Recruiting Intelligence

The buzz topic at NAFSA XI 2024: creative ways to engage students. The primary focus being study abroad during this 3-day event in Hartford, CT in October. The Intead team was there in force gathering intel and sharing our latest data-informed thinking. 

Small industry events like NAFSA’s regional conferences are such a great way to connect with peers to think through the nuts and bolts of what works and what doesn’t on issues we’re all facing. So many conversations on how to raise on-campus awareness of study abroad programs, including how to counter student “why bother” attitudes (all too common).   

Another buzz topic: faculty and cross-departmental collaboration. We are all still struggling to break down silos and build collaborative cultures on campus.   

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024. Two informative sessions: Dissecting the latest IIE data and a deep dive into international student career outcome data with Babson College.
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

A consistent drumbeat throughout the NAFSA Region XI conference was something we as marketers intuitively know all too well: authenticity is huge among this generation. Basic example of how this plays out: polished marketing videos vs. iPhone produced TikTok vibes.  

Obvious across-the-board guidance whether you’re working on recruitment or retention, undergrad or grad. Since so many NAFSA Regional conference attendees are in student services roles, the discussions were largely around how authenticity boosts study abroad numbers. It works – when implemented. 

Simple as it seems, meaningful communication gets lost in the name of strategic marketing all the time. Institutions are so busy finding best-fit students and telling them things, it’s easy to forget to meet them where they are by listening to them before you start telling them things. 

Consider your students who’ve never thought of study abroad as a viable option for their own academic journeys. Is your student union flyer even registering with them? Are your Instagram Reels connecting?   

The real-world examples of success discussed at the conference addressed students’ need for explicit communication that shows them why and how study abroad is actually an option for them. They need their professors, alumni, and fellow classmates to talk about the benefits of studying abroad. They need details on cost upfront, including scholarships or grants available. They need to hear about the more affordable study abroad programs. They need to connect your study abroad programs to their personal investment in their own futures – the future they are working toward on campus right now. They need to know they won't lose out on all the social events on campus because they will be engaging in new and exciting social events abroad.

New ideas? No. Achievable in a better way? Yes.

So much easier to see (and prioritize) the path forward after a few days with like-minded peers. (Thank you, NAFSA!).

Other topics we had a lot of fun discussing include value mapping for improved admissions processes and how to identify useful data to support your recruitment efforts. Action-oriented conversations led by outstanding presenters. Big thanks to Corey Blackmar of Emerson College, Steven Boyd of Quinnipiac University, and Khald Aboalayon of Clark University for sharing the stage with us. 

One final shout out. This one’s for our number one Director of Marketing Analytics Iliana Joaquin. She is the new NAFSA XI IEM Knowledge Center Regional Rep. We are thrilled to let NAFSA borrow her amazing skills in 2025. Congrats Iliana!  

Below we bring a bit of the conference to you. Read on to download our presentation decks with practical tips and insights:  

• Creating a Campus Culture for Study Abroad 
• Admission Process Analysis: Value Mapping and Improvement 
• Wait, So How Did You Get This Data? 

Increased demand for online learning is forcing institutions to rethink their approach to programming. 

You likely read that line in a news article a decade ago. But it is news once again. 

Consider this: 69% of chief online learning officers (COLOs) surveyed this year reported prioritizing online versions of on-campus courses, and 65% said they are prioritizing online equivalents of degree programs.  

These significant stats unveiled in the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, CHLOE 9: Strategy Shift: Institutions Respond to Sustained Online Demand, produced by Quality Matters, Eduventures, and Educause, reveal just how far our industry has come.  

For the past decade, a common hesitation among campus leaders resisting change was the legit and long-held idea that online courses of on-campus offerings risk cannibalizing campus student enrollments. That concern has given way to the notion that these virtual programs may instead attract new audiences. Have we achieved win, win?  

