Specialised international student recruitment management platform

Project Information

DreamApply EU

Grant agreement ID: 836990

DOI

10.3030/836990

Project closed

EC signature date 19 November 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 31 March 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

DREAM GROUP OU
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DreamApply EU (Specialised international student recruitment management platform)

Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2019-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

At most European universities, student admission is still bureaucratic and difficult to track. Often, systems in place are not capable to provide the necessary functionality. They are centralized, because they were developed by governments and thus do not give control to universities), or were considered as state-of-art some 20+ years ago. There is a lack of multi-institutional systems, where European universities and university networks can cooperate, promote studies and face study applicants jointly, with the objective to make their life easier. During the period of 1st Dec 2018-31st March 2019 DreamGroup OU undertook a complete feasibility study on its DreamApply EU – a specially designed CRM system for European universities to set up a joint, modern international student enrollment procedure.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During Phase 1, DreamGroup performed a technical and business feasibility assessment on DreamApply EU. It compared the concept with known competing solutions, to able to distinguish it from current state of art.
During Phase 1, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the next development cycle was defined and product development plan prepared. Since the Phase 1 application, the product development progressed which was included in the study report. The direct cost of the pure product development over 2 years is estimated around €1.16m. An additional 25% of indirect cost will be needed. The total project cost would be then €1.45m.
During the feasibility assessment the immense market potential of €1.5B and growing soon perhaps to €2-3B (globally). The solution can be offered to almost 4.300 HEIs in the wider European economic area. In the EU-28 there are 19.6 million tertiary education students of which almost 8% follow short-cycle tertiary courses, almost 2/3 study for bachelor’s degrees, almost 1/3 for master’s degrees and almost 4% for Doctoral degrees. Around 40% of the young people in Europe obtain a higher education. This growing user market is driving DreamGroup to develop its business further.
During Phase 1, the impact of the new product development and commercialization on the company was better understood and aligned with the overall business and financial strategy. The financial potential was quantified, with a conclusion of a positive net profit and cash flow in the 1st year of commercialization. In the first 5 years a cumulated revenue of €45m and a cumulated profit of €14,8m is estimated. The DreamGroup team is fully committed to develop final solution and the company is financially solid to cover the co-financing part of the Phase 2 project.
Overall, Phase 1 provided time and resources to research the market, and better understand the next steps. Also, dozens of discussions took place with potential stakeholders, based on which DreamGroup was able to better define the objectives on the roadmap. In summary, Phase 1 convinced the management of the company to further pursue the idea and to prepare next steps towards the product development, to be conducted maybe also with the help of Phase 2 of the Horizon 2020 grant scheme.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project is intended to resolve the hurdle of EU and international students applying to universities, but also of the administrative staff, who struggles with the management of clunky and end-of-life application portals. DreamApply EU is a specially designed CRM system for universities and university networks to set up common European student enrolment procedures. Over-time DreamGroup will continuously update and upgrade the software, to meet changing trends and needs on the market (new marketing tools, latest social media, Big Data, AI machine learning, etc.).
The European Commission works closely with policy-makers to support the development of higher education policies in EU countries in line with the Education and Training 2020 strategy (ET2020). Its target is that by 2020, 40% of young Europeans have a higher education qualification. Beside of increasing the number of higher education graduates, high importance is given also to Mobility and Cross-Border Cooperation. EU Ministers have agreed to double the proportion of higher education students completing a study or training period abroad to 20% by 2020 and support for mobility is a core focus of the EU programme for education and training. To fulfil these objectives, in particular, the innovation of ICT in Education has been highlighted as key focus area in the EU`s Digital Economy and Society agenda. DreamGroup OU is proposing disruptive ICT concept, by integrating the European scene of universities into a single platform, which provides clear benefits to students and institutes.

DreamApply