Recruiting Intelligence

Is it all about the enrollment numbers? Hitting “the number” is the driving force behind so much effort. So much pressure. A growing number of US universities now use education agents. And now, more universities are evaluating agent aggregators. Many have contracts in place with aggregators already and we hope those early adopters take a squinty-eyed, very close look at the results of those contracts.

How many applications? How many enrolled? And the quality of those students throughout the process. Are they succeeding academically?

If you are not familiar, check out our post and a recent (Dec 2022) lively ICEF panel discussion here. Hitting you in the face is a changing student landscape, the pressure to hit your enrollment number, and the agent aggregators who may be able to help, and quickly. Also in your face: the question of trust and integrity.

Some institutions have a hard enough time outsourcing their recruitment to individual agents, even those with third-party accreditation like AIRC. And beyond education agents who also use subagents, agent aggregators are farming out recruitment processes on a massive scale around the world using online platforms to scale the work rapidly. Questions arise as to how well any particular subagent is familiar with your institution, much less whether they are vetted for integrity.

Smart institutions want to know who’s representing their brand on their behalf. Fact: there’s just not enough transparency right now in this student recruitment system.

To be clear, we are in favor of agents. Human agents with whom you can connect directly, vet their talent, train, and guide. Intead has been a strategic partner to AIRC for more than a decade and our team fully supports ICEF’s efforts to bring enrollment leaders together with education agents from around the world. Both organizations push for clearly articulated best practices.

For more insights, check out our webinar with AIRC about the State of the Field. Our Intead Plus subscribers also have access to our ebook on University-Agent Partnership Trend Data and our Agent Management ebook all in our resource library available to all.

What we all know is that the system is less than perfect and students lose out when universities and agents are not doing their jobs with integrity.

Education agents, when brought into the fold as a partner, can be incredibly valuable. The key: partnerships, as in humans supporting other humans. 

Like any relationship, a meaningful partnership is built not bought. Is this even possible with the aggregator trend? Scale brings problems and when folks are lazy (and human beings tend to be), scale can bring disaster.

Look at the agent aggregator model from a simple business process point of view. If a company has 7,000 vetted partner sales offices, that company would need a robust credentialing team to monitor and control for quality. They would have a defined process for maintaining a certain quality of sales office staff hiring, training, work processes, and regular review of results delivered. Consider the level of effort hospitals go through to confirm the credentials and qualifications of their clinicians and physicians who have admitting privileges.

As you consider signing up with an agent aggregator, we highly recommend you ask tough questions about their staffing process, the vetting, and the monitoring. For institutions sharing their brand reputation with these outsource partners, it is buyer beware. Like super beware.

If you are not finding the quality control measures in place on the agent aggregator’s side, that means the quality control must be staffed on your side. Which then starts to beg the question: what are you paying for? Answer: the broad, global connection network. Keep in mind, that is something you can develop yourself in a way that is more targeted and more sustainable over the long term. Many institutions with thousands of international students started that process years ago and rely on their network today.

Not sure how to evaluate or where to start? Drop us a note.

Some of these aggregators are growing fast and coming on strong. They are shaking up the education market and making trusted agencies nervous. There are simply too many subagents operating in anonymity. Anonymity creates opportunities for questionable behavior (and we are being nice with our choice of words here).

 As we all broaden our scope to avoid the US domestic enrollment cliff and fold new target regions into our recruitment strategies, agents have an important role to play. Read on for 3 valuable tips on how to get the most out of this potentially beneficial partnership. Hint: it all comes back to developing trusting relationships with fellow, reliable humans.

Your summer intake is taking shape and your dreams of a solid fall enrollment are far less murky. At this point, the numbers are fabulous? Frustrating? Fictitious? Let’s go with that first one.

Data-informed actions, whether the data is good or bad, will always help you improve. Our team recently attended three incredible conferences—the AGB, ACE, and NAFSA—and let us tell you, they were like rocket fuel! We soaked it all up and shared the take aways with you. [Find our 2023 Conference Take Aways Here: AIEA, AGB, NAFSA].

Did you catch a glimpse of the perspectives we shared? With so much going on, many of our faithful readers missed a few important ideas here and there. From the fight over the non-traditional student to the data buffet problem, we left no stone unturned.

Not to worry. Scroll down and check out all the news from the previous quarter.

