Senior Management
Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
Understanding the experiences, views, and engagement levels of graduates is critical for any higher education institution seeking to build lasting relationships with its former students. Alumni research helps universities maintain strong, informed connections with their graduates, offering insights that can shape communications, fundraising, volunteering initiatives, and the student experience itself.
Alumni Segmentation and Modelling
Build detailed alumni segments based on behaviours, motivations and engagement levels to inform communications, fundraising and volunteering strategies. Model these on to alumni databases to ensure everyone has a segment.
Modelling Affinity and Engagement
Identify the key drivers that underpin alumni loyalty, contribution, and engagement to help focus resources where they will have the greatest impact.
End-to-End Project Management
Full lifecycle management of your alumni research – from early planning and stakeholder engagement, through data collection, to analysis, reporting and dissemination.
Internal Stakeholder Engagement
Work collaboratively with internal teams to align the research with your institution’s philanthropic, strategic and reputational goals.
Hypothesis Development and Testing
Surface and explore hypotheses about alumni behaviours, attitudes and opportunities through targeted research design and analysis.
Benchmarking and Tracking
Compare alumni engagement metrics over time and against peer institutions, helping you to measure success and demonstrate improvement.
Flexible and Tailored Research Solutions
From light-touch benchmarking surveys to fully bespoke projects incorporating quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Insight-Led Reporting and Dissemination
Deliver actionable findings through visual, jargon-free reports, stakeholder workshops, and tailored presentations for leadership teams.
Support for Strategic Planning
Provide evidence to inform alumni engagement plans, development strategies, communications frameworks, and wider institutional initiatives.
At M·E·L Research, our team has significant experience delivering large-scale and high-quality alumni studies for some of the UK’s leading universities, including the University of Leeds, University College London, the University of Nottingham, the University of Brighton and the University of Birmingham. Our work has helped institutions better understand the motivations, interests and current situations of their alumni – across the UK and internationally.
Our team have worked with clients across the education sector including:
“Elliot worked with the University of Leeds in 2019 on our first major piece of market research for several years, to help us better understand the motivations, interests and engagement levels of a large and international constituency. He worked with us both to put together a survey and then to analyse more than 15,000 responses and identify key learnings, including how we segment and group alumni, presenting the findings in a clear and thorough way. This was a significant piece of research that really helped us adapt our strategy and providing learning that we are still applying.“
“Elliot gave us fantastic insight and support in developing the University of Brighton’s alumni survey in 2021. We hadn’t undertaken such an extensive piece of research in many years. He helped steer us through the personalisation of the survey for our institution, whilst maintaining the core benchmarking elements that are so important to the final report. It was a pleasure to work with him.“
We recognise that each institution’s relationship with its alumni community is unique. That is why we offer flexible and tailored solutions, ranging from simple benchmarking surveys to fully bespoke programmes that include in-depth segmentation, drivers analysis, and strategic consultancy. Whether you are looking to track satisfaction and engagement over time, build a sophisticated segmentation model for targeted communications, or identify the factors that drive alumni donations and volunteering, we can help.
Our expertise spans the full lifecycle of research delivery. We can support you with questionnaire design, survey scripting and branding, data collection and entry, qualitative research such as focus groups and interviews, and advanced analysis and reporting. Our insight-led reports are visual, jargon-free and designed to provide clear, actionable findings that your teams can use immediately. We also offer engaging stakeholder presentations and workshops to help you embed the learning across your institution.
By working with M·E·L Research, you can be confident of a partner who not only understands the nuances of alumni research, but who will work closely with you to ensure the outputs align with your strategic objectives. We pride ourselves on providing high-quality, cost-effective support that saves you internal resource while delivering lasting impact.
If you are planning a new alumni research project or looking to refresh an existing programme, we would be delighted to have a conversation.
Ready to take the next step and learn how we can assist your organisation with market research and analysis?
