Recruiting Intelligence

A great gathering in DC as nearly 800 attended this year’s AIEA conference. The conversations were varied and interesting, as always. Kudos to Darla Deardoff, David Fleshler, and their team for pulling off a valuable event.

We are looking ahead at our next chance to chat about internationalization with .Edu trustees and presidents in San Diego at the AGB conference in April. Honored to be presenting alongside Brad Farnsworth from Fox Hollow Advisory (former ACE VP) and Dr. Gretchen Bataille from GMB Consulting (former president of the U of North Texas among other amazing higher ed roles). We will be talking all about insights university leaders need to guide internationalization efforts. Reach out if you or others from your team will be there.

Reflecting on this past week with our AIEA colleagues, my thoughts turn to internationalization and the many factors that go into its student recruitment process – the admissions, the student support/success efforts, the development of global partnerships. So many factors to manage. We know this.

Underlying it all is the question of staffing structure and the challenge of retaining current staff and attracting new to keep the process moving (better yet, optimized). Switching gears, did we mention credential evaluation and oh, study abroad programs? Right, so many aspects.

With all of this yanking on us, distracting us as each area of our jobs calls us to focus, there really is only one approach to multi-faceted work like this: be thorough and work hard. There is no magic solution, despite what so many vendors seem to say.

Let’s get into it and review the promises being made in our field and some actions you and your team can take to improve your Gen Z enrollment strategy. What data are you looking at? And how much of it is True But Useless (TBU)? With thanks to our Chief of Strategy Patricia Tozzifor bringing this phrase to the fore. Her perpetual questioning keeps us focused on this: what can you truly act on?

Read on for insights prompted by the 2023 AIEA gathering:

Worth evaluating: will your 2022 student recruitment plan and budget be relevant for 2023?

Some are saying Search is dead. It is certainly getting increasingly complex. And hello ChatGPT.

An old Chinese adage (loosely translated): May you live in interesting times. The original idea from Ming Dynasty Poet Feng Menglong in1627, "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos." (寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 – thank you Wikipedia!)

The good news: not everything changes. The core questions you use to evaluate next steps remain the same. The truth is, no matter the tactics your strategic plan includes, the framework for budget planning and evaluation is (or should be) constant. If it’s not, let’s talk.

That’s why “3 Essential Budget Questions: A Framework for Planning” is one of our top go-to downloads. And why we often give it a reboot around budget season.

This free download distills any budget request/evaluation process into three essential questions. A quick 2-minute read, our framework for evaluating your plans and whether they merit additional investment, narrows your focus on a consideration of what is truly important to you. Where are the strongest opportunities for growth? What do you truly value? And are you performing at the level that produces desired results? 

Here's the thing, if you are not willing to fund something to get the results you want, then you don’t value those desired results as much as the thing you do decide to fund. What went into that decision? All too often, institutional politics carries more weight than an evaluation of values and growth opportunities. Ouch!

This download will be available for free to our blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises (annual budgeting, new team member training, etc.).

Ready to get your copy of Intead’s budget framework flowchart? Read on…

It’s a sad day when a good idea dies on the cutting room floor simply because the team didn’t quite know how to pull it off or have the time to implement it. Because who has time to bother learning something new? (Runner-up award for worst higher ed institution tagline!)

Truth is, getting started is more than half the battle, which is why over the past 12+ months we ran the popular “Getting Started With” series. Taken together, these posts become your team’s Social Media Marketing 101 for student recruiting tools.

Today, we offer you a compilation of this newbie knowledge all in one place. Read on to learn how to get started with TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, text message marketing, and more. This is one post you’ll definitely want to share with the members of your team who actually get your stuff done.

As AIEA 2023 wraps up this week, we are looking ahead at our next chance to chat about internationalization with .Edu trustees and presidents in San Diego at the AGB conference in April. Honored to be presenting alongside Brad Farnsworth from Fox Hollow Advisory (former ACE VP) and Dr. Gretchen Bataille from GMB Consulting (former president of the U of North Texas among other amazing higher ed roles). We will be talking all about insights university leaders need to guide internationalization efforts.Reach out if you or others from your team will be there.