Oh, and one more thing before we dive in—if you are not there already, follow us on LinkedIn. You’ll see our insights as they break from day to day.

Read on.

Your prospective students spend nearly 6 hours a day on social media. Doubt their usage will dwindle anytime soon. The good news is you know where you can find your audience. It’s just that wrangling their preferred platforms can feel like a lot.

That’s why we look to social media management tools to help organize our many, many social campaigns. The OG being Hootsuite. A global platform for all platforms, helping you and your team manage accounts from a single dashboard. It’s a really great shepherd for your flock of content. What Hootsuite brings for large institutions ranges from:

1. Monitoring all social accounts
2. Scheduling posts in advance
3. Team Collaboration
4. Analyzing social media performance  
5. Targeted Ads
6. Campaigns 

This Hootsuite primer is a great read for the members of your team tasked with managing all the details. Be sure to pass it along. And do take a minute to check it out for yourself. It’s a quick, practical read. 

This is one of our "Getting Started With..." series to help your team make the most of the student enrollment tech tools out there. Share our glossary of these popular posts with your digital team. And... 

Read on.

Let’s start with this: our NAFSA 2023 slides are perhaps the most concise and clear educational tool we have produced to-date. When you have 3 strong speakers and just 50 minutes, you really need to focus if you want to get your point across.

Each slide represents far more content and conversations we would love to have with you. During one of our future conference sessions, webinars, or anytime, really, just reach out and let us know you want to chat.

Today we share our biggest takeaways from NAFSA 2023. These are thinking big opportunities.

We were honored to share the dais with Paulo Zagalo-Melo, SIO and Associate Provost at Western Michigan University and Karin Fischer, Senior Writer at Chronicle of Higher Education. Our focus: what kind of data and other information can truly inform our international student decision-making? And we considered the flip side: what information is TBU (True But Useless)?

A bit of foreshadowing: A focus for the Intead team going forward is going to be on international student employment and all we need to do as a community to make that process work better. You’ll see much more on that topic from us over the next year+. We have some amazing partners to help us get you the data and tools you need to improve your institutional approach. Watch this space.

You want answers about valuable vs. TBU data? Check out our NAFSA 2023 slide deck (download link at the bottom of this post.) Yes, we are making you work for it ; -)

Your enrollment team is furtively evaluating fast-track routes students can take to achieve career growth. How can we promote a new product that clearly has growing demand when its consumer adoption will reduce demand for our primary revenue source?

With rising tuition (a 30-year drumbeat on that one), and fewer traditional aged students in the pipeline, the pressure to produce new revenue is intense. Repackaging what you already produce in new, bite-size chunks makes so much sense to everyone, right?

Credentials in new formats is not new to the scene, but student adoption is growing in large part because employers have woken up to their value. The Intead team did research on graduate level certificates six years ago for one of our top 50 US institution clients and found global employers were still evaluating whether a certificate was as valuable as a full MBA. Employers were not familiar with the new credential and what it would deliver. In 2023, employers in a highly turbulent job market and in need of talent, have decided. Certificates and stackable credentials work just fine. Let’s GO!

And you are in a position to do something about it.

Data from a relatively recent RAND Corporation report Stackable Credential Pipelines, Evidence on Programs and Earnings Outcomes gives us concrete evidence of value and the direction things are going.

In brief, RAND Corporation partnered with the Ohio Department of Higher Education to build a better understanding of how stackable credential pipelines have played a role in the education and training of individuals in Ohio, a state that has taken a leadership role in developing these types of initiatives. The report itself focuses on three fields: health care, manufacturing and engineering technology (MET), and information technology (IT). There’s a lot of good stuff to glean from the report. We were particularly keen on the ROI data (aka job growth). That is, after all, the name of the game for the vast majority of prospective students these days.

Your traditional revenue stream is taking a hit already. Demand for short-term credentials will continue to grow. If your institution does not develop strength in this educational opportunity, your competitors will (or already have).           

It’s time to align your internal team around this and convince those holding you back. Time is running out. Read on for 4 key takeaways on what the RAND Corporation report has to say about student ROI tied to shorter-term stackable credentials. (You’ll especially appreciate takeaway number 3!!!)    

The enrollment cliff has everyone a little on edge. People are burned out and frustrated. Leadership is looking for bigger gains in shorter time frames. And traditional students just aren’t showing up in ways they traditionally have.

