The University of Vaasa is actively recruiting international students, tapping into the national requirement of attracting international academics to Finland. The university is therefore, using Mira CRM, working on making the admission process for international students as efficient as possible.
– Making this change is multifaceted. We want to shape a holistic and seamless end-to-end experience for the international students, says Ryan Parker.
Ryan is an external consultant who has been a part of the university’s international development team since 2023. His role is to provide an external eye and to mirror the customer experience in the student recruitment process. Here you can read more about how it all started (the article is in Swedish).
Find the bottle necks
– In short, it’s my job to see where we are at and to find the bottle necks and opportunities in the admission process. The goal is to find the best way to reduce manual (non-value added) tasks and for admissions procedures to become more efficient and both for staff and customers alike, he says.
Ryan also explains that finding the “well qualified students with the ability to succeed in Finland” is key to the university. To assist with this aim, all the stages of the customer journey must be well managed – from the query period, moving on to the application phase, the decision-making including communication with the students, and finally the payment part and helping the students to move to Finland.
We need data
– This is a large and long process, but impactful. To be able to analyse and to take the right decisions, we need data. Bringing all the data together in one single place is crucial, and Vaasa uses Mira CRM for this, he says.
As Ryan tries to keep an eye on the “bigger picture” and hold the strategic perspective, his work consists of finding out what kind of information the university needs and in what way the information should be structured, to get the most out of it.
– Mira CRM provides such a structure. It also opens the possibility of adding plugins to our module, for example payment systems. This allows us to continue to improve, he explains.
Kuvaaja: Christoffer Björklund.
What was your initial challenge?
– We wanted to improve the applicant experience, both when it comes to time and clarity. We also wanted to focus on the communication with the students and minimize human errors. With a single source of information, we hope to get better data and to allow for more advanced analytics and informed operational and strategic decision making.
– By seeking a better customer experience, we wanted to make a better impression and build trust, to make more students feel comfortable in their decision making. We also wanted a more efficient process.
What does the collaboration with Mira Network add to your process?
– We appreciate the ongoing support that Mira is giving and the improvements we can make together. It also feels comfortable to work with a partner that you know and feel secure with. The more you get into Mira CRM, the bigger the outcome, and this incremental journey is a good fit for us. The Mira community gives us a platform for enhancement and a good appetite for more knowledge and intelligence, Ryans says.