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In the past year of studying with NCKU, some of the international students of the student council were continuously making an effort to help the university go global. We’ve offered practical help and endless suggestions as to what we think the school can do to improve in that area. One of those areas was international branding where it was suggested by my classmates and I that NCKU needs a full-time English oriented PR team that would exploit of all potential promotion methods. Among suggestions we had a few ideas on how to leverage the power of the Internet – sponsoring the Taiwan blogosphere, using social media, enabling student interaction on the Internet and also making a shift in online presence through well targeted advertising (Google Adwords and Facebook).
Some of the theoretical ideas are presented in the following presentation I gave at one of the courses (some slides removed):
Honestly, the interaction was a bit strange and we had no idea what would happen with all the issues that we raised. It might be cultural differences, but we couldn’t understand if they were genuinely interested in our feedback and help.
It seems that they were and that they’ve already made adjustments. I’ve been in touch with the new girl working full time on English based PR and heard a bit of the efforts made.
While looking at my blog a few days ago, I noticed something surprising. There was a Google Ad showing “Study in Taiwan : National Cheng Kung University – Top University in Taiwan, www.ncku.edu.tw”.
Terrific. They’re on the right track, I can tell, but there’s still a long way to go. The ad itself isn’t bad if it’s targeted at Taiwan based websites to people already taking an interest in Taiwan. There should be an even wider campaign with something like “A Leading Asian University” or something like that.
Anyways, the problems begin with where most Google Ads fail – the so-called “Landing page”. Once you attracted your visitor and you paid the money for bringing him in, it’s up to you to make sure you get the message across and lure the visitor to perform the required action. Where does this ad lead to? (I used Adsense preview tool for that, don’t click on your ads)
Here…
That’s all good, but it makes the visitor run away. A top university with this kind of landing page? not good enough. Why Taiwan? why NCKU? why should I care?
There is some information added every once in a while and atleast there are some explanations about OIA…
Tainan & NCKU…
But it still looks like a Taiwanese BBS rather than something appealing, simple and clear that would tell the person who took the time to press the ad why NCKU is the right choice. A good action would be to fill in a form that would register for an information and application pack that would be sent by post for free to the interested applicant or something similar.
BTW – it’s very easy to track whether the campaign works (conversion of goals with A/B testing, SEM mambo jumbo 101) or not but I seriously doubt it’s being used (e.g. Google Analytics).
The main NCKU website still needs improvement, but, give them time – they’re working on it, little by little, and it seems they are listening, in their own way.
Good luck NCKU.
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LM Hiinamaal
| September 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pm #
shalom, dear fiLi!
“There should be an even wider campaign with something like “A Leading Asian University” or something like that.”
you cannot be serious, can you? for years back home i have been active in promoting QUALITY in education, involving the ministry of education, local governments, head masters, teachers. i helped my own law school to improve our law program to prepare for accreditation.
having said that, i feel amuzed by your ‘marketing’ suggestions. in what area NCKU is actually leading other universities in Asia: in China, Japan, Singapore? my actual knowledge about NCKU is rather limited but i have read very carefully your and Helen’s related blog entries.. and now after she had left.. well.
let’s see with what NCKU can come up with to be considered as a leading Asian university, othervise it is called a false advertisement.
cheers!
Fili | September 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm #
LM - I think you’re confusing a few things.
What I’m suggesting is that people become aware of what NCKU is all about. In some fields, such as exact sciences, Taiwanese universities are among the top universities in the world, some fields - like humanities, require improvement. With that said, even with the political issues Taiwan is facing and the globalization challenge, some Taiwanese universities, NCKU being one of them, constantly rank pretty high in world rankings. I’ve written about NCKU rankings before and they’re not bad, considering the university has done absolutely nothing to promote itself globally. How are the Estonian universities doing, for example?
As for making NCKU better, there’s only so much that I can do as a student other than try to influence the very small and very new program that I’m part of (with projects like INCKU). There are difficulties, as any new program anywhere would have - especially with international students, but that has little to do with how NCKU is as a whole to regional scholars and students. The international PhD program, especially, has just finished its first year. Don’t let your impressions of one case/one program influence your perceptions of the whole university.
It’s great you’re helping your university improve. I wish more students would do the same.
Helen
| September 8th, 2008 at 4:44 pm #
so i am a case …
I do believe you did a lot this last year for NCKU as a whole and IMBA more specifically. Compared to what information we had available last year there is much more information in English for the students who are starting their studies this year. Everyone can make their own decision based on that information and their personal experiences.
Different topic from this is the quality or level of education. AS NCKU is a huge university with hundreds of programs probably, so the level of these programs is diverse as well. I can only speak for the program I attended (from the organization side) and for the lectures at finance department (where I took most of my classes). The first has a lot of room for improvement. The finance classes on the other hand - I think the professors were good and level rather high.
All things considered Tainan and NCKU just wasn’t a place for me. The level of uncertainty involved was a little too high. PhD studies are hard anyway. Having to deal constantly with other matters, was too much.
And do not pick on Estonian universities! Our oldest university was established 1632. And they give higher education in Estonian - the language what only about 1 million people speak. I know in modern world everyone aspires towards globalization. For a small country like my home country is, giving higher education (including PhD degrees) in our own language is a different kind of accomplishment. And they do strive hard to reach the global arena as well. Estonian students were among the top 10 in one of those studies you commented as well in one of your posts.
Fili | September 8th, 2008 at 6:46 pm #
Helen - thanks for the input.
No offense intended with the Estonian universities question. I’m genuinely curious. I gotta say this - there was very little I knew about Estonia before meeting you, aside from it being in eastern Europe and part of former USSR, but now the name pops up a lot more and I can say wholeheartedly that I’m impressed with most of what I hear and read about Estonia. It seems to be doing much better than most of the other former USSR and Eastern-Europe block countries, as well as for the size of population and with respect to other constraints.
I truly hope you’ll find your path in Hawaii. All the best.
Carrie
| September 17th, 2008 at 5:46 pm #
Hi Fili,
Frankly speaking, it’s my idea to put ads on Adword.
However, as you may know, we are crazily busy with our everyday work. Therefore I don’t have enough time to manage and analyze it. But I should work more on it, since we have spent money at this channel. Just like you said, there’s still a long for us to go.
Anyway, thank you for your opinion, it is as helpful as usual.
Fili | September 17th, 2008 at 10:02 pm #
Dear Carrie - good move. I know you guys are under a lot of pressure and a very intense work load and I appreciate the efforts made regardless. If you or NCKU need any help with that or any other suggestions made - please do let me know. This is important.