We are surveying students from across the University of Southampton to find out how much they know about alumni, what input they have had from alumni thus far and how they think that alumni can help them to become more employable.
89% of our respondents told us that they know what 'alumni' are
Less than 50% of our respondents know that the University has an Alumni Office, but 66% know that when they leave the University they can become alumni and be sent regular updates on University activity
Only 45% of our respondents know that the University regularly invites former students back to campus to talk about their experiences after University,
96% of our respondents think that alumni can be used to help them to understand more about the career options available to them, but 65% said that they were only interested in hearing from alumni who took the same degree as them
Respondents were asked to tell us about the types of activity they felt was important for alumni to have input into. They ranked the options given in the following order (1 = most important for alumni input, 10 = least important)
Respondents were asked to tell us when they would most like to have input from alumni, selecting one option from the list given:
Having participated in the survey, respondents were asked to tell us if they would:
A. attend events on campus involving alumni - 82% said 'yes'
B. join the alumni mailing list after you graduate - 77% said 'yes'
C. be happy to come back to University after they have graduated to talk about their life experience or career choices - 70% said 'yes'
We also asked respondents to tell us about any other activities which alumni could help with. We received a whole host of ideas which will be used to inform the next stage of the project: in depth interviews with recent alumni.