Blue Room Report

The Report of the Discussion Forum on Recruitment and Marketing held on April 16, 2016 - seven days after the visit of the President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama to the Mona Campus – in the Blue Room, Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre, is dubbed the Blue Room Report. There were 57 participants from all faculties and various areas of administration. The objectives of the Forum were met as the discussants and panelists shared stimulating thoughts and perspectives on the UWI practices in recruitment and marketing. The engaging, interactive and compelling arguments in the panel and concurrent group sessions provided ample, rich information to facilitate the formulation of best practice strategies for recruiting students and marketing graduate programmes.

The full detailed report is attached as Appendix 1, but the following were the recurring themes and questions:

General

  1. We need to capitalize on the increased traffic flow to the website consequent on the US President's visit to the Mona Campus
  2. We must begin to see Education as a product, which must be promoted to grow the business
  3. Financial resources must be made available, as internationally, money is seen as a driving factor for recruitment strategies.
  4. Is UWI prepared to spend money to make money?
  5. We must do a cost/benefit analysis of the use of traditional vs web-based recruitment
  6. Is The UWI prepared to engage recruitment agents or set up university recruitment centres as is done in several overseas institutions?
  7. Not only should we market the products (programmes) offered by UWI, but we should also sell and emphasize the location (Jamaica)
  8. There is need for an organized approach to designing promotional materials to enhance and protect The UWI brand and image
  9. We need to consciously identify our competitors and comparators. We must seek out competitive advantage or production differentiation
  10. We need to identify and utilize the best practices internally and adopt across the board. The Mona School of Business & Management's approach to marketing graduate studies is recognized as a best practice as they have a designated marketing officer
  11. The Campus must identify financial resources to assist departments who wish to engage individuals as marketing consultants
  12. A SWOT analysis must be conducted and the results widely shared with internal stakeholders.

    13. International & Regional Recruitment

  13. Identify recruiters regionally and internationally to represent the Mona Campus who can assist in identifying prospects. This may require a commission payable.
  14. Arrange visit of representatives of employers in relevant industries to department’s/Faculty’s Open House
  15. Enlist the assistance of current students who are visiting their home countries during the semester break to generate interest in your programme
  16. Develop targeted advertisements (eg. professional groups such Public Health, Nursing, Forensic Science, Business Administration, Education, Law)
  17. Identify publications that allow for discipline-specific advertising (Eg. Harvard Business Review, The Economist, Caribbean Beat etc.)

Executive Summary of Recommendations

  1. The UWI must begin to fix/improve the students' experience at the undergraduate level
  2. A Tracer Study must be conducted to identify where UWI graduates are employed and to maximize on the linkage potential in the recruiting process.
  3. Employ a Marketing Officer to deal with Graduate Recruitment
  4. The Mona Campus must collaborate with stakeholders (i.e. large corporations/businesses) to bring greater awareness to Programme offerings
  5. Conduct a Needs Analysis Survey to determine where the needs are and create programmes to address those needs.