Recruiting Intelligence

The recruiting environment is getting more competitive in China for international universities. International admission officers have to find ways to broaden the pool of students they can reach. As a result, it is even more important to understand the Chinese high school system to craft a successful recruitment strategy for your college or university. 

We have a great deal of respect for the role of admission officers. They show impressive persistence and dedication in the relentless marketing through high school visits, college fairs, international travel and so forth. They are road warriors. Now admission officers are asked to engage and connect through social media and video. The job requirements and skill sets can be daunting.

What do I mean by "rudimentary?" Maybe I should have stated that U.S. domestic student recruitment has become more and more sophisticated over the past few years. This trend will accelerate with increased competition among schools across larger territories, more entries into hybrid and online brands that lend themselves to larger territories, and broader marketing campaigns. 

In the spring and summer of 1988, I was sitting in Germany with three U.S. graduate school admissions in hand, two of them to similar prestigious programs in Washington D.C. - Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and Georgetown University. I didn't get to visit either campus. I had never been to the United States, had no emotional, family and other ties to either university. Where to attend?

Have you ever noticed that different key word searches bring completely different results? This happens throughout the Internet but we noticed it most recently on the Chinese social media site RenRen. This can be a great source of frustration for both students and universities.

I noticed in discussions with admissions officers their surprise that higher education companies own and use multiple brands.  These companies also offer a variety of services.  Because of my previous professional life of investment and Merger & Acquisition work, I tend to dig into the structure and origin of companies.  Hence, we launched a small summer project with our interns to research ownership of a few higher visibility and acquisitive companies.  In subsequent blogs we will cover brands and services owned by various companies.  Our selection will be completely subjective and not scientific.  If we miss an interesting company, please let us know.   

We are continuing to work on our summer research project. Here is one of the companies we researched for you. To read the introduction to this project, click here:_http://bit.ly/whoownswhom

Coordinating efforts between recruitment and student services 

Bill Gates gave an interview recently and described himself as a "professional student" in response to the comment that he was a college drop out.  I appreciated that description. Our professional careers require that mindset today.