And what of the potential for Online Program Managers (OPMs) in all of this? 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

It’s obvious that the pandemic dramatically accelerated online edu investment. Now, a few semesters past its throes, demand for online learning remains high, particularly from students – though more faculty appreciate it, too. And obviously, institution leaders are paying attention. Thankfully the mood is also shifting from emergency response to long-term sustainability, hastening more meaningful cross-campus discussions on implementation, support, and strategy.  

The CHLOE 9 report adds depth to the conversations we’re all having about online education: investment priorities, pricing approaches, points of friction, third-party services (oh, those OPMS!), and a handful of other key topics worth consideration. Not least among them: Are the participants (faculty and students) simply phoning it in? In other words, does the convenience of remote learning still achieve the desired learning outcomes? 

And for you, what impact does this report have on your recruitment strategy? Read on…  

Our new Know Your Neighborhood (KYN) 2024 Student Sentiment Analysis is a follow-on report to our previous US election research published in June. This one provides the nuance behind the stats. And yes, there’s a clear Trump factor with some choice words shared in the student comments.  

Available today, this new research adds depth to our KYN 2024 report issued in partnership with global study choice platform Studyportals. That initial data set was all about factors influencing international students’ decisions to study abroad, including the effect of the US presidential election (Biden vs. Trump at the time). If you missed that phase 1 research, download it for free here. 

Today’s data set, also produced in partnership with our colleagues at Studyportals, presents new findings by looking at the sentiment behind the survey responses. This report adds even more to our findings with results from a new 4-question survey regarding Harris v. Trump (per shift in Democrat ticket). The Harris v. Trump survey, which ran Aug. 12, 2024 – Sept. 9, 2024, was accessible as a banner ad on Studyportals’ website, resulting in 1,028 responses.   

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

As you well know, the international student market is a competitive one. The universities that succeed are those that truly understand the consumer in each student segment. So, yes, while the KYN 2024 follow-on report is an interesting read, it also gives insight into the mindset of the international students you’re trying to recruit now. In other words, there’s something to be learned here.  

Read on to download the free report… 

Imagine a mid-size, private university, call it Opportunity University, gearing up for a recruitment push in Vietnam – a new target market for the institution. Excited by the potential and the green light from the provost, the nimble international recruitment team of two assembles a marketing campaign targeting what they assume to be their typical international prospects: high school students motivated to get a liberal arts education at a US institution that will lead to future career success.  

The standard international student profile, right? (Wrong, but we’ll get to that.) Running on a tight budget and timeline, they repurposed a campaign strategy that had previously proven successful with the Indian market (a dominant source of students for their computer science graduate programs). The response, however, was not what they had hoped.

The errors of this somewhat exaggerated story highlight a critical marketing misstep: relying on shallow persona development. Not thinking this stuff through can lead to serious marketing misses. Anyone who takes a simple bullet list of traits and runs with it (high school student, career-minded, uses WhatsApp, seeking international education) is not taking their role as marketer seriously.  

Personas often get a bad rap from jaded marketers who have seen the process based on simplistic stereotypes and then relied on as a holy grail. We hear you! We are not seeking Hollywood stereotypes here.

But well considered personas do align your broader marketing team so that your communications speak with a consistent integrity to each potential student segment. Well-crafted personas are all about internal team alignment around a common voice and marketing approach.

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

Unlike the fictitious Opportunity University, institutions that think critically and dive deep into student persona analysis understand that the development of multidimensional profiles is foundational to successful student recruitment strategies. They get that personas, when thoughtfully crafted, can anchor the entire marketing team around a coherent, effective, audience-centered strategy. It’s a north star for guiding marketing tactic selection, content development, design, student interactions, and marketing execution which includes selecting recruitment channels. 

The process of creating marketing personas itself helps dissect the complex student decision-making process by considering the target audience’s lifestyle, challenges, media consumption habits, and underlying motivations. It is so much more than a surface demographic dig. What you uncover during the process can lead to really compelling marketing that will resonate with your prospects because you will have firm insights into their mindset, influencers, and ultimately, their choices.  

