Alumni Network Research Articles

The Adaptation of Executive Education Programs in Thailand during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study explores the factors influencing the management of an executive education (EE) program in Thailand during COVID-19. The pandemic caused significant disruption, necessitating a rapid shift to online learning and curriculum reassessment. This case study focuses on the redesign of a Thai business school's EE program. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with participants and program managers. Key preliminary findings highlight the importance of C-level guest speakers, project-based learning, and a balance of practical and theoretical approaches. The study also underscores the value of online networking, strong alumni networks, and using COVID-19-related content as learning tools. The results suggest that business schools should integrate learning theories to foster innovation and adaptability, ensuring dynamic curricula and impactful research to meet the evolving global landscape.

Building Resilience: Strengthening European public health workforce through ECDC Fellowship Programs

Abstract The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Fellowship programmes offer a two-year training in field epidemiology (EPIET) and in public health microbiology (EUPHEM) aiming to create and maintain a network of highly trained field epidemiologists and public health microbiologists and strengthen the public health epidemiology workforce in the European Union (EU) and beyond. The Mediterranean and Black Sea Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (MediPIET) also aims to strengthen the public health workforce in countries neighboring the EU. During the training, fellows who are based in different public health institutes in the EU and neighboring countries, set-up, implement and evaluate surveillance of communicable diseases, investigate outbreaks and conduct operational research directly linked to public health actions. The programmes facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration across borders, building a foundation for participants and their institutions and promoting long-term collaboration through the alumni network. Participants from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds enable interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral knowledge transfer, enhancing the effectiveness of public health responses. By facilitating collaboration and networking, exchanging experiences, disseminating best practices and assimilating lessons learned, these programmes contribute to addressing contemporary health challenges, including emerging vector-borne diseases and strengthening public health systems in Europe and neighboring regions. In the face of global challenges such as climate change and globalization, the fellowships exemplify how collaboration can strengthen Europe’s defenses against emerging health threats.

The Participation of Alumni in Successful Endowment and Waqf Funds

Endowment and waqf funds are essential sources of income for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in many countries, including Malaysia. Identifying the elements that contribute to the success of these funds can help sustain them. The previous scholars discovered that several elements drive the success of endowment funds in HEIs; one such element is alumni networks. This was also discovered to determine successful fundraising in another study. In this regard, this study examines this element in the context of Malaysia to observe its role in determining the success of endowment and waqf funds, particularly in public universities in this country. Simultaneously, this study also investigates the factors that drive the establishment of these alumni networks. To achieve these objectives, this study adopted a qualitative approach using interviews. Several representatives from selected universities were interviewed, and the information obtained was transcribed and analyzed. It was discovered that alumni networks are essential determinants of the success of endowment and waqf funds at the selected universities. Several key factors were identified that can help build alumni networks, such as assistance from alumni associations, a positive experience while studying, and awareness of charitable giving. This study suggests that universities can emphasize these three factors to build relationships with alumni and ensure continual contributions.

Student migration, transnational knowledge transfer, and legal and political transformation in Georgia

ABSTRACT In contrast to the other papers in this special issue, this paper reflects a specific case of co-agency between states and individual migrants, particularly students and alumni networks. Based on a qualitative case study with 29 Georgian students and 14 institutions and organizations, this paper explores the impact of Georgian alumni on polity building in Georgia. Here we can observe two phases: Firstly, the states of Georgia and of Germany act as co-agents by facilitating migration to young Georgian students by financing their studies in Germany (student scholarships) with the objective that the students return and transfer their knowledge to the country of origin. Subsequently, the Georgian alumni who studied law in Germany act as co-agents between different institutions in both countries. In doing so, they transform state institutions by themselves and contribute to the development of the legal and political system in Georgia. They do that particularly in such important legal fields like constitutional law, civic law, and criminal law, but also in the creation of parliamentarism based on a bicameral system or the promotion of separation of church and state in Georgia. That takes place after return migration as well as from Germany through transnational networks and mobility.

