In response to a growing demand for data scientists, the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) was founded by Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology in March 2016. The collaboration between both universities has been set up to ensure that students have both an understanding of the technical aspects of the trade, as well as an insight in its social, societal and legal aspects.

With one shared bachelor study program and as many as six master programs, the ultimate target is to accommodate 1.500 to 2.000 students from all over the world. The beating hard of the collaboration is the newly developed data science campus in a former convent in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

The Master’s Program Data Science & Entrepreneurship, a newly developed program from scratch by the two universities, was to launch for the first time in September 2016 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. With only a few months before the launch and with the program still in development, the need for new students to recruit was high.

The primary goal of our assignment was to develop and employ a marketing-recruitment strategy to eventually recruit 40 students to start with the Master’s program Data Science and Entrepreneurship (joint degree) in September 2016.

Whilst recruiting students, we faced many challenges to find a solution to:

The awareness problem
The main challenge was to reach eligible students in time within the home universities of Eindhoven and Tilburg, to create awareness for the program with students at other universities and to also attract international students to the program.

The eligibility problem
Apart from reaching eligible students, a problem with the master’s program soon became apparent. While the master’s program appealed to a large group of students, most of them appeared not to be eligible for admission. Requiring a fast amount of background in statistics, mathematics and programming, eligibility requirements were too technical and specific for a vast majority of interested students.

The credibility problem
Choosing your master’s program is a life changing decision. One that determines a lot for your future career, the people you meet and the friends you gain. At that time, there were still a lot of uncertainties.

1. First of all, the program was developed from scratch, so there weren’t any references.
2. Secondly, at that time the program still had to receive an official accreditation by the NVAO.
3. Last but not least, the study program was to be located in a new to open data science campus in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where construction activities were still in full progress.

Solving the awareness problem
With the desired student profiles in mind, we were able to quickly set up and employ high-precision digital marketing campaigns. Using Google Ads, Facebook and Youtube, working together with relevant student associations all over the country and working together with Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University, we were able to quickly engage with eligible students.

Solving the eligibility problem
In the few months left to launch, we were able to detect the apparent mis-match between interested students in the program and the admission requirements for the program.

To solve students’ eligibility, we were able to develop a half a year pre-master’s program for Bachelor of Science students at University level – typically Beta and Gamma – who had an insufficient background (ECTs) in mathematics, statistics, programming and databases. With the premaster’s program in place, the master’s program became available for a much larger group of students.

Solving the credibility problem

Firstly, we were able to take away as much of the uncertainties as possible by closely working together with the program team of the master. New drawings about the data science campus, updates of the master’s program, receiving the NVAO accreditation: as soon as new information about the program became available, we were able to quickly add new intel online and distribute this to existing and new prospects.

Secondly, we also made sure we responded quickly to incoming questions by prospective students, responding to questions within 24 hours max.

Thirdly, we were able to attract a lot of interested students to an information event, where they could talk with the program staff, teachers and fellow interested students. For a lot of students this turned out to be an important element in their decision making process.

But most valuable to them were the numerous specific insights that made it possible to reach and persuade them even more effectively.