It’s so clear that higher ed is at an inflection point. Thank the pandemic. Thank technology. The economy and unpredictable job market. The changing student landscape. What you need now more than anything is support. Ideally in the form of a soothsayer to tell you where and how to invest your time, energy, and resources. If only.

Our advice: take a deep breath and read this post.

While soothsayer we may not be, we do have some perspective on what lies ahead. And our record for predicting changes in the market has proven accurate for more than a decade. Long before the recommendations below became standard practice in enrollment management (they all sound so obvious now, right?), we advised colleagues to:

• Make better use of your CRM (or get one if you don’t have one), and embrace the add on features and API connections that improve tracking and results.
• Identify staff with the skills you need for each function of the enrollment process. Your creatives are not your meet and greeters and they are not your data analysts. You need all of these skills.
• Develop your international alumni as global ambassadors. (Most of you are still not doing this).
• Find reputable commission-based recruiting agents in your target countries and invest time in managing them very carefully.
• Train your domestic recruitment team in the nuances and needs of international students already studying in the US so they know how to address the important topics (visas, parental concerns, economic realities, etc.)

We know, it’s all old hat now. But a decade ago, very new to international enrollment management teams.

Today we are facing some pretty significant headwinds. Post-pandemic changes to how students evaluate universities. Growing financial pressures facing families. Increasing importance of careers and the ROI of your degrees. Heightened interest in certificates and shorter paths to career growth. Political divisiveness harkening back to the US civil unrest of the 1960s (or 1860s?). Are you factoring social justice including climate activism into your marketing plans?

These factors are all part of the student and parent mindset as they evaluate investments in university level education. The pool of nontraditional students is much larger and more diverse than the shrinking traditional student pool. And yet, the international student pool is one that is growing and projected to grow dramatically in the coming years.

If you’re ignoring any of these market segments, we strongly advise you don’t. Our analysis of and predictions about what influences student decision making, the tools and processes you need in place to be both efficient and effective, this counsel has been spot on for a very long time (our blog records act as our receipts).

You’re in the right place. Read on to be sure you are able to anticipate what is next and what to do about it.

Let’s talk about the gaps between your international students’ expectations of studying in the U.S. and their actual experience. You know, the sort of expectations on which retention is built.

Sure, some of the ideas international students have of what it’s like to study in the U.S. are based on factors beyond your control. But a lot of their anticipation is based on promises – literal and otherwise – made by your institution. It’s now up to you to deliver.

We Are Here at NAFSA 2023: Our presentation with SIO Paulo Zagalo-Melo (Western Michigan University) and Reporter Karin Fischer (Chronicle of Higher Ed) is at 9:30am today (Wed. May 31). A reality check with the data that informs our student recruitment decisions. Hope you'll join us. Be in touch to meet with us during the conference. We'd love to share a cup of coffee and talk all things student: info@intead.com.

To help you deliver on student expectations, we’ve gathered a few key tips worth evaluating and potentially implementing when recruiting and supporting the international students interested in your campus. Hint: it’s all about meeting international students where they’re at. For more perspective on the importance of maintaining a student-first approach see our recent post.

In the meantime, read on for 5 quick ideas on how your institution can narrow the gap between expectations and the reality your international students experience. Recommendation number 5 is likely the most important if you’ve not already done it.

Reading Jon Boeckenstedt’s piece “I’ve Worked in Admissions for 40 Years. It’s More Stressful Than Ever,” published last month in The Chronicle of Higher Education felt like a familiar conversation. It will help remind you that your admissions stressors are not yours alone; you’re in good company. (Jon is vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University).

That article was a particularly apt read coming on the heels of the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) annual conference where university trustees and leadership gathered to discuss big industry issues (read Intead’s key takeaways from that event here). These individuals were representing the other side of Boeckenstedt’s coin.

On the one side is “The Number.” Those enrollment targets or revenue figures that are at best daunting, at worst utterly unreasonable to actually meet. And these numbers seem to grow higher each year. On the other side of the coin are leadership’s own goals – namely having to do with the very viability of the institution you’re serving.

Truth is, there really is no toss-up. The coin lands leadership side up every time.

