Semaine franco-allemande de la science et des alumni du 15 au 19 avril 2013. Échanges universitaires, réseaux scientifiques, carrières transfrontalières: Rôle et responsabilité des alumni, étudiants et chercheurs.
L’année 2013, où sera célébré le cinquantenaire du traité d’amitié franco-allemand, est une occasion privilégiée pour donner de nouvelles impulsions à la coopération franco-allemande, notamment dans les secteurs porteurs d’avenir dont le potentiel n’a pas encore été pleinement mesuré ni exploité. Par ailleurs, la coopération doit évoluer à l’avenir en faveur de l’intégration croissante de l’Europe et, si nécessaire, s’inscrire également dans des structures relationnelles mondiales. Plus que jamais, il s’agira en 2013 de mettre en lumière l’amitié franco-allemande comme un processus qui présente un important potentiel de développement, rayonne vers l’extérieur et s’ouvre à de nouvelles perspectives.
L’objectif d’une semaine franco-allemande de la science et des alumni consiste à réunir des alumni, étudiants, et chercheurs issus du franco-allemand, qui sont des acteurs majeurs de l’engagement transfrontalier au niveau de la société civile, de les mettre en relation et de discuter de propositions visant à souligner leur importance et à tirer parti de potentiels encore inexploités. Cette semaine de la science permettra dans le même temps de contribuer au développement d’une diplomatie scientifique et d’une politique scientifique extérieure communes. En savoir plus.

International student recruitment is complex, costly and competitive. But universities can keep ahead by staying connected with overseas graduates, says Nik Miller.
Once a docile adjunct that in some small way contributed to fundraising, alumni engagement programmes are now adding institutional value in their own right. Smart institutions are investing, looking towards their growing alumni communities overseas to boost their international efforts. The cost of undervaluing (or underestimating) graduates' contributions in this area is becoming clear. In a recent report commissioned by the Higher Education Academy (HEA), colleagues and I outlined a range of programmes designed to engage alumni to support international activities. The case studies are categorised under three headings: promoting student employability; enhancing international recruitment; and supporting academic developments. Read more...

By Tema Frank. Alumni departments turn to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more, to engage alumni. This past October, when Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier in a free-fall jump from the stratosphere, the alumni relations department at McGill University realized that the person who designed the outfit used for the jump was a McGill graduate. Within hours, the department had posted an article about the designer on three separate Facebook pages: that of the alumni department, the faculty he’d graduated from, and a volunteer-run branch of alumni. The opportunity to piggyback on news to deepen connections with alumni is one of the many ways social media can benefit university alumni and development offices across Canada. “We need to be where our alumni are,” says Derek Cassoff, director of communications for McGill’s office of development and alumni relations. “We need to be in their newsfeeds.”
And the alumni are decisively there – on all platforms of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. More than 90 percent of online adults now use social media regularly (according to the U.S. 2012 Digital Marketer Benchmark and Trend Report) and younger alumni prefer to communicate by social media rather than by email or print. This means that social media is no longer optional for effective communications with alumni. Read more...

Effective internationalisation in UK higher education is more than a set of activities; it serves the whole university community, contributing to a rewarding culture. Likewise, successful alumni engagement extends beyond fundraising and sees alumni contributing to a wide range of meaningful and innovative programmes which add value to the international efforts of their institutions.
Strategic affinity: engaging international alumni to support internationalisation, a new report from the Higher Education Academy (HEA), builds on existing work to examine the synergies between alumni relations and internationalisation (along with careers services and international recruitment), highlighting case studies of good practice and making recommendations for development activity.
Strategic affinity, written by Nik Miller, Head of Alumni Engagement at the University of York, includes case studies from UK higher education institutions in three categories: supporting academic development; promoting global employability and promoting international recruitment. Other case studies relate to the broader issues of understanding and nurturing the international alumni community. Read more...

Donations to British universities increased 8.5 percent, to $890-million, last year, boosted by new efforts to encourage schools to engage with alumni, the Financial Times writes. The annual Ross-Case report on higher-education philanthropy in Britain found that 204,000 people gave to 150 institutions that were surveyed in the 2010-11 fiscal year, a 10 percent rise from the previous year.
The study credited a three-year, $320-million “matched funding scheme” aimed at promoting alumni relations as a contributing factor in the income gain. Schools that took part in the program backed by the Higher Education Funding Council of England, a public body, boosted donations by 130 percent. The elite universities of Oxford and Cambridge continued to dominate the sector, taking in 44 percent of 2010-11 donations. In other education news, a Rice University alumni has contributed $25-million toward the Houston school’s planned social-sciences building, the Houston Chronicle reports. Read more...