31 May 2024
Conception and communicative strategy of the Jesús Serra Graduate Scholarships
After three years of collaboration, Fundación Occident presented us with a unique challenge in the autumn of 2023: to assist them in creating their new scholarship program, the Jesús Serra Undergraduate Scholarships. We eagerly accepted this challenge, which involved everything from conceptualizing the program and developing the brand to strategizing recruitment communications and announcing the first call for applications.
Currently, there are numerous barriers to university access in Spain. Beyond income, factors such as gender, functional diversity, parental employment status, and geographical distance also hinder university access. Our challenge was to devise ways to help the new generation of students overcome these obstacles.
Following an exhaustive review of the state of higher education in Spain and an analysis of more than 50 national and international undergraduate scholarships, we developed the Jesús Serra Undergraduate Scholarships to support two groups of young people aiming to be the first in their family to attend university. The two entry routes are:
- First-generation university students: For students who want to be the first in their family to attend university.
- First-generation female STEM students: For female students who want to be the first in their family to pursue a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).
@fundacionoccident ¿Te molaría ir a la uni con los gastos cubiertos? 💸 Te contamos 5 razones por las que las Becas de Grado Jesús Serra te van a ir de lujo. Porque, para ti, las barreras son solo para saltarlas. ¡Dilo y pide ya tu beca! ✨ #becas #becasparaestudiar #becasespaña #becasenespaña #2bachillerato #gradosuperior #estudiantesuniversitarios ♬ sonido original – Fundación Occident
This is the video we created for Fundació Occident’s TikTok channel, which has already received more than 275K views.
Priority is given to students with functional diversity or special educational needs. The 12 scholarship recipients will receive coverage for university tuition fees, assistance for educational materials and/or complementary training, and financial support based on income, distance to the university, and their utilization of the scholarship. A key feature of these scholarships is the mentoring program, unique in Spain, which assigns a mentor to each student to support them throughout their university studies. This program is backed by an annual training initiative to help students develop transversal skills and build their first professional network.
At Ubik, we worked tirelessly with Fundació Occident to define the scholarships, establish the rules and evaluation process, create the website and application platform, develop a FAQ section, and design a dissemination kit to ensure the scholarships reach all interested parties.
In summary, this 360º project launched on 24 April, 2024. Since then, every time an application arrives and we see potential candidates, we feel both proud and grateful. We are proud of the work we’ve done and grateful to Fundació Occident for involving us in this project.
And, eventually, after a very competitive selection process with more than 80 applications received, the long-awaited moment has finally arrived! We’ve just met the first recipients of the Degree Scholarships Jesús Serra. Would you like to meet them? Click here!
Would you like to find out more? You can take a look at the Scholarship website and at the social media channels of Fundació Occident (X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook).