Advancing Higher Education with the Transition to Smart Universities: A Focus on Technology

This study explores the transformative journey of higher education towards smart universities, emphasizing integrating cutting-edge technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and biometric systems. This evolution responds to the evolving demands of society, aiming to significantly enhance the educational experience while reimagining campus life and community involvement. It sheds light on the creation of immersive, interactive, and personalized learning landscapes that accommodate a diverse array of student requirements, including those with disabilities, setting a new standard in educational inclusivity. The discourse extends to the pivotal role of smart campuses, which are instrumental in forging safer, more inclusive, and environmentally sustainable educational realms. Furthermore, the paper highlights the importance of digital platforms in nurturing social bonds and community engagement, especially through the potent medium of alumni networks. By transitioning into centers of innovation and technological excellence, universities are equipping students for a future shaped by technology. The review highlights the transition’s challenges and opportunities, emphasizing the need to balance technological advancements with human-centric values, ensure equitable technology access, and maintain privacy. It presents the rise of smart universities as a pivotal step towards more interconnected, intelligent, and sustainable communities, significantly influencing education and societal development.

Strategi Manajemen Humas dalam Meningkatkan Animo Masyarakat terhadap Pendidikan Madrasah

This study aims to analyze and compare public relations management strategies at MAN Gondanglegi and MA AN-Nur Bululawang, with a focus on enhancing community interest in these educational institutions. Employing a qualitative approach, this research scrutinizes planning, execution, and evaluation phases of public relations within both schools, alongside their impact on attracting more students. Results demonstrate that both MAN Gondanglegi and MA AN-Nur Bululawang employ a comprehensive array of strategies, including media publications, alumni networks, and community engagement activities, which have significantly increased their popularity and student enrollment. The study concludes that effective public relations management plays a crucial role in the growth and reputation of educational institutions. These findings underline the importance of strategic communication and community involvement in the educational sector, offering valuable insights for other institutions aiming to enhance their public image and attract more students. For further research, it is recommended that researchers conduct a more in-depth analysis of the long-term impact of public relations management strategies on improving the image and reputation of educational institutions at national and international levels.

Unlocking Success: Innovative Education Marketing Strategies for Elementary School Enrollment Growth

Building upon the aforementioned principles, SD NU Kaplongan endeavors to consistently deliver top-tier educational services, encompassing excellent facilities, quality assurance, and holistic character development. To complement these efforts, effective marketing strategies and a proficient teaching staff are essential in executing prepared initiatives. This study adopts a qualitative methodology, chosen for its compatibility with existing research and its aptness in analyzing community issues and mitigation efforts. Findings reveal that SD NU Kaplongan's marketing strategy is spearheaded by a dedicated core team responsible for community outreach and program promotion. This includes engagement with the new student admissions committee, followed by a comprehensive four-step marketing approach. The school offers a range of academic and extracurricular programs, yielding notable achievements and preparing students for enrollment in esteemed institutions such as state junior high schools and Madrasah Tasanawiyah. Moreover, promotional activities are extensively conducted through various channels, particularly leveraging social media platforms and alumni networks. Additionally, the school actively engages in community-oriented initiatives, organizing events such as competitions and religious activities to foster social cohesion and outreach.

A qualitative study of social accountability translation: from mission to living it

