CASE STUDY · HIGHER EDUCATION
Two universities led into the top group
University of Europe for Applied Sciences and Gisma University of Applied Sciences, 2021 to 2025. International student recruitment from niche player to the number one private university in Germany by international first-year students. Every figure comes from official federal statistics and is publicly verifiable.
Context
Role and timeframe
- 02/2021: Joined GUS Germany, marketing responsibility for University of Europe and HTK Academy.
- 06/2022: Marketing responsibility for all five brands of the group, including Gisma (November 2022) and BSBI, with a team of 20+ across Europe, the UK, India and the Philippines.
- 06/2025: Handover. Last fully owned intake: Winter semester 2024/25.
Enrolment numbers are a team effort across marketing, sales, admissions and product. What this case documents is the period of responsibility and the development within exactly that period, benchmarked against the market.
Case 01 · UE
From 388 to 1,892 international first-year students
Six intakes of official time series. Winter 21/22 is the first intake recruited under my responsibility, winter 24/25 the last fully owned one.
x 4.9
International first-year students
From 388 to 1,892.
No. 1
Largest private university in Germany
By international first-year students, winter 24/25.
10x
Market pace
UE +388 % against +38 % market growth in the same window.
Case 02 · Gisma University of Applied Sciences
Rebrand, new products, doubled intake
Took over responsibility in November 2022, complete brand modernisation and new programmes. The rebrand takes full effect on the winter 24/25 intake.
+115 %
International first-year students
In the intake after the rebrand, from 315 to 677.
Top 5
Private universities in Germany
By international first-year students, winter 24/25.
186 → 677
International Intake Growth
From 186 to 677.
The system
The system behind the numbers
01
Structure before channels
Marketing and sales as one engine: one funnel, one shared number. SLAs, lead targets, conversion rates and budget per channel with expected enrolments produce forecasts the business can rely on.
02
Budget by evidence
Allocation by lead quality and lead volume, reshuffled continuously instead of annually. Campaigns also optimised regionally, based on direct feedback from the sales team.
03
Tracking from first touch to enrolment
End-to-end attribution as one shared truth for marketing and sales. Every channel, every region and every product with measurable CAC and ROI. On that foundation, AI-supported automations across marketing and sales, including automated responses to lead enquiries.
04
Locked in with sales
Joint reviews, joint targets. Measured on enrolments, conversion rates and student diversity, not on lead volume or CPL.
05
Demand built
PR and storytelling, organic social rebuilt from scratch, events, website relaunches including merges, SEO pushed, scholarships launched. Plus brand partnerships like Borussia Dortmund initiated and negotiated.
06
Gisma: rebrand and product
Brand fully modernised, new programmes initiated and brought to market, opening up new markets. Carried by reinforced organic social and digital PR.
Verifiability
Source: German Federal Statistical Office, first-year students by university (table 21311-0011). Every figure in this case is publicly verifiable there.
Destatis table 21311-0011 ↗Let's build your growth engine
Higher education is one application. The system transfers: structure, engine, end-to-end tracking and consistent demand building.