Read on for links to our full "Getting Started With..." series — highly sharable with the internal team you rely on to move all the recruitment levers just so. Go forth and produce great marketing things!!!

Love this photo: a last-minute session prep discussion as we reviewed the slides for our AIRC 2022 session all about the student journey. The student path to enrollment is really no path at all. That, despite even our best efforts to pave a smooth walk to first-year orientation.

Experience tells us time and again that the actual route to enrollment is filled with intersections, stop signs, potholes, and wrong ways. And influence comes from all directions. It is a multi-factor decision for students. And the path itself is not linear.

In December, Intead had the great pleasure of sharing the stage with Vanessa Andrade and Sean Cochran at the AIRC conference in Los Angeles. Vanessa is the SIO and director of international partnerships at California State University, Northridge, and Sean is the international enrollment management director at California State University, Long Beach. It was a lot of fun. Our session prompted a great discussion with attendees – a hallmark of AIRC Conference sessions.

If you couldn’t sit in, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered by making our slides available to you for a limited time.

And Hey! If you are at AIEA next week in DC, look us up. Join us for a great session on how trend data informs international student recruitment planning. Co-presenting with Karin Fischer from Chronicle of Higher Ed and Dr. Ahmad Ezzeddine from Wayne State University.  Always happy to talk through this student journey perspective to help you hone your approach.

 In the AIRC session back in December 2022, we had a few important learning objectives:

• Learn to re-envision the many and varied touchpoints of the student journey
• Gain perspective on which touchpoints can be controlled and emphasized to help students select a “best fit” institution
• Understand, from the student's point of view, just how influential some of the nontraditional touchpoints are to university selection

 Sound worthwhile? It is. Read on to access this valuable content.

What we know: On a macro level, stalwart student recruitment sources are in flux with China declining a lot and India rising a lot. Other source countries are similarly difficult to predict as the repercussions of the pandemic and other global factors continue to play out.

Statistically speaking, US institutions hosted 8.4% fewer international students this past fall compared to fall 2020 (and that year wasn’t so hot either). Public 4-year institutions saw the largest decline (17.2.%). This is all per the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

While macro stats offer perspective, they are not what drive recruitment strategy. Your goals and differentiators drive strategic enrollment decisions.

On the topic of high-level institutional internationalization: We will be in San Diego presenting at the AGB conference in April. Honored to join Brad Farnsworth from Fox Hollow Advisory (former ACE VP) and Dr. Gretchen Bataille from GMB Consulting (former president of the U of North Texas among other amazing higher ed roles). We will be talking all about insights university presidents and trustees need to guide internationalization efforts. Reach outif you'll be there.

And in less than 2 weeks we will be in DC for the AIEA Conference presenting alongside Karin Fischer from Chronicle of Higher Ed and Dr. Ahmad Ezzeddine from Wayne State University. If you will be in DC for the event, we are talking about how trend data informs international student recruitment planning on Monday, Feb. 20. Hope to see you there. (Email us if you'd like to find coffee together).

Recruitment strategy derives from the number of students you need to meet enrollment targets tied to what your institution excels at (your market differentiators) - that, along with an evaluation of where in the world (domestically and internationally) market opportunities exist. Our blog post on new market entrycontinues to be a popular one.

Most institutions across the country still believe that international markets work to their advantage. The latest “Mapping Internationalization on US Campuses” report by the American Council on Education (ACE) concurs. 66% of its survey’s 900+ responding institutions anticipate their overall level of internationalization will increase in the coming years. (Our recent blog post on the ACE report provides more perspective).

With traditional source countries in flux (China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil), we have been pointing to opportunities in developing markets (Africa part 1, part 2) and Latin America (part 1, part 2). Today we offer insights on the Middle East.

The value of reaching a broader swath of prospects gets to the very heart of why most institutions say they are for internationalization in the first place:

• To improve student preparedness for a global era
• To diversity students, faculty, and staff
• To become more attractive to prospective students
• To generate revenue

In evaluating new markets, we look to countries with rising incomes, a growing youth population, and real employment opportunities for returning graduates. The Middle East is a region with a rising youth population, plentiful job opportunities, and only a handful of competitive higher education institutions.

