Case Study: How Tallinn University Boosted International Admission Conversions by 45%

🌐 The Global Challenges in International Student Recruitment

Global conditions and fierce competition make it difficult for universities to reach enrollment targets. Prospective students look at many international options at the same time and they expect fast helpful answers. When a university does not answer quickly, applicants often leave their application forms incomplete.

The international student recruitment affects much more than just enrollment statistics. It directly determines university funding, faculty positions and the variety of courses an institution can offer. When application numbers drop, valuable degree programs face the threat of closure.

Tallinn University faced this exact challenge when trying to expand its international student base. To address this, the university launched a targeted pilot program within the School of Governance, Law and Society (SOGOLAS), where challenging market conditions and tough competition had caused applicant numbers to drop to a critical level in several English-taught Master’s programs.

Tiina Pajuste, now the Vice Rector for Research at Tallinn University, was the director of SOGOLAS when Annie was launched:

“Our admissions numbers were looking quite bad in many of our programs and we had the urgent threat of closing at least one if not three of our Master’s programs.” 

🌪️ Overburdened Staff and Limited Resources

The university level admissions team consisted of only three staff members who were overburdened by a high volume of repetitive inquiries. At the same time, at the institute level, the resource limits were even tighter.

Kadri Leit-Tromp, the Internationalisation Coordinator explained that she was the only person handling international admissions at the School of Governance Law and Society: 

“I just did not have enough time to dedicate to those applicants. There was a constant email flood with repeating questions which were actually found on our website. It was evident that we cannot continue as we were doing because we ended up in serious danger of losing all the master programs taught in English.”

❤️‍🩹 Protecting Degree Programs and University Resources

To support international applicants better without adding headcount, the university launched Annie, a WhatsApp bot assistant. The strategic goal was to provide immediate, warm, and encouraging support to prospective international students precisely when they needed it, to make it easy for them to complete every step of the university application process.

The platform offered immediate and encouraging support precisely when students needed it. It went beyond standard university FAQ’s, offering local details about housing, visas, and daily life. This local information was essential for international applicants who lack local support and struggle with official documents written only in Estonian. The fast responses help candidates complete their draft forms and successfully submit their final applications.

The Admissions Coordinator Nele Abel noted that the digital advisor was very easy to use for both staff and the applicants. She felt that Annie the bot made a great first impression to the applicants:

“WhatsApp even offers a friendlier environment for communication than official university emails. This friendly approach helped international applicants feel more comfortable asking their questions, which gave them a clearer understanding of our procedures.”

🙏 Annie’s Automation Instantly Lifted the Pressure off the University Admissions Team

The university set up three automated messages on WhatsApp. Annie took initiative and contacted the applicants proactively, without them having to reach out to the university first. The first outreach was a welcome message to encourage questions, the second was a deadline reminder, and the third was a follow up message to admitted students about housing and visas.

Annie immediately started handling a large volume of routine questions about tuition fees, scholarships, and language requirements. The bot successfully reached 84.5 percent of the applicants on WhatsApp, and it fully managed 91 percent of the conversations. Altogether, Annie exchanged over 8,800 international applicant messages automatically. Only 9 percent of the questions were forwarded to the staff. This lightened the workload right away, freeing the team from bulk emails so they could focus on complex cases. Applicants received friendly, instant answers, which made the university feel accessible and welcoming. 

“The mass of somewhat easy to answer questions was disappearing. The workload of the people dealing with admissions has decreased and they can really then support the students in a more meaningful way, not just doing bulk email responses.” Tiina says.

“Previously we received like five to ten emails per day and now we receive only one to two and some days not at all.”,  tells Nele. 

Internal skepticism amongst staff also disappeared when they saw that the tool answered complex questions about specific research tracks very accurately. Tiina Pajuste recalled some of the first reactions were quite pessimistic as they had the old-school chatbots in their mind. But the ones who already were in the testing phase and they saw how great the answers are, were convinced.

🛟 Tallinn University Saved Degree Programs and Protected Funding

The pilot program completely reversed the downward trend of applicant conversion, creating a highly significant 45% increase in application conversion rate. Because of the successful pilot, the threat of closing the Master’s programs was removed. The programs kept their resources and teachers, which secured a diverse international study environment. 

“Looking specifically at enrollments, there were 11 enrolled candidates at one point last year and at the same point this year there were already 95 enrolled candidates. It’s a huge increase.”, Nele tells.

Vice Rector Tiina Pajuste notes that this immediate support is very important for the university reputation because it shows that the school genuinely cares about its students from their very first contact:

“The applicant experience shapes how people see the university brand. When prospective students receive fast and friendly help right when they have questions, it creates a personal impression of the institution. This immediate support is very important for the university reputation because it shows that the school genuinely cares about its students from the very first day.”

🗝️ Results & Key Impacts

The implementation delivered immediate, measurable success across several critical operational and strategic areas:

• +45% Application Conversion Rate: The pilot program completely reversed the downward trend, successfully securing the required enrollment numbers and eliminating the threat of program closure.
• Programs & Resources Saved: All threatened Master’s programs maintained their required enrollment quotas. As a result, the programs retained their funding, academic resources, and faculty positions.
• Up to 90% Workload Reduction for Staff: The digital advisor successfully automated routine questions regarding tuition fees, scholarships, language proficiency requirements, and course structures. This alleviated pressure on the four-person admissions team, shifting their workload away from repetitive bulk emailing and enabling them to focus on resolving complex, high-value case evaluations.
• Elevated Academic Insights: Initial internal skepticism regarding automated student support vanished when staff observed the depth and quality of the interactions. The digital advisor was configured to provide specialized information about specific research tracks and faculty expertise, often answering academic nuances more thoroughly than traditional baseline support channels could manage. The outcome was so positive that university leadership is planning to scale Annie across other institutes.
• Enhanced Student Experience: Instead of navigating rigid, bureaucratic email loops, international applicants received instant, accessible, and friendly assistance. Engagement rates shattered initial institutional projections, demonstrating a strong student preference for responsive digital support over traditional contact forms.

🚀 A Scalable Solution throughout the University

Annie proved it works well in a difficult market situation. Following the demonstrated strong results of the pilot phase, university leadership is actively evaluating plans to scale the Annie solution across additional institutes and leverage the platform to enhance cross-departmental communications and student onboarding workflows.

“These are methods to decrease the workload of people. I think it is worth investing in that because in the long term you free up time for other development activities if you figure out ways to automate other things as well.” Tiina says.

She adds:

” Admissions does not just affect admissions numbers but what our staff composition is, what our study programs are, what our course selection is. So it’s so much more than just an admissions number.”

When asked what advice Tiina would give to a colleague, she says: 

“Definitely recommending Annie as a partner because the collaboration process has been very, very nice and positive. I thought it would be more meetings and more problem solving, but it was really smooth.”