How to advertise your faculty and tell your institution’s story.
Faculty can be a huge selling point for your college or university. After all, doesn’t your institution go out of its way to seek out the best, most qualified professors for your open roles? Faculty web profiles are some of the most visited pages on an institution’s website, but many colleges and universities don’t focus on advertising these teachers and researchers. Learn how easy it can be to feature your faculty as a selling point to potential students, and reap the benefits.
Why highlight your faculty?
Your college or university spends a lot of time and money to hire the right faculty. From HR to deans to leadership, there are many staff members whose priority is to get the most qualified professors to work at your HigherEd institution. You seek out candidates who have done research on unique topics, published papers, made groundbreaking discoveries, have great teaching track records, and excellent references saying they’re a future superstar. Hiring a new faculty member—or going through the review process to give a professor tenure—is a time-intensive processes because faculty are such valuable members of your institution. But once these top academics arrive on campus and dive into teaching, research, and mentorship, are you doing enough to advertise their achievements? Probably not.
Student applicants, potential donors, alumni, and even job candidates are likely looking at your website for more information about your
faculty. Learning about these important members of your institution can be a factor in a visitor’s decision to enroll, donate, or apply for a role. High-quality professors are a major selling point for colleges and universities attempting to recruit students. Website visitors can always check out LinkedIn profiles to learn more, but why send anyone away from your website, the biggest forum for information about your school? You have all the information they’re looking for—all you need to do is present it. With the right Faculty Information System, professors at your institution can enter all their information one time and reuse it for countless purposes—including a web profile. FIS integrates with your institution’s website to create detailed, informative profiles of each faculty member. Data flowing back and forth means that when a faculty member puts new information into FIS, their web profile is automatically updated as well.
Faculty will benefit too.
Highlighting recent faculty accomplishments and displaying the most updated faculty profiles doesn’t just benefit your institution. It also can be helpful to faculty. For instance, faculty at one university reported that updated web profiles led to increased requests for them to speak at conferences. Up-to-date profiles also make it easier for your faculty to find research partners for collaboration, or for them to be flagged as potential collaborators by other faculty in their field. Think internally, too: if you’re at a larger institution or one with multiple colleges or campuses, your faculty might not even know who all of their colleagues are! Profiles can open up opportunities for teaching partnerships or innovative, cross-disciplinary courses at your institution.
Tell your institution’s story with faculty web profiles.
Your institution is unique in many ways, and the faculty working there are an important part of your story. Their work history, research projects, academic record, and grants tell a story of innovation. They can help you stand out in the crowded HigherEd space, attract competitive talent and top students, and build your institution’s online presence. Creating these profiles and keeping them updated shouldn’t be a burden on your IT team, so reach out to PeopleAdmin to learn more about Faculty Information System today.