BackgroundMedical schools are increasingly adopting socially accountable mission and curricula, the realisation of which are dependent on engaging individuals to embody the mission’s principles in their everyday activities as doctors. However, little is known about how graduates perceive the efforts taken by their medical school to sensitise them to social accountability values, and how they translate this into their working lives. Our aim was to explore and understand graduate perceptions of how their medical school influenced them to embody a social accountability mission in their working lives.MethodsThis was a qualitative interview study carried out with graduates/alumni [n = 51] of Christian Medical College, Vellore [CMCV], India, a school with a long-established and explicit social-accountability mission. Data coding and analysis were initially inductive and thematic using Braun and Clarke’s six step framework. MacIntyre’s virtue ethics theory framed secondary analysis, allowing us to consider the relationships between individual and contextual factors.ResultsOur participants perceived that CMCV invested heavily in selecting personal qualities aligned with the CMCV mission. They saw that these qualities were reinforced through various practices: [e.g., placements in resource limited and/or remote and rural settings]; community engagement and expectations [e.g., student self-governance]; role modelling [staff and more senior students]. Much emphasis was placed on sustaining these traditions and practices over time, creating a strong sense of identity and belonging among participants, traditions which were fostered further by the alumni network and continued engagement with CMCV post-graduation.ConclusionsEnsuring social accountable medical education depends on alignment and interactions over time between context and structures, systems and human agents. Further studies are needed to extend understanding of how students from diverse contexts experience socially accountable medical education and translate their educational experience into their thinking and practice after graduation.

Alumni network, mutual fund herding and information spillover: Evidence from China

This paper studies the influence of alumni connections on mutual fund herding behavior. We find funds with alumni connections have significantly more overlap in holdings, purchases, and sales than funds without connections. Based on the perspective of information spillover effect, further research find alumni fund managers are more likely to conduct corporate site visit together, and shared stocks held by alumni funds have higher probability of positive earnings surprise. The performance of funds with alumni connections are more related and are more likely to suffer unsystematic shocks simultaneously. Our findings reveal the importance of alumni networks in assets management industry.

The GIBACHT fellowship: a multilateral initiative for strengthening capacity in biosafety and biosecurity towards pandemic preparedness.

The German Biosecurity Programme was launched in 2013 with the aim to support partner countries overcome biological threats including natural outbreaks or the intentional misuse of highly pathogenic agents. As part of this programme, this paper describes the development and implementation of a multilateral biosafety and biosecurity training initiative, called 'Global Partnership Initiated Biosecurity Academia for Controlling Health Threats' (GIBACHT). To achieve its objectives, GIBACHT implemented a blended-learning approach with self-directed, distance-based learning phases and three training-of-trainer workshops. The programme follows Kirkpatrick's model of learning to guarantee sustainable effects of improved knowledge and skills. One hundred nine fellows from 26 countries have been trained in seven cohorts. Many GIBACHT alumni have established additional biosafety/biosecurity trainings in their home countries. The knowledge exchange is strengthened by the implementation of a Moodle-based alumni network. GIBACHT has the potential to contribute to strengthening the capacities of partner countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia to respond and build resilience to biological threats.

Exploring Chinese human capital flight using university alumni data

ABSTRACT China is one of the major sources of student migrants to many Western countries, growing rapidly during the last couple of decades. In China, several national and regional level policy schemes have been set up to incentivise the return of the high-skilled overseas population. Data to monitor these migration patterns are typically lacking. In this article, we explore the spatial patterns of overseas alumni populations from 106 leading Chinese universities using data gathered from the LinkedIn advertising platform. We first assess the suitability of the LinkedIn data for measuring overseas migrant distributions and then adapt an extended gravity model to aid the interpretation of the relationships between countries, universities and intermediate characteristics and the size of the overseas alumni populations. We find that the LinkedIn data provide plausible measures of Chinese university alumni networks. Alumni populations are in general larger from highly ranked universities, in greater numbers from universities in Beijing and Shanghai and universities with higher numbers of foreign students. These findings help better understand human capital flight, where conventional studies use migration data that do not typically have breakdowns to sub-national units or specify where emigrants received their education.

