Recruiting Intelligence

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…

For tens of thousands of international students, community college has been the secret to earning an affordable US degree. And the interest is growing. 

The latest numbers out of IIE show 59,315 international students enrolled in US community colleges in 2023/24. This option for international students peaked in 2016/2017 at 96,472. With the pandemic, the total dropped to 49,099 in 2021/22. The latest figure shows a 21% increase since then.

What’s behind the uptick? According to the international students we’ve spoken to in recent months, it comes down to: 

• Affordability (tuition) 
• Transferability (credits)
• Flexibility (study options)

Here’s the thing: Many of these students had never heard of community college until they began researching their options for studying in the US. Yet, once introduced to the idea, they were ready to sign on. 

Meet Intead!  

• If you’re at NAFSA, let us know! We’d love to connect. Or, find us at APLU in June, NACUBO in July, and NACAC in September.
• AI and the Future of Student Recruitment. A new webinar all about university recruitment in this dynamic, AICA's Emily Pacheco, Ashley Kern (MeetYourClass, Sightline), Ben Waxman (Intead). Register here.

IIE, UNESCO, the British Council, and other global student mobility evaluators all point to market growth over the next decade. Some of those projections are exceedingly rosy with US international student numbers hitting 2M or more in the next 5 to 10 years. We’re not so sure about that. We’ve seen these kinds of outsized predictions from reputable players before. And they didn’t pan out.  

Nevertheless, our own evaluation of the future is that there will continue to be a significant and growing number of students around the world seeking an international education (see our recent post explaining our thinking).

IIE is absolutely accurate in pointing to the significant capacity (number of seats) available in the US as compared to other common destinations (Canada, UK, Australia, Germany). Which brings us back to purchasing power – the growing number of internationally motivated students from countries around the world who will have the desire will also have less money. We see opportunity in that reality. 

US community colleges, this is your moment, if you are ready for it. Most of you are not.  

One proactive example worth talking about: College of the Canyons. The Intead team has been working closely with this institution which boasts a strong partnership with the University of California system. They use the internationally focused conferences (NAFSA, etc.) to build their network and regularly attend ICEF to connect to and manage a valuable agent network. And they deploy targeted digital campaigns to raise awareness and build the volume of student leads. The digital campaigns support their targeted recruitment travel.  

They do all of this work with a conscious effort to deploy messaging that educates students and their families about the value of community college as a route to a 4-year degree. 

The financial benefits alone are enough to pique prospective students’ interest. Community colleges cost a fraction of what a 4-year institution charges. And, depending on the institution, the ability to transfer credits to a nearby 4-year university to complete a bachelor’s degree is incredibly appealing. After all, these are visa-holding students who’ve already proven their academic capabilities. So, doing the math, many realize this approach to US education significantly cuts the cost of their desired degree while also lowering the barrier to entry for their preferred 4-year program. Win for the students. Win for the community colleges. Win for the 4-year institutions. 

But it’s not just about cost (though a lot of it is). Flexible programming, like online coursework, has opened the door to a wider range of students. Institutions offering international students the chance to start earning credits online before transitioning to on-campus studies are drawing in those who might otherwise hesitate—such as students with limited budgets, those who are still working on their English skills, or those who are simply getting themselves ready for university-level study.  

Take the story of one Taiwanese student we met. We’ll call him Chih-ming (not his real name). He spent his first year earning community college credits online from home. By the time Chih-ming moved to California to complete his associate degree, he had already adapted to the US education system and classroom expectations. This gave him the confidence to focus on adjusting to cultural differences when he arrived, making his transition much smoother. 

For students like Chih-ming, online courses are the bridge to achieving their aspirations, giving them the initial courage to pursue a US degree that will bring them closer to their dream careers. It is a low-risk confidence builder at a time when making the transition to a US university may seem daunting.  

Below we get into the considerations when recruiting (and retaining) international students who see online community college as their way into the US higher ed system. Whether you are an enrollment leader at a community college or a 4-year institution, there is something here for you. Read on...

There’s a reason people look to Netflix as a case study in perseverance. After transforming the video rental landscape – from in-person stores to in-home DVD delivery, then to streaming and producing new video content – Netflix now leads a global shift in how content is created and consumed. Blockbuster was once its biggest rival. Today it’s YouTube. 

Netflix’s journey is marked with notable missteps and market hits. Headlines like “The Year Netflix Almost Died” capture the 2011 fallout when the company lost 800,000 customers and its stock value plummeted nearly 80 percent. Yet, here they are, stronger than ever and global. So, do you have a Netflix subscription? Yeah. Us, too. The company clearly knows how to recover.  