Heading To NAFSA 2023: Our presentation with SIO Paulo Zagalo-Melo (Western Michigan University) and Reporter Karin Fischer (Chronicle of Higher Ed) will be on Wed. May 31 at 9:30am. A reality check with the data that informs our student recruitment decisions. Hope you'll join us. Be in touch to meet with us during Nafsa: info@intead.com.

So, the churn continues. Your target numbers rise. You must be able to think quickly, act nimbly, and produce the enrollment results. This is where a good partner comes in (yes, shameless plug, but it’s so true).

The way we see it, there are three pools of students that represent growth opportunities right now:

1. International students
2. Adult learners
3. Underprepared students

Read on for our quick perspective on these 3 pools and the unique approach needed for each to first, choose your campus, and second, to succeed there.

Emerging markets are the talk of the town in the world of international student recruitment. Diversifying enrollment takes many forms. Looking beyond the traditional global student sources has become a valuable exercise.

Last week we took a look at South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan (part 1). This week we turn to Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

We are looking at the 3 key indicators that act as a first level screening to see if they point toward student sources worth deeper evaluation: a rising youth population, rising incomes, and employment opportunities for returning students.

Heading To NAFSA 2023: Our presentation with SIO Paulo Zagalo-Melo (Western Michigan University) and Reporter Karin Fischer (Chronicle of Higher Ed) will be on Wed. May 31 at 9:30am. A reality check with the data that informs our student recruitment decisions. Hope you'll join us. Be in touch to meet with us during Nafsa: info@intead.com.

While the countries we are reviewing below will never match the overall outbound student volume of China or India, most institutions are not seeking thousands or even hundreds from a single source. Most universities would do well to gain 10, 20, 50 new students a year from a single new source country. With the right recruitment initiatives, each of these countries could produce these kinds of enrollment results. It requires a multi-year commitment, but you knew that.

The benefits of these diversification efforts:

• You aren’t relying on the top one or two markets.
• You are building a vibrant, diverse student experience at your institution.
• You are recruiting from countries that can most benefit from the programs and experience your institution offers.

And, as you also may know, the markets we cover in this post do come with a bit of risk. Their economies are strong enough, but the cost of international education can be out of reach for many of their families. We know international students are highly motivated to find steady work – so career connections are going to be as important as your academic chops. With any new market entry (Intead advice on that here), there are important analyses that must be done to confirm the opportunities outweigh the risks.

We’d welcome a larger conversation about how these Asian countries may or may not fit into your overall international student recruitment strategy.

Read on for a helpful overview and our usual helpful  insights about these markets to support your deeper evaluation.

It’s good news / hurry-up-and-move news for Chinese students.

The good news: pandemic-era travel bans are lifted.

The hurry-up-and-move news: China announced it is returning to its previous position of NOT recognizing online credentials obtained from a foreign institution.

More than a few Chinese students spent spring semester scrambling to ensure their hard-earned credits will count. We trust they will, but there nevertheless was a swift rush to secure logistics.

We know what you’re thinking. A coveted market that’s been declining is now being encouraged, no, required, to travel if they want a foreign degree. Fantastic! While that’s all true, indications remind us to keep our expectations in check. And yes, we’re talking about politics, TikTok, and the increasing appeal of the UK’s brand of higher ed and career opportunities. 

So, while it makes sense to keep courting the Chinese market that continues to be the top exporter of students, it also makes sense to proceed with efforts to diversify student sources.

Important to note: It always has been wise to diversify, though only a small percentage of US institutions have historically invested in this level of internationalization. The volume is in China and India and that is where the recruiting investment has been focused for more than a decade.

Also important to note: China remains a highly valuable source country and we absolutely do not advise turning your institutional back on these students. There are still more Chinese students eager for a US education than any other nationality. India is the only other country that comes close.

In the midst of the more recent waning of Chinese students coming to the US (the decline first stared in 2016), we’ve provided insights on promising markets that may help boost your student yield. In recent blog posts, we’ve offered insights into evaluating Africa (part 1, part 2), Latin America (part 1, part 2), and the Middle East.

Today we turn to Asia, evaluating whether specific countries exhibit the important metrics that demonstrate a market ripe for student recruitment:

• Rising youth population
• Rising incomes
• Employment opportunities for returning students

In this week’s post, get ready to take notes on student market opportunities in South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan. Next week we will look at Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. These countries are likely already on your radar. Are you keeping tabs on the potential for each one? We think it is in your best interest.

Read on to find out why…