On more than one occasion we’ve seen the persona discovery process actually lead to market retreat because the more intimate understanding made it clear the audience and programs on offer weren’t a good fit after all. Better to find out in the early stages than committing to a no-win grind. A sort of check and balance of your strategy. 

Complex persona development is the kind of thing large consumer packaging companies are so good at. During one of our internal innovation sessions the Intead team got into a discussion about how understanding your audience plays out. One quick case study was P&G’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign from the 2012 Olympics (London). If you don’t recall what we’re talking about, see the link below. Let us know your reaction. Tip: grab tissues first.  

So much emotion, and yet, all they were selling was laundry detergent and other basic goods. They knew exactly who their target audience was and why they used their products. And no, it wasn’t to simply keep clothes clean. The tagline lays it out, "It takes someone strong to make someone strong. Thank you, Mom." Suddenly, I have this urge to buy Tide. But I digress… 

The lesson here is the student journey to your institution is so much more complex and life altering. Just imagine what a thoughtful, well-understood persona could do for your student recruitment. Read on for our tips (pass them on to your team) … 

The US continues to be a top destination for international students. As other anglophile countries find new reasons to limit their student intake (we’re looking at you Canada, Australia, and UK), there is still competition for student attention. Now is no time for US institutions to rest on their laurels.  

The macro numbers around student mobility are always interesting. But the fact is that each institution has tremendous potential in any given market if it plays its unique cards well.  

It starts with market intelligence, understanding your consumer, their motivations, influencers, and how the unique attributes of your institution relate to those consumer insights. There are questions you and your recruitment team are asking: 

• Are you reaching the right prospective international students?  

• Are your markets diversified enough? Targeted enough?  

• How do you know if you are doing all of this well? 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 04-07, 2024 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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

Over the past year we’ve offered insights into regions we think are well worth watching on 3 continents – China, India, Vietnam, Tanzania, Guyana. Each of these countries offers something interesting for international student recruiters to think about. All won’t be right for every institution, but each are right for some.  

Read on to understand how we’re thinking about these markets and to link to our more in-depth articles each one.  

The plight of your visa-seeking international grads may best be summed up in this quote, “Given the choice between a prostate exam and sponsoring a work visa, hiring managers will probably choose the former.”  

Zeke Hernandez, a Wharton School professor and author of The Truth About Immigration, gave us a good chuckle with that one when we read it in an August 2024 issue of The Economist. It’s funny because it’s true as the meme goes.   

In an analysis done by ed tech company F1 Hire, only 1.6% of the 1.5 million job postings analyzed had sponsorship-friendly language in the job description. This research was part of Intead’s Connecting Dots report How International Students are Finding US Jobs, published in May. If you haven’t seen it yet, find it here. Our analysis of US Department of Labor data and proprietary data from F1 Hire offers job market insights you won’t find anywhere else. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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

Understanding career pathways for international students is an increasingly necessary topic for those of us who advocate for and work on behalf of this valuable and important student population. In fact, 84% of international students cite career advancement as their top motivator for studying abroad. And >99% believe it’s why their families want them to study abroad (source: Intead’s Know Your Neighborhood 2024 report).  

But it’s so much more than that. These bright, highly skilled students are a crucial part of the economy. As pointed out in a recent Economist article, immigrants account for 14% of the US population yet are responsible for 36% of the country’s total innovation. It makes sense why. They bring not just knowledge, but new ideas, perspectives, and networks that help shape their work environments. Global perspectives, ideas, and connections benefit everyone.  

At Intead we need only look up from our own desks to see the positive impact of multinational teams (and to our case studies for bottom-line proof of results). We expect many of you are fortunate enough to work in similar environments. We are all better for it as individuals. Our work product is stronger as well.  

The Biden Administration offered a bit of good news for international students earlier this year when they issued guidance making it easier for foreign graduates of American academic institutions to get work authorization. But it’s a small gesture that will likely have minimal impact. Still, we welcome the forward motion. 