The lesson here: We can survive really rough times if we’re smart about our response to market volatility. Time to focus on the details and control the controllable. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Look for us at NAFSA in May, APLU in June, NACUBO in July, and NACAC in September. Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.
• NEW WEBINAR: AI and the Future of Student Recruitment. All about university recruitment in this dynamic and changing AI environment. AICA's Emily Pacheco, Ashley Kern (MeetYourClass, Sightline), and Ben Waxman (Intead). Free Registration here. June 10, 2025 at 3pm Eastern time.

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.

US higher ed is at a pivotal moment as policy develops around the world and potential students consider how best to pursue their own interests.  How we respond now will affect our viability tomorrow and in the years ahead. The good news: history (and Netflix) shows us that recovery is possible. And there are lessons of resilience and recovery from within academia worth looking at as well. 

Take the UK. In 2008, the UK introduced a point-based immigration system and a Post-Study Work (PSW) visa allowing two years of work after graduation. Four years later, PSW was shuttered, causing an immediate decline in international student interest. A self-inflicted wound from Downing Street to the UK higher education system not unlike the international student disruptions being inflicted on US higher ed today. Interestingly, the number of main applicant-sponsored study visas issued only fell to 2008 levels and remained mostly stable until 2016, when numbers began to rise again.  

Even though overall visa numbers fell some universities took action that helped them outperform the sector and beat their own pre-2012 enrollment. Queen’s University Belfast was one with a comprehensive data-informed package of measures, including extensive faculty engagement, scholarship packages, enhanced agent involvement, and a focus on processes to improve the applicant journey. It was a whole institution approach matching strategic investment with operational excellence. They controlled the controllable.    

Then there’s Australia, which saw a steep international student decline a decade ago due to tightened visa scrutiny. Now, they are seeking to limit the number of international students studying in-country each year to 240,000. Canada, too, is currently working through its own hastily decreed cap on incoming international students, self-inflicted just last year.  

In fact, not once during this century have all four major anglophone recruiting countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada) had benevolent student and work visa policies simultaneously. There is almost always one or another imposing self-defeating rules upon themselves. Yet, 2025 brings us to a point where all four of these nations want to limit incoming international students – whether through direct intent or visa policy and rhetoric – rather than smoothing the international student path. It seems some policymakers have lost sight of the direct correlation between economic growth and academic strength (education and research capability). 

This current state is not the first period of stress and difficulty international students and institutions have faced. 

Despite bouts of turbulence, each receiving country continues to see an incoming flow of international students. In our view, it’s reasonable to assume international students will remain motivated to attain a foreign degree and a US degree will remain attractive to a large number of foreign students. So, we pursue what we can control and what can be changed (or challenged) and do so with a mindset that is measured not panicked.  

What does all that mean for your approach to internationalization? 

Read on…  

What we know: international students have a well-documented and unambiguous impact on the US economy and society. Each year the US is $43+ billion wealthier because of these students. And our classrooms, campuses, and communities benefit from their diverse viewpoints and clear-minded ambitions, keeping our workforce competitive, tech companies growing, and sciences advancing. 

There’s no skirting the fact higher education is in a reactionary period as the White House does all it can to implement short-sighted changes to US higher education (and we’re being generous here with our choice of words). Advocacy has never mattered more. Which makes the release of our latest research – done in collaboration with the great minds at NAFSA and Fox Hollow Advisory – that much more important. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Look for us at NAFSA in May, NACUBO and APLU in June, and NACAC in September. Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.
• Meet us online Tues., May 6, for the next AIRC webinar where Intead CEO Ben Waxman will join Co-panelists Kevin Timlin, Southeast Missouri State University and Manisha Zaveri, Career Mosaic for the expert-led discussion: IEM Student Lifecycle Series: Effective Student Recruitment Strategies.  

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.

Phase I of Global Talent: International Student Employment Trends After Graduation – released for download today – gives preliminary, yet important findings that will help bolster conversations we’re all having right now. This report goes beyond public data to answer:  

• What is the longer-term value of attracting and retaining international students to US higher ed institutions?
• How do international graduates contribute to the US workforce and economy?    

The report analyzes behaviors, motivations, and the economic impact of international students after earning their US degree. Special thanks to each of the following participating institutions:  

• California State University, San Bernardino
• Ottawa University 
• Salem State University 
• Southern Methodist University 
• University of California, Davis 
• University of Houston 
• University of Kansas 
• University of North Texas 
• University of Redlands 
• University of Texas at Austin 
• Washburn University 
• Wichita State University 

This research explores the alignment between US institutions producing international student talent, the US economy, and US job market demands. It’s part of a larger initiative aimed at understanding how US education benefits both international students and the nation. Read on to download the report…