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22 July 2020 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling & Ilze Bakkes | Photo Sonia du Doit
The team from Student Recruitment Services.
Where do our students come from? For most people, the word “university” signifies eager learning minds, some mischief, exams, graduations, and an environment where a lot of growing up takes place. Those who attended, treasure fond memories of varsity time. And university staff often state that one of their greatest rewards is seeing their students succeed. But how do the students get there?

Students are central

Students are the core business of the University of the Free State. No students, no university. Easy as that. Not only do students pay class fees, but they also contribute to the subsidies received. External funding and third-stream income are also, to a large extent, dependent on a university’s student profile. Nobody wants to invest in or partner with an institution who cannot produce good quality graduates. Sufficient students, and enough good quality students are crucial to not only let the UFS survive, but thrive.

The magic of marketing

The type of students that we need, do not simply appear in the registration lines each year. They are intentionally sourced through strategic and consistent marketing efforts. The pool of top achievers is small, and we compete with 27 other public higher-education institution in South-Africa, and several private universities and college to attract students. Besides the rife competition, our local education landscape is dynamic and influenced by various drivers of change. To achieve the required student intake and student quality, we employ marketing, public relations, and strategic positioning. 

The team behind the tactics

The UFS is fortunate to have an exceptionally strong and experienced marketing team headed by Nomonde Mbadi. She also leads the team of twelve active school marketers who are each assigned to target schools in different regions. Our teams cover South-Africa, as well as some international regions and also encourages post graduate studies. Ilze Bakkes is responsible for integrated marketing, and Linda Greyling heads the promotions and project team. We also boast a separate centre, Kovsies2BConnect where three agents are geared to distribute programme and campus information to both internal and external stakeholders. Data is important and as such we have a newly established unit that is responsible for making sense of the data for strategic decisions.

Setting our aim straight

Our entire approach pivots around our target audience – which is not as straight forward as you may think. Prospective students’ choices are influenced by numerous factors, including their parents, guardians, family members, friends, teachers, mentors, current students, graduates, alumni, and the list goes on. That is over and above their own academic achievements, interests, skills, and socio-economic status. With thorough research and looking at the data from all angles, we navigate our way through this maze of influencers to ensure that our message and call to action hits the spot – or, rather, all the spots!


Targeting with three tiers

The foundation of our strategy is an integration between the AIDA model, and the three-tier engagement model. The AIDA model guides our efforts to create awareness about the UFS, spark an interest from our target audience, create a desire, and ultimately leading to action when they apply and register. The three-tiers begin with targeted mass marketing including advertisements, school visits, and social media campaigns. That is supported by the differentiated marketing of tier-2 aimed at selected schools, parents, and learners. And finally, tier-3 marketing is very strategic and focussed on top achievers. 

All our marketing and recruiting efforts are carefully planned and executed. We do not leave anything to chance and follow a detailed plot of activities and actions pre-planned for each year. Some of the activities are selected based on previous success, and others are opted for due to platform changes and new or developing target audience preferences. These are some of the actions we take: 

Presentations: Selected members of our team are either invited to, or initiate UFS presentations at schools or at career exhibitions. This if often complemented by a branded booth with information hand-outs and possible one-on-one discussions. 

E-communication: We are in continuous communication with school principals and Life Orientations teachers in order to share information and needs. Designated social media pages are also used to create awareness and share information among prospective students and their peers. And mass and personal SMS’s are distributed via methodically created databases. 

In person events: We partake in numerous special events, including the Top Achiever function, parents’ evenings and workshops, breakfast with the Rector, and exclusive engagements with schools. Such events are valuable in terms of information sharing and creating brand awareness. It also gives attendees the opportunity to discuss their needs or concerns. A big favourite is always the UFS Open Day. 

Incentives: Although we do enjoy spoiling stakeholders with branded UFS apparel, it is definitely not an uncontrolled mass handout – we are very selective in our distributions. An effective motivator is rewarding school achievements, and our recently launched Red Box Society seems to have the desired effect. This incentive includes exclusive offers and vouchers to top achievers. Our more familiar Matriculant of the Year competition continuous to attract strong entrants, and our Star of Stars competition offers disadvantaged Grade 12 learners the chance to showcase their excellence. 