Many students in this region are looking to study abroad due to changes in political climate or the fact that many of their local universities are newer or understaffed. Though let’s not discount the entire system. Two Saudi universities are ranked in the top 200 of global 2023 QS World University Rankings: #106 King Abdulaziz University In Jeddah and #160 King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in Dhahran.

In this week’s post we offer you insights on student market opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan.

Read on.

When it comes to education marketing for private high schools and universities, customer service isn’t usually high on the list of marketing channels to invest in. While it’s tempting to focus on exciting new marketing channels like TikTok and more traditional email nurture campaigns, high-quality customer service is a high-value aspect of student recruitment and retention that institutions too often ignore.

Let's face it, customer satisfaction delivers new customers.

According to PwC, 65% of U.S. customers said that a positive experience with a brand is more influential than great advertising. The quality of your institution’s customer service – availability and responsiveness to questions and problems, and the ability to redirect to the right department – has everything to do with achieving the conversions we want and delivering the educational experience our students want.

The reality: your prospective and current students are highly influential new student magnets.

With word of mouth marketing as a major driver of new student attraction and conversion, we are talking about the importance of accurate and timely customer service and the role it plays in student enrollment and retention.

When Can We Meet?

The Intead team is prepping for our AIEA presentation with Karin Fischer from Chronicle of Higher Ed and Dr. Ahmad Ezzeddine from Wayne State University. If you will be in DC for the event, we are talking about how trend data informs international student recruitment planning on Monday, Feb. 20. Reach out if you'd like to share a cup of coffee.

We will also be in San Diego presenting at the AGB conference in April. Honored to join Brad Farnsworth from Fox Hollow Advisory (former ACE VP) and Dr. Gretchen Bataille from GMB Consulting (former president of the U of North Texas among other amazing higher ed roles). We will be talking all about insights university presidents and trustees need to guide internationalization efforts. Again, reach out if you'll be there.

Read on for academic customer service best practices that drive your students and their families to love you.

Let’s be honest. We’re not all people people. And we’re not all data nerds. Or content creators. The point: we need a team with varied talents to cover all the tasks required to run a successful enrollment management process.

One of the common areas we explore with our clients (it also comes up during conference discussions frequently): “What is the best staffing structure for student recruitment and enrollment processes?” And we have some basic analysis available to help you get this conversation started in your own shop.

To help your team (read: provost and VP of finance) understand why you need the full complement of skills, we’ve developed an at-a-glance info sheet that shows the skill sets needed at each phase of the admissions funnel. It’s pretty interesting to approach it from this perspective. And it’s pretty important that you do.

We’ll be presenting our enrollment staffing perspective as part of a session at the AGB (Association of Governing Boards) conference this April in San Diego with Brad Farnsworth, principal of Fox Hollow Advisory and former senior VP at American Council on Education, and Gretchen Bataille, president of GMB Consulting Group who also served in leadership roles at University of North Texas, University of North Carolina system, and at American Council on Education. University trustees and presidents gather every year at AGB to identify best practices for growth.

We’ll also be presenting with Karin Fischer, senior writer at Chronicle of Higher Education, and Ahmad Ezzeddine, vice president of academic student affairs and global engagement at Wayne State University, at the AIEA conference in DC in February. If you’d like to meet at either of these events, please drop us a note.

The annoying answer to the question about staffing structure is: “It depends.”

That's also a legit answer because institutions fall into different categories. As a simple example, consider an institution seeking an incoming class of 1,000 students vs another seeking 10,000 students. These institutions clearly need different reporting structures to process different volumes of marketing recruiting and inquiry nurturing, much less application processing and student orientation.

Nevertheless, there are common skills needed, from people skills to data crunching skills. And with enrollment offices typically run by an efficient crew (read that as skeleton teams) most staff are expected to wear many (or all) the hats: marketer, analyst, tech guru, travel agent, career counselor, social butterfly, academic genie, social media manager, digital marketer, and even coffee maker.

Sound familiar at your institution? Even if a Venn diagram from the latest psychological assessment shows your team of two (or four) has significant overlap among disparate personality traits, it’s impossible to create the kind of student cohort your institution aims for by asking just a few people to do it all.

