Creating digital solutions for student experience

We all know students are totally immersed in the digital world. It’s the world of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok (Douyin in China), WeChat and Little Red Book. A world that’s mobile-based, always on and highly visual, social and interactive.

UMS has delivered a range of student experience solutions for this digital world. We have many learnings and believe there’s a significant opportunity to keep improving student experience by combining digital expertise with insights from behavioural science.

Here are five ways digital solutions for Chinese students can improve their experience and benefit your organisation:

1.???? Improve engagement

Chinese students are much less likely to visit websites or use western social media such as Facebook and Instagram. WeChat is their starting Point. Little Red Book (“Red”) and Douyin are also extremely popular (for more insight, see our guide China Social Media Platform Report 2023).

Connecting with your Chinese students in their digital world and language will increase engagement and positive student experience outcomes. For example, WeChat mini programs provide Chinese students with a familiar and easy way to access information, video, tools (eg. planning and health), and join livestreaming. Additionally, using Chinese social media platforms for student experience makes it easier for you to use the wider Chinese digital ecosystem to source new student users, drive repeat visitation, and grow sharing and advocacy.

2.???? Support your largest student group

In most countries, including the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, Chinese students are the largest international student cohort.[1] Many leading universities have more than 40% of their international students from China. However, in some countries and institutions, the overall student experience ranking for Chinese students is lower than the international student average.[2]

Developing tailored digital solutions for Chinese students enhances their experience, while demonstrating your institution’s commitment to this important student group. This will help increase advocacy and retention.

It also helps your institution and country protect revenue. Often Chinese students are the largest single source of international fees and the group most likely to transition from school to undergraduate study to post-graduate study within the same country.

3.???? Equip your students to tackle their most pressing challenges

Multiples studies note the particular challenges experienced by many Chinese students around cultural integration, making friends with those from the host country, language, and adaptation to a different educational approach.[3]

Digital solutions give you the opportunity to support students around these challenges in a safe, private and non threatening way. Information alone is usually not the solution. Giving students access to self-directed tools, student stories to normalise the issue and provide tips, steps for action, online support groups, forums and other services all can enable students to take positive steps.

Insights and techniques from behavioural science can help “nudge” students to action or increased knowledge, even if they’re not actively seeking information or help.[4]

4.???? Increase positive word of mouth

Using digital solutions to help improve student experience will provide another benefit – increased word of mouth.

Chinese students in particular rely on word of mouth for decision making and peer to peer advice while studying in country.[5] Social media, such as WeChat, spreads and amplifies word of mouth. Many studies place friends, parents and teachers individually in the top 3-4 sources of information.[6] A recent student experience study by Education New Zealand has Chinese students rating friends as the most important group for support, at 72%, and 5 percentage points higher than the total sample.[7]

Use of Chinese digital properties that support sharing and peer to peer connection are essential for your organisation. We have found student forums and livestreaming with student voices to be particularly popular with Chinese students.

5.???? Support your other international student services

Higher education providers offer many services to international students. However, often they are resource intensive (eg. Student support staff and counsellors), moment in time (orientation) or require effort by students (travel, time and money).

Digital solutions can scale and reach a wider audience than face to face services. They can be more engaging, interactive and adaptable to an individual student’s need than a handbook. They can help prepare or support students before a face-to-face meeting.

We recommend developing an “online to offline” strategy for student experience. This will let you reach a wider student audience, while helping channel them to your other services.

UMS has extensive knowledge in international education globally and helping to improve student experience. Many of our team are former international students. They know both the challenges and transformational experience of studying abroad.

For two examples of our student experience digital solutions, see the following case studies:

[ENZ Naumai NZ mini program]

[Study Melbourne Hub Shanghai]

UMS would be delighted to help you develop a digital strategy for Chinese student experience to support your current activity.

Talk to us now to learn more. Contact Jessica Miao or Becty Yan .

[1] See https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EDU_ENRL_MOBILE

[2] In Education New Zealand’s International Student Experience Survey 2023, 78% of Chinese students rated their experience positively compared to 84% for the overall sample. See https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/education.new.zealand/viz/InternationalStudentExperienceSurveyDemographics/DemographicsandProfile?

[3] See, for example:

·?????? Briguglio C. & Smith R., “Perceptions of Chinese students in an Australian university: are we meeting their needs?”, Curtin University 2018 https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/35923/189275_189275.pdf?sequence=2 ?

·?????? Chang J., The Experiences of Chinese International Students in Auckland, Thesis, University of Auckland 2021. https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/61530/Chang-2021-thesis.pdf?sequence=1

·?????? Holliman, Andrew J., Bastaman, Amanda S., Wu, Hiu S., Xu, Shuyue and Waldeck, Daniel. "Exploring the experiences of international Chinese students at a UK university: a qualitative inquiry"?Multicultural Learning and Teaching, 2023.?https://doi.org/10.1515/mlt-2022-0020

·?????? Huang, L., Kern, M. L., & Oades, L. G. (2022). Experiences of Chinese international students living in Australia: Wellbeing from "we" to "me". International Journal of Wellbeing, 12(3), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v12i3.1915

[4]?? For a discussion of international students’ information seeking, see Chang, S., & Gomes, C. (2017). “Digital Journeys: A Perspective on Understanding the Digital Experiences of International Students.” Journal of International Students, 7(2), pp 352-353. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v7i2.385

[5] See “The Student voice matters in determining choice of University or College”, p26, UCAS and Pearson, Global Insights: What are the experiences of Chinese students in the UK, 2023. https://www.pearson.com/languages/news/global-insights-experiences-of-chinese-students-in-the-uk.html?

[6] For example, see UCAS and Pearson, p 24.

[7] Education New Zealand, 2023 International Student Experience Survey 2023, https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/education.new.zealand/viz/InternationalStudentExperienceSurveyDemographics/DemographicsandProfile?