Colleges in Kerala take up digital tools in battle against declining enrolment rates
Several colleges are using reels and short videos for promotional campaigns, recognising the huge importance of these innovations in the student recruitment drive for the coming academic year
Faced with a shrinking enrolment for the undergraduate programmes they oer, some colleges in Kerala are now taking the battle to recruit students into the virtual world.
Institutions such as CMS College in Kottayam and
St. Berchmans College in Changanassery, among others, are leveraging reels and short videos for promotional campaigns, recognising the importance of these innovations in the upcoming academic year’s student recruitment drive.
Various factors such as increased demand for nursing and allied jobs post COVID-19, scepticism about traditional courses, international migration, and competition from out-of-State institutions have created a challenging landscape for the colleges in the region. According to Fr. Reji P. Kurien, Principal of St. Berchmans College, these promotional videos oer reassurance to prospective students on the institution’s academic quality, academic ranking, and employment prospects.
Positive response
The positive response has prompted the institution to commission regular video releases, targeting dierent student communities across the State. “Colleges are focussing on platforms where their target audience spends most of their time,” he says.
Conrming the trend, Varghese C. Joshua, Principal, CMS College Kottayam, says social media play a key role in framing the student’s perception of an institution.
“It’s a generation that uses smartphones to connect with academia, and it’s not just students who are creating these inuential video contents, but the academics too are doing this. Such videos are about building closer relationships with students, and the colleges are now getting a lot better at it,” he says.