Alumni Matters 2024: Time to move forward

28 January 2025

Ian Hawkings looks at the key findings from the new Alumni Matters report.

This year’s Alumni Matters report paints a varied picture. We’ve clearly moved on from Covid, but it still casts a long shadow. Undergraduates who completed their studies in 2024 may still have spent at least some of their studies online during the pandemic, and as reported in last year’s report we saw many business schools move their alumni activities online in this period.

While this clearly posed some problems, we also saw that those who had their studies disrupted were actually more engaged with their school than those who studied in ‘normal times’.

And while this is a theme that carries over into this year’s data – 84% said they were proud to be associated with their school, and 70% said they felt connected and engaged – it's clear that the challenge for schools now is to take this feeling forward.

2130 alumni responded to the 2024 Alumni Matters survey, with respondents drawn from 87 countries. Half of the respondents had completed an undergraduate degree, and of those with a postgrad qualification, 31% have a Masters, and 48% an MBA.

Good. But good enough?

On the surface, it seems as though business school graduates are largely happy with their alumni provision. The majority feel connected to their school, and over three-quarters feel as though their alma mater cares about them and allows them to contribute to the school’s future success. A similar number say that their alumni association helps them to maintain the relationships they developed whilst studying.

Largely, graduates feel that they are communicated with in an appropriate way, and that they are given opportunities to learn further. And while direct email is still the most popular option, graduates are increasingly happy for schools to utilise other channels such as social media when contacting them about opportunities and events.

But scratch below the surface and it’s clear that there are a number of ways things could be improved. Alumni sometimes feel as though all the school wants from them is money, and some feel as though their school could do more to let them know about appropriate jobs they might be interested in.

About a third say that they don’t have access to an alumni database, and an even larger proportion do not receive any kind of regular alumni publication. And 34% say that they are not aware of any kind of lifelong or continuing learning being made available to them by their institution.

Time for true engagement

Technology clearly plays a big role in the effectiveness, or otherwise, of modern alumni relations – and graduates increasingly expect sophisticated and seamless interactions enabled by tech. Often, the extent to which schools leverage their alumni relationships through technology goes only so far as direct email. But much more is clearly possible given the right resources and manpower - whether that be through digital newsletters, online platforms or WhatsApp groups.

Whatever the means, it is clear that alumni want to contribute – whether that be through financial contributions, sharing expertise with students, or recommending their school to others. Alumni know there will be regular opportunities for them to give money, but pathways to other forms of giving are sometimes less clear. If graduates aren’t sure how they can give back, despite wanting to, schools could find engagement erodes and all other efforts, including fundraising, suffer.

It feels time for a wider, more inclusive approach to alumni relations. One where true engagement is put before all else, where opportunities to re-engage are more plentiful, where real-world connections are made between employers and alumni associations, and where technology is leveraged more effectively to manage more integrated and efficient alumni platforms.

Those in alumni functions will tell you that if the above is to be achieved, better funding is needed. But the result would be transformational – turning alumni relations from transactional interactions into meaningful relationships, benefiting both the institution and its alumni community.

The 2024 Alumni Matters report can be purchased here