Dear Alumni and partners
Thank you for participating in our survey. We were blown away by the number of responses we received. The survey was sent out to 2029 members and 549 submitted an answer within only 10 days. It means a great deal to experience such a level of interest in the development of Danida Alumni Network.
The members of Danida Alumni Network are a very diverse group of people when it comes to age, education, culture and background. Besides alumni the network includes partners at Danish Institutes of higher education and further education as well as companies. This translates into just as diverse an outcome of the survey with members highlighting different preferences, ideas and wishes regarding the information and services that the network provides.
Going forward
Overall, we see a need for more varied and frequent communication from our part and more activities happening in the local networks and the network as a whole. From the results of the survey we have gained a lot of new knowledge and ideas and whenever it is possible we will try to use this as inspiration to improve our services and way of communication.
Many of you mention wanting an active local alumni network in your country/area. We could not agree more. Launching as many local networks and making Danida Alumni Network as big a platform as possible is what we daily work towards. But we cannot do it without the help from local fiery souls who will take the initial steps to get these local networks going. If you want to know how to get started, read here or feel free to contact us.
During the summer we will be working on a toolbox for how to plan activities in the local networks. This will hopefully encourage even more activity within local networks and make planning social events and networking activities easier and more accessible. We plan to involve you actively in the creation of this toolbox and hope that you want to – once again – provide your valuable input.
Danida Alumni Network portal and our social platforms
From the survey results we find that there at times can occur confusion about the use of the portal versus the social media platforms and what content goes where.
We post all important content and services to the Danida Alumni Network Portal which is an open platform for the public to receive news and information about the network. As a member of Danida Alumni Network the portal also functions as a database where information about all alumni who have joined the network can be found. This can be useful when making tracer studies, surveys or if Danish embassies, companies or local initiatives wants to invite members from a specific country to an event. Another use for the database is to network and connect to other alumni in your area or from your former study. The portal is our main platform. In addition to the portal we have a closed Facebook and LinkedIn group.
These groups are social platforms we use to share content on a more direct and daily basis and where we also hope you will actively use your voice to network, inform and connect with other alumni and partners of Danida Alumni Network. We highly recommend joining, since you will receive immediate notifications when news and announcements are posted here.
We are actually posting two exciting calls very soon, so now is the time to join!
Remember that to join the closed Facebook and LinkedIn groups, you need to sign up at the Danida Alumni Network portal first.
Compared to other European alumni networks Danida Alumni Network is still a fairly new initiative – not even two years old yet. We are still learning as we go and we thank you for helping us take the next steps. We are very much dependent on your cooperation and active involvement in making Danida Alumni Network grow.
From here in Denmark we will make sure to always inform you when things change, improvements are made and exciting activities are to come.
If you are interested you can find an overview of the results and findings concluded from the Alumni Information Survey + selected comments from members in a PDF here:
Kind regards,
Danida Alumni Network
Lene, Vibeke and Josias