The Relationship between Alumni Network and Exploratory Innovation: The Mediating Role of Enterprise Risk-Taking

In an increasingly open innovation environment, executives, as the core of corporate management and the main body of decision-making and execution, play a significant role in implementing innovation-driven development strategies. Based on executives’ educational background, we constructed an executive alumni network platform using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019, and calculated the centrality indicators. The aim was to comprehensively explore the relationship between alumni networks and exploratory innovation in enterprises, and examine the mediating effect of enterprise risk-taking. Empirical results show that executive academic background networks can promote the development of exploratory innovation activities in enterprises. In other words, these networks provide the social relationships and trust foundation necessary to support innovation effectively. Enterprise risk-taking plays a mediating role in the relationship between alumni networks and exploratory innovation, underscoring the importance of risk-taking. Further research reveals that alumni networks have a significant positive impact on the sustainability of innovation, emphasizing the long-term value for corporate innovation. These findings demonstrate that alumni networks play a critical role in corporate innovation activities and provide theoretical support for advancing research in corporate innovation and sustained development.

THE URGENCY OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT OF ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION (A CASE STUDY OF UIN RADEN MAS SAID SURAKARTA IN THE ERA OF SOCIETY 5.0)

This paper discusses the urgency of marketing management for higher education institutions, as it plays a crucial role in determining the sustainability of enrollment and increasing public trust in the university. The university's marketing management is carried out by taking into account the constantly changing consumers or stakeholders. Market research, positioning, and building the university's reputation are conducted in such a way that the relevance and accuracy of the strategies are always appropriate. The university's vision, mission, programs, and strengths cannot be recognized without promotion through good marketing management. This paper uses a qualitative method with data collection techniques through interviews, observations, and documentation. The results of this study show that UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta has implemented marketing management to increase enrollment sustainability with new innovations according to the demands of society 5.0. Furthermore, UIN has also utilized social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, website, alumni network, and others as marketing tools.

MEASURING THE RESEARCH EFFICIENCY OF UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UITM) BY USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA): A CASE STUDY IN UITM PERLIS

This paper aims to measure research efficiency of UiTM Perlis by using two different models, which are the Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) model and the Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) model. The data used is secondary data started from 2018 to 2022, obtained from the departments involved such as the Academic Affairs Division (HEA); Industry, Community, and Alumni Network (ICAN) Office, and Administration Office, UiTM Perlis. It has also been distinguished the competencies for each year and examined the current trends towards 2025, with the aim of achieving the mission of the UiTM2025 strategic plan. There are five decision making units (DMU's) for both aspects studied; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, which are the five distinguished years for this study. The use of the two models in this study, namely CCR-I and BCC-I is to ensure that the ranking analysis results are more accurate and precise. Both models use input-oriented model functions as a way of maximizing efficiency in order to increase the number of fairies. For research efficiency, two DMU’s which is 2018 and 2020, were ranked first for both models. Thus, making this DMU's ranked first for both models.

Top Talent, Elite Colleges, and Migration: Evidence from the Indian Institutes of Technology

We study migration in the right tail of the talent distribution using a novel dataset of Indian high school students taking the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), a college entrance exam used for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). We find a high incidence of migration after students complete college: among the top 1000 scorers on the exam, 36% have migrated abroad, rising to 62% for the top 100 scorers. We next document that students who attended the original “Top 5” IIT were 5 percentage points more likely to migrate for graduate school compared to equally talented students who studied in other institutions. We explore two mechanisms for these patterns: signaling, for which we study migration after one university suddenly gained the IIT designation; and alumni networks, using information on the location of IIT alumni in U.S. computer science departments.

Inter-Linked Platform for Campus Placement in Higher educational Institutions of India

