How Uppsala University Supports Admitted Students Through Community

“From my perspective, students who get admitted are typically very good students, and I want to keep them. But very good students also have offers from other universities.”

Joachim has spent over 20 years in higher education marketing, and nearly 30 in the field more broadly. He’s seen many new tools and strategies come and go. But most, he argues, focus on outreach and lead generation, not student preparedness or retention.

“There’s been very little around helping students make an informed decision or helping admitted students adapt to what’s coming when they start.”

That’s why Uppsala made a strategic pivot: from fragmented communication channels to a community-first onboarding approach, powered by peer connection, intrinsic motivation, and low-lift scalability for staff.

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The Power of Peer Connection Before Arrival

For more than a decade, Joachim and his team have experimented with ways to help admitted students meet one another before they arrive. It started with Instagram, tagging, and WhatsApp. Then came WeChat, Slack, and student ambassador campaigns. While effective to a point, these solutions often required high staff involvement, scattered communication, and inconsistent outcomes.

“We used all sorts of channels until I found Goin… What I like is that it’s students helping students. Applicants (offerholders) helping applicants (offerholders). It’s a community of people who want to help each other.”

In 2022, Uppsala adopted the Goin platform to bring admitted students together in one digital community. The effect was immediate and organic: students formed interest-based groups, helped each other navigate practical logistics, and built friendships before stepping foot in Sweden.

“It was fantastic to create a group on the Goin app to meet others who like soccer, or whatever it might be… That’s how a community should work: community-driven, grassroots-driven. That’s when it works best.”

For Joachim, the value of early peer connection isn’t just emotional, it’s strategic. Helping students meet each other reduces pre-arrival anxiety, increases the likelihood of enrollment, and improves retention outcomes.

“The more prepared you are, the easier it will be to succeed in your studies. And from my perspective, the end goal of recruitment is successful alumni, not just enrolled students.”

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Measuring What Matters: Conversion Metrics and Feedback Loops

One of the most common questions universities ask when implementing new tools is: How can we prove impact?

At Uppsala University, Joachim doesn’t claim to measure attribution with surgical precision, but he doesn’t need to. Their recruitment team tracks conversion at every stage of the funnel, and by only changing one or two touchpoints each year, they’re able to make informed, data-led assumptions about what’s working.

“We know how many of our applicants get admitted. We know how many admitted students actually enroll. If we change something, like using Goin’, and the conversion changes, we can make an informed assumption that it contributed.”

Since introducing Goin, Uppsala has seen measurable improvements in post-admission engagement and conversion. But just as important is the qualitative feedback they receive directly from students, data that Goin helps surface through its built-in feedback feature and AI-powered conversation analysis.

“It’s much more important to look at what students are actually saying, what they’re talking about, what they’re liking, what they’re not liking, what suggestions they have. I know this works. I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”

By combining live conversion data with community-based feedback, Uppsala can better prioritize which student-facing experiences to scale, tweak, or retire.

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Scalability with a Small Team

Uppsala’s international recruitment team supports over 30,000 international applicants each year. But the core team handling applicant support? Just two full-time staff members.

“It’s a lot to do with very few people, so we need to be careful when choosing our activities.”

That’s why the Goin platform is not only effective, but essential. With a self-sustaining, student-led community, Uppsala avoids the need to manage or moderate conversations themselves. Instead, students take the lead, forming their own groups, helping each other, and growing the community organically.

“We’ve used tools where we needed to create all the content ourselves or manage ambassadors. With Goin, we just set it up and it works.”

This hands-off scalability is one of the biggest reasons Uppsala has been able to continue building high-quality connections while maintaining a small, focused team.

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Building a Lasting, Self-Sustaining Community

Every year, when Uppsala’s new students arrive at Arlanda Airport, the university team greets them. And every year, Joachim hears the same two things from students:

“It was so fantastic to meet my classmates on Goin.
It was so helpful to follow your student ambassadors on the blog.”

That combination of peer connection and real stories makes a lasting impact. It’s something Joachim believes is central to not only onboarding, but education as a whole.

“Try to connect with someone who is not like you. That’s when you grow. That’s equally important as knowledge and skills.”