ‘outside-in’ understanding

[EN] This study takes an ‘outside-in’ approach by exploring the narratives of university alumni working in industry. The aim of the study is to understand how engaging with industry alumni supports and informs graduate skills and knowledge needed for future employability, and university career/future focused curriculum design. To achieve the aim, the study adopted an Appreciative Inquiry approach to guide a series of n=8 depth interviews recorded in a digital video format. This approach provided alumni with a platform to construct their unique professional narratives in a manner that was relatable and engaging to students, and that universities could use as an educational tool. Data from the interviews resulted in three main themes: 1) the necessity of soft-skills and work experience, 2) the importance of resilience, and 3) the willingness to constantly learn. Theoretically, the findings contribute externally validated support and extension of important and desirable graduate attributes, providing evidence for informing and extending career/future focused curriculum design. Practically, the findings provide students and universities with professional confirmation and foresight of the skills and knowledge needed to transition and navigate the professional workforce, along with an educational tool to implement into curriculum.Fleischman, D.; English, P. (2019). The alumni narrative of the connection between university skills and knowledge, and industry: An ‘outside-in’ understanding. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 379-386. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9347OCS37938

The influence of university brand image, satisfaction, and university identification on alumni WOM intentions

Author original manuscript (pre-print)This study investigates the influence of university brand image, satisfaction, and alumni’s university identification on positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. The model is tested using data collected from a sample of 1000 university alumni, an important and under-researched stakeholder group. A contribution is provided by enhancing our understanding of key under-researched relationships. University brand image was found to be a key driver of alumni positive WOM intentions, due to its direct and indirect influences. The study also identified the mediating roles of alumni’s university identification and satisfaction. The influence of university brand image on alumi WOM is partially accounted for through its influence on alumni satisfaction and alumni’s university identification

Indagine preliminare per la costituzione dell'Associazioni Alumni del Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Marketing e Ricerche di Mercato

Il presente lavoro di tesi magistrale si propone di effettuare una indagine preliminare sul ruolo delle associazioni alumni e dei vantaggi che queste comportano, analizzando la letteratura sul tema e alcuni casi di associazioni di successo. L’obiettivo finale è stato quello di giungere alla realizzazione di un questionario da somministrare ai laureati del Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Marketing e Ricerche di Mercato e porre in questo modo le basi per la costituzione di una propria associazione alumni

IDRC building leaders in research for development : literature review

The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on building leaders and leadership, and evidence on programming effectiveness while engaging with the issue of leadership within research for development (R4D). It explores relevant concepts of leadership, and notes the ways in which effective programming is more likely to be context specific rather than based on universally applicable approaches: appropriate programmes will vary according to the environment within which they are situated. The review highlights potential benefits of investment in developing the internal capacity of organizations to design their own leadership programmes

Alumni associations in Kazakhstan: Building the future of higher education institutions through its graduates

As HEIs are becoming autonomous, the sheer need to search for new ways to overcome financial difficulties and diversify the sources of revenue becomes a necessity, not just a choice. The research problem, therefore, is underpinned by the need for higher education institutions to adapt new approaches to income-generating projects, allowing to conduct an investigation of the topic of alumni associations for them historically to serve as one of the fund-raising and networking venture at the universities of the US and Europe..

A Faculty-Based Approach to Engaging University Alumni

Alumni engagement is widely defined as the level of relationship graduates have with their alma maters. Universities have an opportunity to leverage benefits from having strong connections with their alumni. Furthermore, graduates generally have a stronger affinity to the academic departments they graduated from than to the universities where these departments are based. Additionally, the fiscal and regulatory pressures facing Canadian universities within the province of Ontario highlight the advantages that come with having an engaged alumni community. The Problem of Practice (PoP) investigated in this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is the lack of alumni engagement within a faculty of business at an Ontario-based university and the negative impact it has on students, faculty members, staff, alumni, and external partners. The change process undertaken to close the gap in alumni engagement within the organization is described, as well as several possible solutions for improving alumni engagement. As the Director of Student Engagement and Alumni Development for this business faculty, my thinking is influenced by having a social constructivist view. A good example is my focus on stakeholder engagement and leveraging the knowledge that it provides. I also have the agency to enact the change process and apply authentic, shared, and transformational leadership approaches to close the gap that results from the PoP. The aim of the OIP is to mobilize stakeholders across academic departments within the university and achieve the envisioned future state of enjoying a stronger relationship between alumni and their alma mater. Keywords: alumni engagement, leadership, faculty, social constructivism, universities, organizational chang