Over seventy participants from Europe and beyond attended our 46th ACA European Policy Seminar, on the theme Harnessing the power of alumni - a European perspective. The speakers, representing a wide variety of institutions and similarly diverse perspectives, kept the audience engaged and set the tone for lively post-presentation discussions. Alumni relations have evidently become a hot topic in Europe, with many if not most European higher education institutions nowadays seeking to tap into the power of their alumni (national and international alike). 

The day’s programme covered an overview of alumni work at the European level, national alumni-networking initiatives abroad and some of the best, tried-and-tested practices in keeping alumni present and engaged. Indeed, the seminar was characterised by the hands-on nature of many of the presentations, which provided concrete tools for alumni relations officers and others to “round up the lost sheep,” as one presenter jokingly put it. Best practices for marketing, fundraising and setting up knowledge transfer systems were shared and discussed. Equally compelling were questions regarding the nature of international versus national alumni, or what it means for alumni to have ‘multiple affinities’ or affiliations to more than one institution.

We were happy to witness such a positive response from our participants, many of them first-time attendees. We look forward to another successful event in June, when we will hold our annual conference on topic of internationalisation strategies. For more information and registrations, please click the link below.