Educational institutions case studies

Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University: How IZU met the three main priorities of its internationalization strategy with DreamApply

Jan 4, 2020 | Case studies

Qualified scholars established Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University to provide quality education to contribute to the development of society and humankind. IZU aims to be one of the world’s most prominent and comprehensive universities. Its strengths are in social sciences and humanities, and it has excellent engineering and architecture departments.

IZU started working with DreamApply in 2017. Investing in a well-functioning and user-friendly application system was the first step they took for internationalization. Since then, this forward-thinking university has grown internationally in quite a unique way.

How were things done before DreamApply?
Before implementing DreamApply, we had an in-house developed system. The previous system worked fine, but it did not offer much functionality. Our number of applications was increasing, and it was easy to foresee that we would need a better one.

Why did you decide to use DreamApply as your application management system? Did the system fulfill all expectations that were promised by the DreamApply team?
In our internationalization strategy, we had three main priorities:

  1. Grow the number of enrolled international students
  2. Increase the quality of international students and applicants to reach our ideal candidates
  3. Increase our financial gain

The flexibility of DreamApply enables us to tailor it in a way that serves our unique international student recruitment policy.

IZU is a unique institution aiming to deliver the best academic education to as many students as possible while recruiting bright minds. Therefore, we wanted to achieve the points above without putting too much weight on our already busy staff. At the same time, we wanted to invest on our side without spending too much on an IT solution.

How have the results been with DreamApply?

  1. Compared to last year, our international applicants have grown by +96%, and our enrolled international students have grown by +46%.
  2. We have been able to be more selective among our applicants. Ultimately, we are enrolling only the students we believe are a good fit for our academic experience. We are also happier with the quality of their studies and cultural background.
  3. We have been able to lower the fee waivers and scholarships offered to applicants while growing the number of enrolled students. For us, this has meant growing our financial gain. This is very important for us, being a foundation university.
  4. Lastly, our response time has decreased compared to the past, and to the time other universities take to respond. We take less than a month to send an official response to our applicants. This makes them feel welcomed by our institution and keeps them engaged throughout the overall application process. IZU is now among that small percentage of universities that takes very little time to respond to a foreign application officially.

Marketing results
Inside the DreamApply platform, we have discovered which marketing campaigns work better for us. We have discovered that a good combination of personal references, study fairs, and online marketing works wonders.

See Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University live: https://apply.izu.edu.tr/

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