At InHolland University of Applied sciences, relevance is important. The university wants to be relevant to their students at all times. That means studies suited to students, but also communication that suits their students. For their student communication, they use the StuCommApp, branded as MijnInholland. Together with StuComm, InHolland University of Applied Sciences now communicates with their students perfectly. Stephan Peters, Teammanager Operations Management Information & Technology at InHolland, gives his view.
Ill-informed students
Every year, the Dutch National Student Survey (NSE) is held. This survey provides Dutch universities with insights in what their students think of them. They receive ratings on different subject, amongst which is information provided to students. “The results indicated students were ill-informed”, says Peters. “We strive to be as relevant as possible to students and offer value. With the systems we had in place at the time, students were not satisfied. That was the reason for us to seek another solution.”
An app as the solution
Peters continues: “When StuComm approached us, we wanted to see their solution first. Naturally, we went to different companies as well to see what they had to offer. Students mostly use their smartphone which made it clear to us we had to have an app. When StuComm presented their solution, we were convinced.”
As with every new technology, InHolland considered carefully. “You want to make the right choice. Naturally, we looked at all available solutions and weighed the options carefully, before making the decision. Looking back at it all, everybody at InHolland is very satisfied with the choice to work with StuComm.”
Expectations exceeded
The goal of implementing the app was to better communicate with students. “Smartphones are used often by most students nowadays. But to be able to communicate with our students via their smartphones, we had to convince them to download the app. We set a target of 10,000 students that had to download the app within the first year.”
Reaching that target turned out not to be a problem at all. “Within the first week we had over 10,000 students that downloaded the app. It exceeded all our expectations and we even had to respond fast to keep our servers from over overloading. We simply did not expect this many students would download the app right away”, says Peters. Additionally, the score of information in the NSE improved after the launch.
StuComm as a partner
At InHolland University of Applied Sciences, the work is never done. They are very happy that StuComm has that same mindset. Peters: “StuComm continuously innovates. They are open to our input on how to optimise the app. Recently we had the matter of exam registration. In advance, we try to carefully estimate how many students will be taking the exam. However, it often occured that we had large spaces and extra people reserved for a certain exam, where fewer students would show up than was expected. That is not at all efficient.”
“The solution was to have students register for exams. To make that as easy as possible, we wanted to offer this in the StuCommApp. StuComm listened and developed a feature enabling students to register for exams. Now, we have a complete overview of how many students will attend an exam, making it much more efficient. This is a great example of the partnership and co creation we experience with StuComm.”
