Basic information

Practice setup

Higher education institutions can use several professional networks to raise their visibility and global presence, and promote their dominant study and research areas.

Here are some examples:

EURAXESS Worldwide is a global all-in-one platform and information tool with 9 dedicated teams/hubs across the world - Africa, ASEAN (focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), Australia & New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Korea, Latin America and the Caribbean (focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Mexico), North America (Canada and US).

EURAXESS Worldwide platform and its hubs offer:

• regular events (webinars, panel talks, podcasts inviting guest speakers - HEI/research organisation representatives from various European  countries to present their institution, research ecosystem, study/academic/research and funding opportunities, including presenting their Expression of Interest to host IF MSCA fellows)


• the target country/hub portals with large numbers of visitors


• newsletters in all EURAXESS Worldwide target countries.


• large numbers of social media followers (incl. LinkedIn group)


• liaison with European scientific diaspora from outside of Europe


• liaison of research infrastructure between Europen HEI/research teams and those outside of Europe


• promote individual European HEIs and their dominant study and research areas via media card in the EURAXESS Worldwide publications 

Alumni networks

Active alumni networks of international PhDs and academics play an important role in strengthening the HEI's reputation at the international level.  Alumni can help in achieving higher visibility of the HEI nationally and internationally, they can create bridges among different cultures and reach out to the broader academic audience. Being familiar with host and domestic academic and R&D ecosystems and environments they can be very successful in targeting  potential candidates or dissemination of the information on academic, research and funding  opportunities in the host country/region, or their alma mater. Examples of various ways of possible collaboration with alumni networks can be found in the practice "Collaboration with alumni".

Embassies/consulates:

Your embassies/consulates can serve as global ambassadors not only for their home country as a good place for studying, working, and living, but also for the national academic and research landscape, domestic HEIs/research organisations (e.g. at international education fairs via talks, disseminating information, brochures), among others, also inviting international alumni from the respective region to share their study (research and cultural) experience to support the visibility and attractivity of the host country/HEI. Embassy representatives are often familiar with the local educational context, can easily get in touch with local high schools and HEIs, and promote their home country's study/research opportunities, funding/scholarship offers among local students, and academics/researchers. They can also share interesting topics regarding international PhD students and academics recruitment/ scholarship offers or open job positions via their social media to reach out to the local target audience.

Marketing and Visibility

In order to attract more international talents (PhD student and academics) HEIs should prepare a complex and effective marketing campaign through branding (excellent study/academics areas and research programmes), consistency in communications, and drawing on a variety of electronic recruiting mechanisms. Effective marketing includes clear, concise, and complete information about academic offerings, career outcomes, and doctoral student experiences. The effective recruitment mechanisms could include:

• creating visible, accessible websites, social media advertisements, international doctoral students, or academic video testimonials


• participation in the international education fairs and professional conferences,targeted mailings, social media campaigns


• developing effective pipelines and networks


• delivering prompt and expedient responses


• making the institutional website more engaging (easy to find faculty interests, recent publications, and prestigious awards; potential PhD students can find their area of interest and link directly to faculty mentors and PhD students in that subarea; showcasing the diversity within institutional programmes through impact stories and articles, highlighting of institutional inclusive, welcoming environment. showcasing current PhD student accomplishments (e.g., publications, awards), persuasive testimonials from current PhD students/academics and alumni; Frequently Asked Questions section; link (s) to PhD studies application and basic requirements for admission and funding opportunities (scholarships)


• highlight key statistics prominently online and in print. Identify the percentage of PhD students and academics receiving funding (scholarship/fellowship), placements of PhD graduates (academia/public sector/ private sector, and completion rates for your PhD programmes. Provide a profile of your PhD students and academics broken out by gender, ethnicity, country of origin, etc.

For furher details on marketing and visisbility see the Promotion of talent recruitment schemes at international fairs practice.

Factors to consider: for some candidates, wider contextual information on a host country (e.g. country immigration policy, working conditions and working opportunities and support for accompanying spouses, safety within campus, host city/country, diversity of the host HEI academic staff, institutional language policy, etc.) may be crucial for their decision.

Cost of practice setup
Time required for practice setup
Personnel effort required for practice setup
Actors involved in practice setup	IRO/welcome centre Career development centre IT support department
Partners involved in practice setup	EURAXESS centre International recruiter
Indicators for evaluating progress/quality of practice setup	Number of researchers trained annually

Description of collaboration

@EURAXESS centre - can help universities IROs (if the are not the EURAXESS members) to liaise with the EURAXESS Worldwide teams according to their geographical (less saturated) areas. EURAXESS centre, especially EURAXESS BHO (coordinating organisation) can serve as a mediator between non-EURAXESS HEIs and EURAXESS Worldwide team, spreading the two-way information on events and funding programmes opportunities.

Practice delivery

Delivery activities are mainly connected with:

• connecting and keeping engaged with selected professional networks, prepare promotion materials, engaging institutional websites


• designing your media card (dominant/excellent academic area, academic/research achievement, funding offers, contact information in a nice graphical way)


• creating an organisational account on the EURAXESS portal in order to post open job positions and funding offers


• collecting your current PhD students and academics as well as alumni testimonials


• setting up a “Live Chat” campaign and answer questions instantly for once a week


• planning an (evening or weekend) faculty on-line chat session to communicate with prospective PhD students about the application process


• regular browsing researchers' profiles published on the EURAXESS portal (according to the research area, career stage, etc), LinkedIn

Tip: Considering the fact that EURAXESS Worldwide offers chances for people to interact on a global scale, it would be a great opportunity to promote incoming PhD students/academics on its platform, allowing them to share their experiences at the welcoming institutions. This would encourage more people, who find out about these experiences, to become interested in mobilities at the host institutions, even the people outside of Europe. Furthermore, it would increase incoming PhD students'/academics' visibility and offer them new chances at their research or academic jobs.

Cost of practice delivery
Time required for practice delivery
Personnel effort required for practice delivery
Actors involved in practice delivery	IRO/welcome centre Career development centre
Partners involved in practice delivery	EURAXESS centre
Indicators for evaluating progress/quality of practice delivery	Number of researchers assisted annually

Description of collaboration

@EURAXESS centre - can help universities IROs (if the are not the EURAXESS members) to liaise with the EURAXESS Worldwide teams according to their geographical (less saturated) areas. EURAXESS centre, especially EURAXESS BHO (coordinating organisation) can serve as a mediator between non-EURAXESS HEIs and EURAXESS Worldwide team, spreading the two-way information on events and funding programmes opportunities.