In der Dissertation wurde ein Vergleich des deutschen Studierendenmarketings und des amerikanischen Student Recruitments vorgenommen, um eine Erweiterung des Modells des deutschen Hochschulmarketings auf die Zielgruppe der zukünftigen Studierenden vorzunehmen und praktische Implikationen für deutsche Hochschulen abzuleiten. Hierzu wurde der Forschungsgegenstand in die Organisations- und die Marketingtheorie eingeordnet. Anschließend erfolgten eine theoretische Gegenüberstellung des deutschen und des amerikanischen Hochschulsystems sowie eine theoretische Darstellung des Student Recruitments. Die Betrachtung des Letzteren wurde empirisch durch qualitative Experteninterviews untermauert. Diese wurden im Rahmen eines Forschungsaufenthalts in den USA mit Spezialisten aus den Bereichen Student Recruitment durchgeführt und validierten das zuvor theoretisch dargestellte Konstrukt weitestgehend. Abschließend wurden das theoretische Modell des deutschen Hochschulmarketings auf die Zielgruppe der zukünftigen Studierenden erweitert und Implikationen für die Anwendung von Student Recruitment an deutschen Hochschulen abgeleitet.

The main purpose of this applied dissertation was to explore why a new student who is fully admitted to an academic program never proceeds to registration during their first semester. A research study addressing these instances might help college administrators improve conversion rates of admitted students. The fact that four of the six participants only applied to one university, the researcher believes, validates several prior research studies that directly linked a strong connection between a student’s positive perception of a college and the likelihood that they enroll in it. All of these participants in fact did perceive the university positively; therefore, many of them only applied to it for admission. Several of the participants mentioned that the university’s course offerings, format, and academic fit were among the reasons why they applied to it as well. However, what the study results revealed was not so much about their positive perception of the university or whether or not it was a good academic fit, but more so the lack of communication with the university during the enrollment process, difficulty in navigating the financial aid process, and their common need for a more personalized experience with their financial aid needs that led them to not enroll. The researcher was able to identify six major participant experiences and topics that were among the most commonly used by each of the participants. They included financial aid, cost, personalized experience, level of ease or difficulty relative to the enrollment, expressed need for more information, and communication. After the researcher identified each of the six most commonly mentioned participant experiences and topics within the enrollment process, three major emerging themes became apparent. The three major emerging themes were: Personalized Experience, Communication, and Financial Aid. The results of this study, such as identifying multiple consistent emerging themes of why an admitted student chooses to not enroll, can add value for any university especially one that is seeking to improve its enrollment management processes, the overall experience of its admitted prospective students within its admission system, and its admitted and enrolled conversion rate.

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The Digital Twin (DT), a tool dedicated for decision-making and management, has recently started making its way into today’s digitalized world. It is described as a digital representation of a physical object, system, or process, mimicking its physical counterpart using real-time data and monitoring which can be used for decision-making, optimization, and designing (Singh et al., 2021). Not only can DTs be used for a single object, but can also be implemented on whole cities generating valuable insights improving a city’s management, operability, and realization. However, due to the infancy of the concept, further research is required to presuppose accurate city DTs. This can be done by exploring the implementation of DTs in the different sectors of a city (Shahat et al., 2021). Therefore, this report aims to identify areas in which an university in Sweden could benefit from the implementation of a DT, contributing to the knowledge gap regarding DT implementation in the education sector and furthermore the city DT development as a whole. To identify areas in which the university could benefit from a DT, semi-structured interviews were held with chief positions at the university. The aim of the interviews was to identify the university’s main challenges, and then map the challenges to DT solutions in literature and previous research. The identified challenges at the university were Decision-making processes, Recruitment procedures and forecasting, Quality assurance, and Unclear action plan on becoming a sustainable campus. The challenges Decision-making processes and Recruitment procedures and forecasting were mapped to the Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO). This kind of DT can help organizations with, for instance, responding to changes and delivering value for customers (van der Aalst et al., 2021). The last challenge, Unclear action plan on becoming a sustainable campus, was connected to a DT that can help the university in enhancing its energy management.