University of Melbourne to boost student engagement

The University of Melbourne (UoM) intends to create a more unified and personalised experience for its students, staff and alumni through the introduction of a new platform.

The university will work with Cognizant to embed the Tealium Customer Data Platform (CDP,) with the aim to improve study and work experience using a data-led approach.

Executive director for acting communications and marketing Ai Lin Choo Macdonald said that as the university moves through a digital transformation, “we have the opportunity to elevate the student experience."

“We expect this journey will prove invaluable for the university, students and alumni as we create tailored lines of communication, based on individual needs," Macdonald said.

“Coming into this transformation, our mission is to efficiently and effectively communicate with past, present and even future students, helping them engage with UoM on their terms.”  

The university has previously work with Tealium to assist in the management of its online assets while its web team oversaw what went live as part of a shared ownership model, allowing for faster website updates and greater data reliability.

During a webinar earlier this year senior performance and optimisation specialist at UoM, Christopher Mason said he worked with the university “to build a robust, first-party data solution to enable behavioural insights that we can use to inform our segmentation strategy, working closely with the team that does that and to create an improved user’s experience and more effective targeting."

“Essentially, what I’ve been working towards is to identify unknown to known usage to bring in those behavioural insights and provide consistent targeting across all channels so we can build those student relationships more closely and more efficiently,” Mason said.  

During the webinar, Mason said “change is a constant in the digital space”.

“We have to be flexible and keep improving to keep developing with new pieces of technology.”

He said central to all the university work is the “data we are collecting and using to improve the student experience.”

He added it “also increases the need to do a deep dive into the data and generate the insights they need to be successful.”