Recruiting a pilot cohort

Much of what I have written about in recent weeks has been about the current recruitment drive to attract students to the IBCM for the new academic year starting in October 2010.  However, from a historical perspective, we have already had a very busy time recruiting at the beginning of this year because we had made the decision to start with a pilot cohort in the spring semester of 2010.

It was important for us to begin teaching at the International Business College Mitrovica as soon as possible because I am convinced that the best argument supporting the choice of a college for new students is for them to see a functioning institution where they can meet contemporaries who are already benefiting from what is being offered.  As a result of this decision to start teaching early, there was a major push to put the IBCM on the map of student perception during January to March - not a traditional time for starting undergraduate studies!

However, with a lot of work from the whole team (as usual - thanks to them all!) we succeeded in putting together a high profile and very effective publicity campaign that revolved around the following activities:

1. Providing English lessons, given by native speaker teachers, to potential students
2. Meetings with student groups and their parents arranged by NGOs in the field
3. Publicity on local radio in Albanian, English, Serbian and Turkish
4. An intensive campaign on Kosovo television - the clip is shown below

As a result of some very energetic campaigning, which generated over 4000 registrations for places at the International Business College Mitrovica, we were able to invite candidates to an entrance examination in mid February and then to fill the places on our pilot cohort from 1st March 2010!

So as we approach another round of admissions, our second in 2010, it does feel as if we have gathered a lot of valuable experience in the recruitment of students to start up tertiary institutions!