Read on for ways your institution can improve career connections for your students... 

Between NAFSA, GMAC, EdUSA Forum, and keeping up with our client deliverables, our Q3 dance cards were full. And we are grateful. Connecting with colleagues like you in person always gives us a boost. We had a lot of press coverage about our very cool market research as well.

Were you able to follow all that? 

If you were similarly occupied (maybe US election news had you distracted?), you may have missed a Recruiting Intelligence post or two. No problem. We’ve got you covered. In this quarterly wrap-up post, find quick links to our action-orient tips on: 

• How and when to use LinkedIn for student recruitment 
• Using English Language Programs’ enrollment indicators 
• Making the most of your international recruiting trips 
• Insights into Sub-Saharan Africa 
• Key takeaways from our conference presentations: NAFSA, GMAC, and EdUSA Forum 
• And more! 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, WA, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 825+ articles, slide decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

Ready to catch up on Q3 news? Read on… 

All conversations lead to careers.  

Disagree? Convince us otherwise. When prospective students ask about your top programs, they’re really inquiring about their career paths. Questions about student outcomes?  They’re assessing their post-degree job prospects. Asking about your institution’s rankings? They are assessing how your degree will play on their CV as they apply for jobs. Calculating your institution’s ROI? All about grads’ salaries. 

Look to our recent Know Your Neighborhood (KYN) survey where a full 84% of respondents view career advancement as their primary motivation for studying abroad. Over 99% will tell you this is also their family’s top reason pushing them forward. So, career opportunities matter – a whole lot. 

Which begs the question: If prospective students are thinking about careers so much and you have a thoughtful, creative social media presence (you do, right?), then wouldn’t it make sense to weave LinkedIn, the top social media platform for the career-minded, into your marketing strategy? Especially when it comes to your graduate programs, alumni network, and adjacent target audiences like high school counselors or consulates. Turns out, LinkedIn could be a great place for your institution to connect with these audiences. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7, 2024

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

The latest data from LinkedIn shows its network boasts over 1 billion registered users from 200 countries and regions worldwide. That said, per We Are Social, only 1 in 3 (or somewhere between 330 – 350 million) are active on a monthly basis. Still high, but less so. Within these data you can also find 136,000 schools listed. Yours is likely among them. Impressive numbers, though at some point these supersized stats feel a bit meaningless.  

The following numbers may be more tangible for your recruitment work: 50.6% of LinkedIn users worldwide are between the ages of 25 and 34; 24.5% are 18 to 24 (Statista). Further, it’s the 4th most used social platform among our KYN respondents (prospective international students), falling in line behind #1 Facebook, #2 YouTube, and #3 Instagram. Perhaps the case for building a LinkedIn recruitment strategy is beginning to take shape.  

Fact is, institutions like yours are increasingly using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. Its professional focus and networking capabilities make it useful for connecting with career-oriented prospects, particularly those seeking higher degrees, as well as alumni who are arguably your ultimate word of mouth advocates. Not sure if you’re getting the most out of your institution’s account? We’ll tell you how. This post is a great read for those involved in the details of your social media execution as well as those trying to evaluate the value of the platform in your overall strategy. Be sure to forward it along. Read on… 

English language programs (ELP) are a barometer for future enrollment trends. Canaries in the coal mine if you will. When participation is strong, your upcoming application season will likely also be strong. On the other hand, a drop in participation can foreshadow a similar fate for near-term enrollment. (source: see pandemic) 

Understanding the health of this academic niche makes a lot of sense, especially for those tasked with program development or international student recruitment, which is why we so appreciate the efforts of EnglishUSA and their partners BONARD and Pearson Test of English, for their work on the recently published Annual Report on English Language Programs in the USA 2023. The report offers insights helpful to edu institutions across the board. And in this, their second annual report, they offer good news: ELP enrollment is up.

A special thanks to Cheryl Delk-Le Good for bringing this report to our community.

