The Plymouth University Alumni Engagement team leads a university-wide program to engage alumni and attract their support. The team manages alumni data and communications, facilitates staff and student engagement with alumni, and benchmarks performance against peer institutions. Key projects include developing an online alumni community, conducting an alumni survey, and collaborating with other departments on student recruitment, employability, fundraising, and enhancing the student experience. Challenges include limited staffing and improving internal visibility and data integration across the university.

1. Enclosure F
Alumni Board
22 January2016
Author: J Almond Updated January 2016
Alumni Engagement in Context
Introduction
The Plymouth University Alumni Engagement team lead on the development of a University
wide alumni engagement programme which is designed to attract support for and
engagement with a variety of University projects and programmes that support core
business objectives.
Sitting within the Development Office, External Relations, allows the team to work closely
and collaboratively with the fundraising, events, student recruitment and the marketing
functions, however the team also links with all faculties and other professional service areas
of the University.
In essence, the Alumni Engagement team are responsible for enabling the Alumni
Engagement strategy, including managing the data quality of the alumni database, mass
communications with our alumni, raising awareness about University successes and news,
increasing the alumni engagement index, facilitating staff and student engagement with
alumni, developing relationships with key graduates, and benchmarking our performance
and practices against like-minded HEI’s.
Team
The Alumni Engagement team currently consist of:
1. Jean Almond, Alumni Engagement Manager (G8)
2. Jill Gratton, Database Officer (G5)
3. James Wadham, Database Officer (G5)
4. Samantha Davis, Alumni Engagement Officer (G5)
5. Joshua Schouten de Jel, Alumni Case Study Officer (G5)
6. Laura Smith, Alumni Engagement Assistant Administrator (G3)
7. Natassia Richardson, Development and Alumni Intern (G2)
PU Alumni by numbers
UK Overseas Unknown
Totals 90301 10778 32257
Contactable by email 32089 5697 7797
Contactable by post 57400 4992 -
Not Contactable 812 89 24460
Alumni by age
<20 or (blank) 3144
20-29 39540
30-39 45079
40-49 27892
50-59 11912
60-69 4982
70-79 728

2. Enclosure F
Alumni Board
22 January2016
Author: J Almond Updated January 2016
80-89 56
90-99 3
Top 10 subjects (by number of alumni)
Psychology 3532
Geography 3163
Post Compulsory Education and Training 3000
Nursing (Adult) 2914
Environmental Science 2551
Accounting & Finance 2258
Business Administration 2135
Fine Art 1817
Architecture 1660
Business Studies 1615
Key projects:
1. Online Community
The team are currently driving work to implement and co-deliver a secure scalable online
professional community with Careers & Employability, Student Recruitment and Admissions,
the Director of Student Services, Create Digital, Technology and Information Services and
members of the University legal and Data Protection teams. This project is a strategic priority
for the Alumni Engagement team and will impact on student employability, student
recruitment and the student experience. The project will enable alumni to:
 connect with each other securely online regardless of their location
 mentor students and recent graduates in a scalable way, securely, online
regardless of their location
 support conversion by sharing their experience of Plymouth with applicants who
are in receipt of an offer from Plymouth University
This project will have a significant impact on the student experience and support the UPSU
strategy around employability. UPSU are very supportive of this project.
Timeline: the phased rollout of the platform began in November 2015 with established
alumni. To date over 900 alumni have registered on the platform and about 10% of these
alumni have pledged to offer mentoring or be an ambassador.
Phases two and three will see the platform rolled out to selected students and applicants
between February and May 2016.
2. Alumni Survey
In 2015 the team worked with SERIO to conduct the biggest survey of Plymouth University
alumni in recent years. The aim of the survey was to gain feedback from alumni in terms of
what alumni want from the University and how they wish to engage and support the
University, from communications to events and mentoring. The survey was promoted

