Coordinating efforts between recruitment and student services
The Intead team was recently invited to be a guest speaker at NAFSA’s Connecticut chapter gathering held at Trinity College in June. We presented alongside Amanda Eckler and Erin Gustafson from Yale University’s OISS to discuss pre-arrival digital orientations for international students. The most striking element of the larger group discussion, from our point of view, was the challenge of the silo mentality that so often occurs as we all try to achieve our departmental goals.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." ~ Abraham Lincoln, 1858 House Republican Convention
There seems to be a fairly consistent division of responsibility between recruitment and student services staff within the academic environment. In a business setting this would be the equivalent of splitting the marketing and customer services departments. Once a student commits (purchases the product) she is handed off to student services (and others). How student services manages that customer relationship influences word of mouth marketing which is critical to the academic market – especially with international student recruitment since these students are typically unable to form an opinion by visiting the campus. And yet, international recruitment staff and student services staff often struggle to collaborate.
When international student services creates orientation content or gathers other relevant, compelling information about studying at the school and living in the region, that material can support international recruitment efforts online and in emails to prospective international students. This content helps differentiate your offering, drawing more prospective students and increasing yield. Organizations with strong customer service departments sell more and retain more customers. Think Zappos.com and Nordstrom.
Yale presented a well designed digital orientation program focused on preparing international graduate students and scholars to study and live in New Haven, CT. Intead presented a pre-departure digital orientation we produced in collaboration with Case Western Reserve University focusing on enrolling international undergraduates.
Both orientations highlighted the importance of having clear, compelling information that demonstrates the best of your institution in an accessible format. Both orientations addressed visa and other arrival documentation requirements.
Yale’s version focused more on the specifics of navigating student services requirements for a smooth arrival. Intead’s orientation was created as more of a marketing tool for international admissions – providing compelling information as admitted students were deciding which school would be right for them.
Information most interesting to international students addresses life on campus and in the American classroom. Safety, banking, and how to get a U.S. cell phone plan rank highly as well.
Other important digital orientation considerations include:
- Making your content accessible by having multi-language functionality. In our experience, the average time spent on Intead’s digital orientation site was 40% higher for the Chinese version than the English version.
- Choosing technology tools that allow for mobile access – far more Chinese international students access the Internet through mobile devices than computers.
- Creating interactive games, polls and forums to help hold students’ attention when the content you need to share with them might not be that interesting, i.e., complete this form and check this acknowledgement box to receive credit toward a school T-shirt.
- Setting up tags in outgoing emails and other site analytics that allow you to track usage and confirm that you are achieving your international student orientation goals.
The bottom line: Beyond the content and technology decisions, collaborative lines of communications between recruitment and student services will help both departments achieve their goals. Establish a positive, cross-pollinating relationship. A house united produces international students confident in their choice of school and confident in their ability to succeed as their cross-border academic journey begins on your campus.
