Recruiting Intelligence

SIOs have for years been understaffed and under resourced. As vetting of international students ratchets up and new policies continue to challenge immigration and inclusion, SIOs wonder: what’s next?  

What we know is that our SIO colleagues have been receiving an abundance of well-intended, and often unwanted, emails of concern from their academic peers across the campus. Administrators, deans, and faculty are coming out of the woodwork, asking how the SIO and the institution as a whole is supporting international students. Sidebar comments may also raise concerns about how the institution will meet our future international student enrollment targets.  

SIOs often view the sudden and intense interest in all things international as unnecessary and intrusive. As the questions stream into your inbox your knee jerk reaction may be to push them off.

I can spend all day writing substantiative responses to each of your inquiries. Or I can do my job. Frankly, I’d prefer you simply stayed out of it. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.  

The never-ending quest for content that helps you move the needle. This year that means a serious focus on ideas and tools your enrollment team can use to adapt to the opportunities out there and reach enrollment goals. The pressure our clients and so many others are under right now feels daunting, to say the least. Our goal: help keep them (and you) focused on effective recruitment and retention.  

In troubled times, we do not sit on our hands. There are always actions we can take despite the challenges that throw us off our original game plan. 

When we talk about brand building, especially in the edu space, we often focus on the big strategies: multichannel campaigns, search engine marketing, CRM integration, data analytics. All undeniably important. But what really breaks through to students? Content that feels personal – the kind that makes your target audience feel seen and understood. 

Think, an Instagram Reel featuring a current student sharing their journey and pouring a bit of their heart out. A TikTok breaking down the real cost of living on campus and the pride in managing the cost. Stories that help students bring their imagined academic and social experiences to life. Our audience is on the cusp of a new chapter, be it undergrad, grad, or secondary school.

Good content helps them see their future. Great content helps them feel it. Below you can download our case study and use our results as a benchmark as you evaluate your own campaigns.

During a recent staff meeting, it occurred to us: over the past 15 years the Intead team has given more than 100 conference presentations. That’s a lot of higher edu conferences! And if there’s one theme that runs through them all, it’s change. 

(We like to think another theme running through them all is innovative use of data leading to valuable enrollment insights, but those of you who have been in the sessions can be the judge of that).

Five years ago, Covid “changed everything.” Mask mandates and travel restrictions arrived so suddenly, they still feel within uncomfortable reach. While those disruptions have mostly passed –  some effects stuck. Think: hybrid work, remote classes.  

And yet, at a NAFSA session on enrollment marketing earlier this year, when a fellow attendee remarked with dismay, “My school is doing all the same things we did before Covid. But everything has changed…” We couldn’t help but wonder, has it? 

Agents don’t manifest student enrollment. They build on the foundation you create together.  

In our last post, we wrote about how to find and evaluate right-fit student recruitment agents including offering you a handy, downloadable evaluation checklist. (If you missed that one, check it out here.)  

This week we focus on what comes next: maintaining that highly valuable relationship. 

Policies can be complicated. Keeping student success front and center aligns everyone involved. In turbulent times like these, strong, trustworthy agent partnerships are a lifeline for students and student recruitment teams. 

“A US degree is the American dream for a lot of families. It’s a deep-rooted emotion for them. Studying abroad is one thing. Studying in the US is prestige,” said Deepika Phukan, an India-based education agent who works closely with the Intead team.  

Unlike most of his peers, my son (it’s Carrie talking here) applied to just two higher ed institutions. He got into both. Accepted both. Put down a deposit on both. Will attend just one. And so, he’s part of the admissions problem.  

Our colleague (and contributor to today’s post) Jon Boeckenstedt, retiring vice provost of enrollment management at Oregon State University, explains it like this: A lot of people think yield is like planting saplings in greenhouses, where your success is highly dependent on things you control, like spacing, soil quality, temperature, water, etc. In fact, yield is more like scattering seeds, where you are hopeful, and you have some ideas of success based on prior years, but in reality, you're at the mercy of factors you have zero control over.  

As an example: Last year, UCLA received 146,276 applications. About 13,114 students or 9% were admitted. For comparison, just 4 years earlier, in 2020, the university had an acceptance rate of 18%. And a decade+ ago in 2010, it was 23%. Go back further to 2000, it was 29%. And wait for it, in 1990, it was just above 40%. A lot has changed in a 30+ years. 

Read on… 

…and we thought Q1 was turbulent. The annual NAFSA conference couldn’t have come at a better time. As the White House continued its efforts to reshape US higher ed, our industry was banding together as NAFSA CEO Fanta Aw reminded us that “when the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.”

Cue a collective deep breath from the audience. We’ve got this; time to dig in. 

Through it all, we’ve been evaluating the news and identifying actionable recommendations. It is a time of continual tactical adaptation to achieve the goal at this point in the year: maintaining or improving yield despite the headwinds.

This post will catch you up on our blogs from Q2 ’25, including: 

• TRULY VALUABLE TO ALL: Our 2025 ebook reboot of 88 Ways to Recruit International Students 
• Why online community college is rising for many international student prospects 
• New NAFSA and Intead-led research on international student employment trends 
• Revisiting lessons from the past to help shape our response to near-term obstacles in international edu 
• Our slides from NAFSA 2025 Career Data Presentation (Connecting Dots) 
• Useful tips on tapping into the digital communication student trend: #studyspo

Read on… 

Meet Intead!  