The analysis of the canaries gives us the signposts we all want. The countries where ELP numbers are up give us perspective on where it might make sense to focus our international student recruitment investments.

Our next opportunity to meet!   
NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct 27-29. The Intead team will be there presenting on Admission Process Analysis, Marketing Data Analytics, and Marketing Study Abroad Programs with university partners from our New England region friends from Quinnipiac, Johnson and Wales, Clark, and Emerson. Practical strategies and creative tactics to hit your enrollment targets.  Hope to see you there! 

PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov 19-20. We will be talking about our analysis of career success data and how institutions can use that data to improve recruitment initiatives around the world. Our powerhouse co-presenters: Kerry Salerno, Chief Marketing Officer, Babson College and Andrew Chen, CEO, F1 Hire.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Take your challenge of the day and plop it into our search bar. With 800+ publications and our 15 years of weekly blogging, you will find relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting. Check it out.

According to the EnglishUSA report, the global English language teaching sector continues to recover and is now 77% of its 2019 student numbers, signaling a positive trend in overall postsecondary enrollment. In the US, the recovery rate was 69% – lower, but still positive.   

Compare this to US institutions as a whole. While all enrollment (domestic + international) is still down 800,000 students from 2019 numbers per the National Student Clearinghouse, solid gains have been made to rebuild enrollment. The latest IIE data on international students in the US (2022/23) indicates that numbers have reached 98% of the 2019/20 levels.  

On a global scale, the EnglishUSA report shows 1.1 million students in 2023 took an English language course in one of eight major destinations – Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and US.  Among these, the US was the third most popular country, hosting 13% of the students, falling in line behind the UK and Australia. And that 13% added up to over $1.7 billion in direct economic impact to the US economy. Education is a solid export for the US. 

These numbers just scratch the surface of the nuanced report, which offers perspective on preferred course types, recruitment channels, visa challenges, more on the economic impact of ELP students, and other valuable insights.  

With students back on campus, we know you’re busy. So, today a quick overview of the stats we found particularly interesting as global marketers. Read on… 

Danger zone of travel: the misperception among your colleagues that your global trip is just another boondoggle.  

It’s a common experience for international student recruitment teams. Jet-setting itineraries make it hard for some travel-hungry colleagues to see your grueling business trip as anything other than a junket. But a junket it is not.  Below we share an 8-point guide to the "why of international travel".

We know images of far-off places seem “luxurious” to those not on your team, which is why so many of you no longer post those photos from your trips on social media. Never mind the 3am (local time) touchdown in Dehli that led to your 7am scramble to the student fair starting in 2 hours where you spent the next 8 hours repeating the same conversation with 122 different students until it was time to cap off the day with a working dinner with your in-country agent. A day lounging at the beach, right?

Our next opportunity to meet!   
NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct 27-29. The Intead team will be there presenting on Admission Process Analysis, Marketing Data Analytics, and Marketing Study Abroad Programs with university partners from our New England region friends from Quinnipiac, Johnson and Wales, Clark, and Emerson. Practical strategies and creative tactics to hit your enrollment targets.  Hope to see you there! 

The Resource Center for Industry Insiders 
Take your challenge of the day and plop it into our search bar. With 800+ publications and our 15 years of weekly blogging, you will find relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting. Check it out.

Here’s the truth. We talk a lot about armchair recruiting and the undeniable advantages of digital marketing around the world. And we stand by that. But for institutions that can afford to, purposeful travel absolutely builds your recruitment strategy in robust ways. We know you agree. But does your provost? 

This week, from-the-field insights on recruitment travel from recent conversations with our SIO colleagues David Di Maria, Ed.D., senior international officer and associate vice provost for international education at UMBC, and Jill Blondin, Ph.D., associate vice provost for global initiatives at Virginia Commonwealth University. Plus, the key conversations that will help you make the most of the travel you do have budgeted. Because you never want to waste a good trip. Read on…