The Student Recruitment Services’ team is dynamic, fun, informed, and focussed. We are often complimented on our “vibe” which indicates where our passion lies – we love what we do. Student recruitment, however, needs the support of the entire institution. We need to deliver what we sell. Word-of-mouth is stronger than ever, thanks to social media. People’s lived experience of a brand overshadows any other recruitment initiative. If we want to increase our popularity among the top achieving students, we need to ensure that the UFS lived experience is aligned to our projected brand image. Student recruitment and service delivery is forever engaged in a dance, one wrong step can ruin the show… or the ensemble can recover gracefully if each member puts in the effort to recover from the mistake. Let us support one another when we miss a beat!

You may be wondering – but what about COVID-19? How will we do all our visits and open days? Does that mean we will not have enough students next year? Not at all. The Student Recruitment Services’ team has you covered. Do you want to know what we have been up to…? We will release an article about our COVID-19 tactics soon – so stay informed by checking the UFS official platforms regularly. Remember to wear a mask, wash your hands, maintain physical, and stay safe. 

News Archive

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC
2005-08-03


 

The UFS Central SRC

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC of the University of the Free State, Mr Tello Motloung on Wednesday 3 August 2003

The Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke,
The Vice-chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie
The Vice-Rector Student Affairs of the UFS, Dr Ezekiel Moraka
The Presidents of the main campus SRC and the Vista campus SRC
Colleagues in the Central SRC, campus SRCs, students and fellow South Africans

Please receive my heartfelt revolutionary greetings

Vice-chancellor and rector what I bring here with me assisted by facts, is just the work of my imagination. Like a love letter addressed to a sweetheart miles away, even though you do not know how she feels, what she wants to hear, and do not even know what she looks like.

I value speech as just an honest intimation, that’s why I got into a habit of establishing a dialogue with people, looking at each other’s face, and persuading one another of what we are saying.

Vice-chancellor, today marks an important milestone in the history of the existence of the UFS. Today reflects the confidence and trust that students of the UFS have placed in us. They are confident that the Central SRC has both the will and the capacity to take our university forward as we confront the challenge of transformation.

Students are confident that they are correct to trust the Central SRC as the principal agent of change in our university that is genuinely committed to the objective of building a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic university. We need to frankly ask ourselves, as CSRC members, whether are we up to all these challenges?

All Central SRC members have to understand this fully, internalize it, and ensure that everything we do, does not betray the confidence and trust of students, or disappoint their expectations. I say this knowing that all Central SRC members have committed themselves to serve the students of the UFS, black and white, and no one among us (CSRC) needs any special lectures about this central commitment.

The UFS should be an omnibus, welcoming everybody on board. But we should be a bus with a clear direction. We will certainly lose our way if we, as an institution, don’t have a clear road map spelling out where we are heading to.

There should be clear guidelines on the role of students in the transformation process. Students should also be viewed as role players in transformation along with the University management, and not just opposing forces. There is no right time, other than this one, to move away from the politics of opposition to politics of transformation.

However, we need the support of management to do so. The University should value the role and contribution of student leaders, hear our legitimate claims and consider them as part of political and policy decision making.
     
Vice-chancellor and Rector, it remains our task to ensure that the UFS is transformed into an institution that is seen to be playing a vigilant role in developing students academically, intellectually, socially, culturally, politically and otherwise. The process of transformation is not ending tonight, it is just beginning tonight.

Judge Hancke, Prof Fourie, Dr Moraka, fellow students and fellow South Africans, I lead students at this university with a sense of pride and duty, and I know very well that I lead men and women, students who are all determined that we reach our destination safely and on time.

A navy divided within its ranks will be destroyed and vanquished by the enemy, but the navy united in purpose and action, loyalty and commitment will not sink but sail on to victory.

It is befitting to mention that every drop of my blood is telling me that the UFS is my home. I firstly became a student here, I became the SRC treasurer in my first year here, I became the deputy president here, and I became the first president of the Central SRC of the UFS.

Therefore you should never doubt my commitment towards the transformation of this university. To paraphrase what was said by students at another institution, “If there is no UFS in heaven, then I am not going.”

Let me conclude by thanking my ancestors for teaching me that even if I wined and dined with kings and queens, I am not a king myself, so I should not turn my back on people who made me what I am today.

Most importantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me time and power to lead this university.

It will be theoretically irresponsible if I ended my speech without indicating that “Only a Kovsie knows the feeling”.

I thank you.

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