• Find us at NACUBO in DC in July, and NACAC in Columbus in September. Be in touch to share a cup of coffee in person.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

While many NAFSANs did express a weariness and some sessions had a very somber tone, that feeling was not pervasive. There will continue to be pain along the way, no doubt. Some of us will suffer losses due to the threats and disruptions in our field. Student stress (and worse) is no joke. Fabulous and motivated international students will be denied access. Nevertheless, the dust will settle. Reason will prevail. And our community will fix what is being broken.

NAFSA, among other leaders in our field, will be there throughout and after.  

To be clear, no one is giving up the fight.  

We were part of three presentations at NAFSA this year, mostly about career outcomes for international students and how institutions can use this information to improve enrollment and advocate for our community. Find the link to our data (slides and reports) below. 

Read on… 

We all absorbed a few sucker punches at NAFSA 2025. And we experienced all the feels. 

While the White House released a new set of directives to further disrupt international student access to US institutions, NAFSANs gathered and found support amongst each other in San Diego. We ran as a pack (more on that below).

I spent my time at the conference largely with community and institutional leaders who have been down similar paths before. With sighs, eyerolls, and steadfast determination, we assessed what we knew, gave each other hugs, and took to planning for the future.  

As NAFSA CEO Dr. Fanta Aw says, “We do not get to be tired.” 

Meet Intead!  

• Find us at APLU in NYC in June, NACUBO in DC in July, and NACAC in Columbus in September. Be in touch to share a cup of coffee in person.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

While many NAFSANs did express a weariness and some sessions had a very somber tone, that feeling was not pervasive. There will continue to be pain along the way, no doubt. Some of us will suffer losses due to the threats and disruptions. Student stress (and worse) is no joke. Fabulous and motivated international students will be denied access. Nevertheless, the dust will settle. Reason will prevail. And our community will fix what is being broken. NAFSA, among other leaders in our field, will be there throughout and after.  

To be clear, no one is giving up the fight.  

We were part of three presentations at NAFSA this year, mostly about career outcomes for international students and about how institutions can use this information to improve enrollment and advocate for our community. Find the link to our data (slides and a report) later in this blog post. 

Read on… 

Our aim with the original 88 Ways to Recruit International Students, published in 2012, was to create an accessible compendium of international recruitment tactics for edu institutions.  The download took off. At the time of publishing, we were hoping to get 300 downloads. We hit 10X that number in a couple months.  

So successful and widely used by academic and enrollment leaders in 2012-2013, a number of edu service providers in the field (our competitors) started paid search campaigns using our ebook title as their keywords ; -). Digital indicators that we were on to something. 

We have received terrific feedback and suggestions over the years from enrollment leaders. And we owe a debt of gratitude to our original authors, Lisa Cynamon Mayers and Michael Waxman-Lenz for their vision and groundbreaking research to compile our first edition back in the day. Our field has changed with new tools emerging (generative AI), others going away (remember Renren?). 

Currently, in 2025, some of our mainstay data sources (IIE, IPEDS, and EducationUSA) are truncated and under threat of disappearing as we go to press with this edition. Previously unthinkable. Also, potentially making some of our writing in the section called “Recruiting with US Government Support” a bit risky. Hopefully, that does not require an update too soon. 

A truly valuable addition to our latest edition: The intead team has been conducting market research and publishing our findings in our blog for more than a decade. Almost every summarized entry in this edition of 88 Ways has a link taking you to Intead’s deeper analysis of how that particular idea can work along with relevant data. 

So, yeah, you’re welcome.  

Meet Intead!  

• Find us at APLU in June, NACUBO in July, and NACAC in September. Be in touch to share a cup of coffee in person.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

Over the years, the Intead team has contributed to the evolution of our field. In 2012, the world was still crawling out of the 2008 market crash. (Remember AIG? Bear Stearns? Credit Default Swaps?) International student enrollment numbers were really starting to climb. And digital marketing was just starting to mature.  

For perspective, the first iPad was released in 2010. In 2012, Facebook had almost 1 billion users. (Today, it has more than 3 billion.) Back then, Renren was very popular and growing as the Chinese Facebook alternative.  

Here’s an interesting digital tidbit: Google Vine launched in January 2013 and died in 2017. TikTok arrived on the scene in 2016 and by October 2018 was the most downloaded app in the US. Today, 3 billion downloads worldwide. 

 So, yeah, it’s been a minute and much has changed.  

Where are we now? In 2025, there are new global threats to the economy, to geopolitical safety, to student mobility. Generative AI is THE hot topic. WeChat is on every Chinese citizen’s phone. WhatsApp (owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent company) is one of the preferred communication tools for 2.75 billion global users (think Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America). 

Importantly, there are many, many new enrollment leaders and practitioners out there who are trying to make sense of it all. Enrollment leaders are trying to bring their new hires up to speed with a global perspective. 

That’s no easy task. 

This is where our 88 Ways ebook truly shines: as a resource that helps folks old and new to the field get a quick overview of the many channels, tools, tactics available to help enrollment teams find and recruit relevant pockets of international students around the world. 

The reality that no institution has the resources to market to the entire world prompts smart leaders to evaluate options and focus investments where they have the greatest return value, the greatest potential for success. 

We’ve given 88 Ways a reboot to reflect the current world of enrollment operations and opportunities. We’ve updated the suggestions, retired a few ideas, and offered up new recruitment insights that will no doubt spur worthwhile ideation from your team – whether your institution is US-based or not, this compendium will get you and your team thinking.    

Read on to download our rebooted ebook…