CAR Network

The network aims to do this by strengthening the bond between the student and the place of education to become a lifelong relationship.

An alumnus is a former student who has completed a study programme at the university. Maintaining good relationships with alumni over time is crucial to the success of higher education institutions. As alumni can serve many valuable roles, such as helping to build and grow an institution’s brand through word-of-mouth marketing. For instance, positive posts on social media can create buzz and increase application rates. Higher education institutions would often also like to rely on alumni to provide mentoring, internships, and career opportunities to students. These are just a few of the reasons why alumni are important to the success of higher education institutions, which are becoming more accountable for job placement rates. However, these actions requires that there is a strong relationship between the alumnus and the institution.

In effect, colleges and universities need to view students as lifelong commitments that do not end at graduation. Alumni are resources that can provide meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships over time. This is a new way of thinking for many Nordic universities, and until now it has not been a focus area. For example, with societies' new need for continuing education, alumni are a prime target audience. Furthermore new restrictions about internships in educations demands that universities are connected to industry and society in a new way.

The primary goal of the CAR Network is to create a partnership between Nordic universities by establishing a new dimension of collaboration and knowledge building between them.

We seek to professionalize our alumni work, and draw synergies as internships, mentoring programs and encourage lifelong learning, by learning from each other as well as institutions that have come further in their alumni work than we have in the Nordic countries.