Nicole Brini Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore London, UK | February 2017

1. M a k i n g t h e m o s t o f
re p o r t i n g - t h e p ow e r o f
a n a l y t i c s
Nicole Brini
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
London, UK | February 2017

2. Università Cattolica was founded in 1921 in
Milan, Italy and is the largest European private
University.
40,000 students
10,000 new graduates every year
1,650 faculty members
3,000 international students
2,200 students per year go on a study or
work abroad program
1 4 Campuses: Milan, Piacenza-Cremona,
Rome, Brescia
12 Schools: 41 Bachelor degrees, 6 Single-
cycle degrees, 42 Master degrees, 100
Specializing masters, 16 Double degrees
#368 Academic Reputation (QS WUR)
#132 Employer Reputation (QS WUR)
#81-90 QS Graduate Employability Ranking
2016
10 Subjects in the TOP 200 QS WUR by
Subject
2
3
4
5
6
History Location
Students and
Faculty
International
dimension
Rankings
Schools
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Facts and figures

3. # H U E M E A 1 7
Drag or drop your photograph here
Weaknesses
Let’s get this straight.. No geeks in the house, unfortunately.
Confusion in the Top Management of the University about what internationalization really
means and how to achieve this.
Small Recruitment and Marketing & Communications teams.
Strengths
Commitment to customer support
Introduced Hobsons technology products in 2008, in 2016 we started the migration from
Connect & AY to Radius (both domestic and international teams)
International team has been a leader and an advocate within the University
Strong reputation in Italy
Threats
Newcomers in the market
Catholic institution; resilience to different religions in certain markets
National unstable economic conditions
Very bureaucratic national education system
Opportunities
Becoming the leading private comprehensive Southern European university
Italy has a very accessible visa procedure compared to other countries
Located in globally renowned cities (e.g. Milan hosts of Expo 2015, Rome the Eternal city)
Apologies for the confusion (and for the reverse SWOT Analysis)

4. International Student Recruitment

5. # H U E M E A 1 7
Our international recruiters team (established in 2011) is responsible for developing the
marketing/sales plan: they observe international trends, select Università Cattolica’s official
representatives (agents), they program benchmark, calculate ROIs, hop on a plane every week
and mystery shop online.
They are our super heroes.
And finally we gave them the tool to interpret the marketing funnel in the best way.
Recruiter

6. What does this tell us about
our audience?
1. We have a great number
of Italians living
abroad/Second
generations wanting to
study at Cattolica (strong
national brand)
2. Students already living in
Italy but holding an
international
qualification make the
largest group of
applicants
3. The UAE is a target
country for recruitment
although we do not
attract UAE citizens (US
influence is still too
strong)

7. Addressing the
student diversity
issue (and value)
1. Market segmentation
2. Identify where to go and
which program to
promote
3. Together with “source”
information develop a
successful marketing
strategy

8. Measuring ROIs - How did
you learn about Cattolica?
1) Google search
2) Agent
3) Current or previous
Cattolica Student

9. Country-segmented
information and
source related
break-down
The importance of Word of Mouth ….. and professors

10. Agent network
• Cattolica still relies a lot
on its agent network for
recruitment
• Real time reporting
allows Recruitment team
to track ongoing agents’
performance
• Instead of relying on
excel file sheets that are
outdated the second
after you download them
• 179 students stated they
learned about Cattolica
thanks to an agent vs
225 declare they are
applying through an
agent (+25%)

11. Recruitment
fairs/events
1. Identify most
valuable/fruitful events
2. Especially for countries
that we enter for the first
time
3. List views also allow
them to follow up on
specific targets in an
independent, fast and
easy way. i.e. sending
application fee waivers to
those who attended
specific events.
Contacts divided by event name
Submitted applicants divided
by event name

12. Internal Communications

13. Communicating
results to top
management
• Weekly result
update sent to
top management
• Specific user
profiles built for
result and
marketing
analysis
• Training and
tutorials for
faculty members

14. Internal workflow

15. Case and
Application
Management
• 2016/17 is our ”Year
zero”.
• We started connecting
some of our email
addresses to Radius
Mailboxes and this will
allow us to monitor and
analyze workloads.
• Although we probably
already know where the
process can be
improved, numbers will
help us support our
request for change and

16. # H U E M E A 1 7
What’s next
• Create Radius Mailboxes for all our
student focused email addresses in
order to track workload and inquiry
management,
• Track enrollments and complete the
marketing funnel analysis (looking
forward to using Analytics module
for applications!)
• Work with the outbound team to
implement Radius usage for internal
domestic students who will be
treated as prospects “outbound”.
Implementing the same marketing
strategy applied for international
students to domestic cohort.

17. Questions?
Nicole Brini
International Reputation Manager
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
nicole.brini@unicatt.it
www.ucscinternational.it