3. Enclosure F
Alumni Board
22 January2016
Author: J Almond Updated January 2016
through a mailing to 6,700 sampled alumni (PG and UG), by email to 28,000 alumni and
through the alumni social media channels.
The survey closed on 18September 2015, over 1,700 responses were received. The online
and postal survey was followed by telephone interviews and analysis by SERIO. A draft
report is now available and will provide important direction for future alumni engagement
activities.
3. Student recruitment
The Alumni Engagement team are collaborating with colleagues in Student Recruitment &
Outreach to establish how best to leverage the alumni community to support recruitment
objectives, including:
 new Alumni Portraits are under development to support the forthcoming Open Days
 selected Alumni Portraits are featured in the PG Marketing campaign
 a bank of over 100 new alumni case studies have been developed to support the
strategic priorities of the University, including recruitment & employability
 during graduation week the team identified and photographed class of 2015 ‘star’
graduates for case studies highlighting their early career outcomes and plan to build
on this approach in 2016
4. Employability
Over the last 12 months the Alumni Engagement team have developed a structured
programme of co-delivery with the Careers & Employability team, including:
 working with Exams & Awards and Careers &Employability in a coordinated way to
capture contact information for the graduating cohort of students and supporting the
delivery of Jobshop (the graduate recruitment agency) at graduation
 working with Careers & Employability and TiS to find a data sharing / CRM solution
between Sales Force and Donor Strategy
 sourcing case studies highlighting career outcomes and paths
 sourcing alumni mentors for the UK Widening participation mentoring scheme in the
academic year 2015-2016
 successfully completed a mentoring pilot in Beijing in 2014-15
 promoting volunteering opportunities to alumni
 supporting the 2015/16 DLHE survey
5. Fundraising Campaign
The alumni engagement team plays an important supporting role in increasing philanthropic
income and sponsorship revenue by:
 delivering a structured programme of communications for key stakeholders, including
alumni and VIPs, to raise awareness about our institutional successes and ambitions
and inform them of opportunities to engage and support
 managing Donor Strategy, the Development Office CRM database, including
supporting financial reporting
 delivering a continuous programme of data cleansing
 represented on Campaign Project Boards in order to support the delivery of the
Campaign by leveraging engagement opportunities for alumni, VIPs
 a major data cleansing and wealth screening project is currently underway
 mailing Connect magazine to VIP stakeholders

4. Enclosure F
Alumni Board
22 January2016
Author: J Almond Updated January 2016
 recent key gifts include the Stephen Ball’s gift to the Tamar Engineering Fund
6. International
Over the last 3 years the team have established a collaborative approach with Academic
Partnerships (AP) and the International Office, ensuring that our activities support the
international strategy and ambitions of Plymouth University, including:
 weaving alumni engagement and communications into the plans for international
graduation ceremonies (eg Hong Kong, Beijing, Sri Lanka)
 sourcing international case studies to support recruitment e.g. British Council
campaigns
 collaborating with AP, the International Office, and the Events Team to deliver a
programme of high quality international alumni events which support recruitment and
partnerships
 piloting our first international volunteer alumni committee in Hong Kong
7. Student Experience
The alumni engagement engages with over 100,000 alumni worldwide however, by working
collaboratively with colleagues across Plymouth University whose remit is more student
facing, we can better engage with current students and raise awareness of the alumni
community, what it means to be a Plymouth alum and the benefits of the alumni community,
including:
 implementing the new online community so that, for the first time, current students
can access alumni mentors
 promoting scholarships and awards
 producing a series of alumni profiles in The Knowledge to inspire students and raise
awareness
 working with the wider External Relations Directorate to deliver an exceptional
graduation experience
 working collaboratively with the Residence Life team to design mugs and coasters
which were placed in student rooms in the halls of residence, carrying an alumni /
welcome message during Arrivals week. The objective being to raise awareness of
the alumni programme from the point of student arrival at the University
Key Challenges :
· staffing resource to capitalise on new opportunities
· internal visibility across a large and diverse University workforce
· integration with the University CRM Sales Force
Contact:
Jean Almond
Alumni Engagement Manager
Email: jean.almond@plymouth.ac.uk
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/your-university/about-us/university-structure/service-
areas/marketing-and-communications/development-office