Design of an Alumni Network Management System for a University in Bauchi State

Nigerian universities in Bauchi State lack structured digital platforms for maintaining contact with alumni, limiting opportunities for mentorship, fundraising, and community service mobilisation. This study describes the design and implementation of an alumni network management system for a university in Bauchi State, North East Nigeria. The system was developed using Django and PostgreSQL, with a responsive Bootstrap interface. Core features include alumni registration and profile management, event coordination, job board for alumni and current students, mentorship request matching, news and newsletter distribution, and donation pledge management. Requirements were gathered through surveys of 60 alumni and 15 university development office staff. Development followed the Agile Scrum model with five two-week sprints. Functional testing of 110 test cases achieved a pass rate of 96 percent on the first testing round. A four-week user acceptance testing phase with 80 registered alumni showed that 88 percent rated the profile management interface as intuitive. The job board was the most actively used feature, with 34 job listings posted during testing. Mentor-mentee matching was performed by the system using a rule-based algorithm considering career field, graduation year, and stated interests. Post-testing feedback recommended addition of a messaging centre and video conferencing integration for virtual mentoring sessions. The study concludes that digital alumni networks strengthen university-community relationships and recommends the system for adoption across federal universities in North East Nigeria.

Keywords: alumni network, university management system, Bauchi State, North East Nigeria, digital community