Recruiting Intelligence

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book)

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book) 

41. Overseas recruiting offices

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book) 

You are reading an excerpt from our e-book "88 Ways to Recruit International Students" (Click here to read the entire book)

Alumni can be your best resource for marketing your institution abroad. Don't underestimate the power of alumni in encouraging students and parents to consider your institution as an option for higher education. Alumni have the credibility factor as well as the ability to relate to students and parents in a way that you will not. Consider the following ways to use alumni in your recruitment efforts.

Creating brand recognition abroad when there are so many higher education institutions can be an ongoing challenge for universities. Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio has instituted an exciting and novel approach to building brand awareness, spreading its educational message and educating international students who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to attain an American degree. At the 2012 NAFSA Region VI Conference three Franklin University leaders presented their exciting on-location international degree programs. A special thank you to Suzie Arehart, Bridget Banaszak and Tamer Khadre for presenting this information.

At the recent NAFSA Region VI conference held in Columbus, Ohio I attended a number of interesting and informative sessions. One of the sessions I particularly enjoyed was led by three well-respected and well-versed higher education professionals: Kathy Ice-Wedding (U. of Kentucky), Sandi Lemons (IUPUI) and Daniel Whitmer (Indiana University- Bloomington). Their session titled "Introduction to Working with Sponsored Students" provided a rich array of information that would be helpful to professionals looking to add sponsored students to their international student populations.

As a former admission counselor I have firsthand experience with the benefits of traveling to recruit prospective students. Having the ability to meet students on the road is priceless. Well, not exactly priceless, as there’s always a fee for travel and incidentals and often a very high cost to taking the show on the road. Determining the best recruitment travel plan is a fundamental part of the admission counselor’s responsibilities.

Admission counselors who are fortunate to travel internationally have many options available through various tour companies. Since travel is one of the key components of recruitment, selecting the right tour company is a critical decision. In determining which travel company is the best fit, admission counselors must consider their institutional needs and goals, travel budget, and fellow travelers. Word of mouth seems to be an essential means of researching tour companies. We hope that our chart will provide a convenient comparison between the major tour companies.

What started as a way to decorate my office became something more intriguing this summer. This past spring I decided to make my office look brighter and more collegiate. I began purchasing pennants during my spring and summer visits to college campuses as a way to share pride for those universities. As my collection developed I was struck by the vast cost differential of collegiate pennants.

Although all of the pennants were manufactured by the same company, Collegiate Pacific, the prices of the pennants ranged from just under $10 to over $20. I couldn’t figure out why there would be such a vast price range for standard 12”x30” felt pennants. I was shocked and also curious. What would I find when comparing these universities? With the help of our summer interns we put together a chart outlining the price of pennants at the top 100 universities, according to the 2011 US News and World Report rankings. What did we find?

The pennant index project revealed some surprising results. Whereas I had made a hypothesis that the caliber of the institution and its prominence on the US News rankings would determine pennant price, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Some of the most expensive pennants came from lower ranking institutions. There seems to be little correlation between ranking, tuition price, and pennant price. For this research, Columbia and Harvard were an incredible steal.