As one of Australia’s leading universities, Swinburne University of Technology receives a lot of interest from international students. When its existing international application system was decommissioned in 2015, International Admissions had to switch to the University’s new Student Admissions System which was not designed to cater for international applications.

“It was very ineffective as the system was not optimised for international applications,” says Di Ruddell, Swinburne’s Head of Admissions. “There were many, many fixes required to cater to international application requirements. We kept having to ask for changes to the system which took a long time to be made. Some changes were never made.” As a result, application turnaround times blew out to six weeks or more – which meant they were no longer competitive. “We lost market share as a result,” says Di.

A system built for purpose
Swinburne’s Head of International Recruitment helped them find a new system. By taking the time to review, shortlist and recommend potential suppliers, Di and her team aimed to find a system that was:

• web-based and accessible from anywhere in the world
• fast and easy-to-use
• customisable, with the ability to package offers and manage templates.

“We wanted to have more control over the process. We needed a system that would allow us to create packages for two, three or four different courses,” says Di.

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This month we spoke with Gabrielle Rolan, Director International Marketing and Pathways at the University of New England. Gabrielle has over 17 years experience as a senior international education marketing professional and has held senior positions at Swinburne University, Central Queensland University and University of Southern Queensland. She also co-presents the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Agent Management Workshops each year. Read more…