We see it all the time. And it’s tough because no institution has all the resources they need. But the smart ones know how to build the right staff structure and partner relationships that will yield great results.

Our enrollment staff structure info sheet will be available for free to our blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises (annual budgeting, new team member training, etc.).

To get your free “International Enrollment from a Marketer’s Point of View,” read on.

In what month do students in Brazil graduate high school? How about China? Are they the same? Germany and France must be on the same schedule though, right?

Out of the top 29 countries sending international students out into the world, 11 of them have academic years starting in September and ending in June. Eighteen others don’t. And, no, German and French school calendars are not aligned.

Knowing when to reach prospective students is as important as knowing where to reach them. And when your audience is spread across the globe, school admissions and matriculation timing is anything but consistent.

This is important information to your student recruitment team if they are going to reach those students with the right information at the right time. Handy to have a cheatsheet with that information at your fingertips, right?

That’s why we’ve created the Global School Start Calendar featuring 29 top-sending countries. Knowing what drives your international students' planning plays into your recruitment and admissions messaging and timing.

This cheat sheet gives you at-a-glance dates and other relevant reference points for:

• Secondary academic calendars
• University academic calendars
• Major academic exam dates
• Perspective on student recruitment campaign launch dates

An important side note: Because dates change all the time, as do undergrad exam requirements, we will be updating this resource as appropriate. And, since you are part of the global student recruitment community, we more than welcome your input and updates to this reference tool.

If you see any information that has recently changed or want additional details added, please let us know. We want this tool to be really useful and can use our crowdsourced community’s help to keep it current.

This cheat sheet will be available for free to blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises.

Ready to download your free copy of our Global School Start cheat sheet? Read on…

…It goes further than identifying opportunities. You also need to manage them. Perhaps a renewed focus on the mechanics will move the needle more effectively?...

Our full-day workshop at San Diego State University was a truly packed day. After initial conversations about the current student recruitment landscape and the data that informs smart enrollment decisions, we broke into 3 discussion groups talking about recruiting agent management, global digital marketing, and global partners.

Attendees were free to flow from one conversation to the other as our all-star faculty held forth using the Intead Global Marketing Workbook as a guide (available through our Intead Plus subscription). It was fascinating to watch the flow of inquiries and learning throughout the day as attendees tapped the expertise they needed to formulate their global marketing plans.

And we noted the praise for the faculty perspectives gathered. Based on the feedback, participants appreciated the highly productive series of deep conversations with the opportunity for detailed answers to specific marketing/recruitment questions.

We spoke to even more colleagues at the AIRC and ICEF conferences who expressed regret that they were unable to attend our workshop due to timing and work conflicts. If you share that perspective, please let us know. We are evaluating when we might hold this event again, on the East Coast or in other locations. Send us a note. Perhaps we can make this workshop accessible to you.

In the meantime, read on for quick notable ideas from our whirlwind trip westward for AIRC, ICEF, and our workshop in between. You’ll be glad you did.

Your feedback keeps us on the right track. You, our blog readers, tell us with your clicks and your comments. We welcome the likes, the corrections, the whole shebang.

As we look ahead to what is shaping up to be a bustling 2023, we’d love to hear what topics you’d like us to tackle. Send us a note and we’ll take it into editorial consideration. Maybe even throw a shoutout your way.

Just coming off a whirlwind December with presentations at the AIRC and ICEF conferences and our full day workshop at San Diego State University, we have so much to share with you in the weeks ahead. Reflections, insights, slides. All in the name of making your student recruitment marketing plan that much tighter. You’ll be glad you are along with the ride.

Right here and now, we’ve compiled our readers’ top 10 posts from 2022. These are the blog posts that you said were most enticing and valuable. You clicked, you shared, and hopefully, you put into practice some of what you learned.

Big Picture: our analytics show in no uncertain terms that everyone wants to know more about China, TikTok, new market development, data analytics, and the student mindset. We'll have more on those topics throughout 2023. Still valuable: Read on for quick hit summaries and links to the content that most drew your attention, and the attention of your colleagues, over the past year.