Abstract: Campus placement, also known as campus recruitment, is a crucial process for connecting students with potential employers and facilitating their entry into the job market. However, the traditional campus placement process can be timeconsuming, cumbersome, and inefficient, both for students and employers. In today's competitive job market, it is imperative to enhance the efficiency of the campus placement process and improve student employability. To address these challenges, we propose an interlinked platform for campus placement that leverages modern technology to streamline the recruitment process and enhance student employability. The proposed platform brings together various stakeholders, including students, employers, placement officers, and alumni, on a unified digital platform to create a seamless and efficient recruitment ecosystem. The interlinked platform incorporates a range of features to optimize the campus placement process. These features include an online portal for students to create and manage their profiles, upload their resumes, and apply for job opportunities. The platform also provides tools for employers to post job openings, search and shortlist candidates, and schedule interviews. Additionally, the platform facilitates communication between students and employers, allowing for real-time feedback and updates. One of the unique aspects of the interlinked platform is the integration of alumni networks. Alumni can serve as mentors, providing guidance and insights to students on the platform. They can also participate in recruitment activities, such as conducting mock interviews, providing industry-specific advice, and networking with potential employers. This integration of alumni networks adds value to the campus placement process by leveraging their expertise and connections to enhance student employability.

Investigating the distribution of university alumni populations within South Korea and Taiwan based on data from the LinkedIn advertising platform

Universities produce, retain and attract high-skilled individuals and promote economic growth in their cities and surrounding areas. One of the main contributing factors to the impact of universities on local development is the size of alumni that remain after graduation. In recent years, new data sources have emerged from social media that can potentially provide more timely and unique estimates of population redistribution. We use LinkedIn advertising platform data to measure alumni population distributions in South Korea and Taiwan. In both countries, there are decreasing numbers of students entering universities, with potential negative impacts on local development. We validated the LinkedIn data using external comparisons of totals against official data on the distribution of tertiary-educated populations and university student population sizes. We use multi-level gravity models to compare and contrast the spatial distributions of the alumni networks in the two countries, and the related push and pull factors. The data from LinkedIn provide plausible measures of alumni networks and an insight into the potential drivers of alumni population distributions. The results provide useful guidance on the potential impacts when reorganizing university systems in the coming decades.

Academic Pursuits and Involvement in Decision-Making: Study on the Formation of U.S. University Think Tanks

This paper analyzes the concept of think tanks and concludes that think tanks have three basic characteristics. Firstly, they are based on academic research, relatively independent operation, and aim to serve scientific decision-making. Taking Ivy League think tanks as an example, this paper provides a preliminary discussion of ways for think tanks to maintain the scientific nature of their research, maintain the independence of their operations, and disseminate research results to enhance their influence. It covers institutional mission, research team construction, institutional governance, fundraising, achievements and activities, and alumni networks. This paper proposes a framework of university think tank generation paths associated with the essential characteristics of think tanks. The paper points out that, as a research consulting organization grown out of universities, university think tanks must maintain the scientific nature and independence of research while providing support and services for decision-making. Only in this way can they truly serve scientific and democratic decision-making, gain the trust of the public and have a real lasting influence.

Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez‐Faire, Differentiation, and Research”

Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez‐Faire, Differentiation, and Research”

How Lecturers, Supervisors, and MGMP PAI Collaborate in Sustainable Professional Development (PKB): an Observation in Sleman Regency

This research aims to illustrate the collaboration of lecturers, students, supervisors, and MGMP in the development of sustainable professional teachers in Sleman Regency. This research uses a qualitative approach with descriptive research types of cooperation among lecturers, students, supervisors, and MGMP in the development of sustainable professional pai teachers in Sleman Regency. Data collection is done through telephone interviews and/or cloud meeting zooms. As well as spreading the questionnaire, it was done using a Google form given to MGMP members through WhatsApp messages. The results showed the importance of collaborating with teachers and supervisors who feel the need for help and competent speakers and lecturers who have funds and expertise for service and develop the quality of education in the local region of their universities. The form of collaboration is the training of PTK, LKPD, and Canva Learning Media Development. The busy schedules of many MP members, limited funds, and poor communication between supervisors, MGMP, and universities are all barriers to collaboration. The supporting factors are the existence of new regulations that encourage the development of kopetensi, the creativity of MGMP supervisors in establishing communication with universities, the allocation of funding from universities, and alumni networks as information distributors or liaisons. This research is expected to provide an overview and a theory about the form of cooperation between lecturers, students, supervisors, and MGMP.