Case: Karel de Grote Hogeschool
The Karel de Grote Hogeschool is a Catholic university of applied sciences in Antwerp with more than 13,000 students, both international and Belgian students. KDG asked us to think along about improving the pre- and onboarding of international students. Read more below.
Challenges
KdG faced the challenge of onboarding its new international students in an easy way and putting them in touch with a suitable buddy.
- Offering international students a warm welcome at KdG
- Bringing international students into contact with each other and with Belgian students
- Manually matching buddies takes a lot of time (and less choice for the student)
Solution
KdG has launched its own community for its students where:
- New students can easily choose their own bilingual buddy
- Experienced students can register themselves as a buddy
- Both international and Belgian students can participate to make contact outside their bubble
- Anyone can connect securely without having to share contact information
Why Joinby?
The reasons why KdG chose Joinby:
- Platform helps to connect both international and local students
- Much more functionalities than other solutions
- Can add own logo & colors
- Possibility to add functionalities based on wishes of KdG
Results
Concrete results of KdG:
- 1,900+ students participating in the KdG community
- 100+ buddy matches
- 100+ groups and activities created by students themselves
- 50,000+ mutual chat messages in the first 2 months after launch
Students can get in touch easily using Joinby, either by chatting 1-on-1 after filtering on interests, age, program etc., or by joining one of the many interest groups set up by other students. Joinby was very helpful with developing a few additional features, such as a buddy feature for new students or an automated translation option for our international students (Dutch messages are being translated to English).
Remo Herzorg
International Student Services Officer
In the media
Read the article about the launch of the KdG student community to stimulate encounters between students
Curious?
View the demo or contact us without obligation if you have any questions
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