From inbox to belonging: how CBS strengthens students’ commitment in a critical decision window

Saying yes to a study offer abroad is exciting. Then the practical questions arrive. When should I apply for my visa? Where will I live? Will I know anyone in Cologne?

For international students at CBS International Business School, the answers used to come mostly by email, and in advisory and visa sessions with the international team. Helpful, but one-to-one, and only when students reached out. Future students had no easy way to meet each other before they arrived.

In December 2025, CBS International Business School opened a Uni-Life community for its international offer holders. Since then, students from 62 countries have used it to find each other, sort out the practical side of moving, and arrive in Cologne already part of a group.

Somewhere to ask, and someone to answer:

Picture the weeks between accepting an offer and landing in Cologne. The acceptance is in your inbox, and so is the visa checklist. Everything you need may be in there somewhere, but there is nobody to compare notes with and no way to find out who else is coming.

Once the community opened, students started doing what students do: helping each other. They compared visa timelines and offered each other rooms. One student who had already lived in Cologne for a year began sharing survival tips with the newcomers. CBS student ambassadors joined in to answer questions about life on campus.

The conversations kept going month after month. Students sent each other over 7,000 one-on-one messages and made more than 500 connections. They created 35 groups of their own, and 99% of students stayed in the community after joining.

“It's very informative and was a 'soft-landing' for me. It truly helps.”
CBS offer holder

Support that doesn't depend on staff hours:

CBS International Business School's international team cares about every future student, but it can't give personal pre-arrival support to each one at scale. Every unanswered question is a small moment of doubt.

Uni-Life manages and moderates the community, so most questions are answered by other students or by student ambassadors, not by staff. Instead of more email threads, the team gets a space where support is shared across the community.

The difference showed up once students arrived. During introduction week, they mentioned the community without being asked.

“We definitely see the benefit, especially for our international students, and they see the benefit as well.”
Mirjam Zimmermann-Nixdorf, Operational Teamlead International Sales, CBS International Business School

Giving offer holders a reason to say yes:

Every year, CBS International Business School competes with many other universities for the same international students. The months between offer and enrolment are when students compare their options, and when they decide.

A community full of future classmates gives them something no brochure can: real people who are going through the same thing, in the same city, at the same time.

The survey results show what that meant for students, starting with the decision itself. Almost 1 in 3 (31%) said they would have been less likely to accept their offer without Uni-Life. 94% felt more prepared to study at CBS, 88% found it easy to meet like-minded students, and 86% made meaningful connections. Students gave the community a Net Promoter Score of +57.

What other universities can take away:

For many international students, the decision to enrol isn't made on the day they accept an offer. It's made in the weeks and months after, as they figure out whether they can really make the move work. CBS International Business School's experience shows three things.

Students want each other, not just information. The most valuable answers often come from someone who has just been through the same visa process or room search.

It doesn't have to add work. A student-led, moderated community can support offer holders at scale without adding to the team's workload.

Keep it open all year. CBS International Business School kept its community running across intakes, so there was always someone to talk to, whenever a student joined.

The gap between offer and arrival is where many students decide, and it doesn't have to be a gap they cross alone.

Want to give your offer holders a soft landing too? Get in touch with the Uni-Life team.