Association Insight International & European Association Insights Winter 2015 | Page 27

Association Insights

Association Success Story
NETWORK

» The online nature of the eStudent offer also meant that unique content including;
electronic journal access, careers advice and guidance and tailored webinars are
all accessible online, ensuring equality of access to students across the UK and
overseas and enhancing overseas student recruitment.

Results

Within six months of launch the eStudent brand, we have more paying eStudent
members than we had free student members in all of the previous year.
ESTUDENT PROMOTIONAL POSTCARD:

The 2013-2014 membership year saw 1,675 paying eStudent join the IBMS –
exceeding the 1,052 total of Free Associate members for the previous year, and
exceeding our eStudent recruitment target by over 200%.
Rather than a predicted first year loss of £5,325 in the first year of the eStudent
offer, we achieved total cost saving of £24,792.
We have also expanded our membership base into non-IBMS accredited Universities,
with over 15% of our eStudent members from non-accredited Universities compared
to 0% under the Free Associate offer.
We have succeeded in diversifying the year groups of student members of the
IBMS. Under the Free Associate offer 96% of student members were in their final
year, however, under the new eStudent offer only 60% of student members are in
their final year at University. This diversification provides opportunities to generate
further income through eStudent membership renewals as students progress
through their courses.
We have also expanded our international reach to areas where the IBMS has not
traditionally had overseas branches, including; the Philippines, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Kenya, India, Malaysia, Portugal and Malta.
Sheffield Hallam University was impressed by the eStudent offer, purchasing group
membership for all their first year Biomedical Science BSc students.
Since opening for joining for the 2014-2015 membership year, we have seen a 17%
increase in eStudent joiners compared with the same time period last year.
We have also seen two additional Universities purchase group membership of their
students (Lancaster and Coventry), with Sheffield Hallam increasing their purchase
of group membership, leading to 135% growth in the number of eStudents whose
Universities have purchased group members on their behalf.
With no development costs to account for in our second year of the eStudent offer
we look forward to achieving even greater cost saving than in 2013/4.

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