News of international student visa’s being revoked and stock market gyrations is all consuming. And rightly so. The White House seems hellbent on sowing chaos on as many levels as possible. In our world of higher ed enrollment and internationalization, international students are looking over their shoulders, unsure of what will happen next. Unfortunately, in the near term, unpredictability is the name of the game and every university administrator’s list of top priorities changes by the day (or the hour).
Harkening back to the stress levels our academic administrators and students experienced during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
It’s enough to make you want to just turn it all off, hop a flight to Florida, and kick back under a beach umbrella on the sunny shores of the Gulf of America...right?!?
Sad humor aside, we focus on providing global educational experiences, protecting students from harm, and playing exhausting defense to the chaotic shifts in policies as best we can. And, at the same, time we are playing offense for our institutions. How do we move forward? How do we fortify our international student programs even as our students feel shaken and ask legitimate questions about how and if they can continue to pursue a US education?
Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team
- Look for us at NAFSA in May, NACUBO and APLU in June, and NACAC in September. Let us know if you want to connect at these events.
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With all the shifting campus priorities and endless breaking news reports, we take our role seriously as a condenser of information and a producer of insights on all things enrollment management. If we are doing our job, we are consistently additive to your work. Many of you likely missed some of our posts this past quarter (we understand!). So today, we offer a summary of the news we shared in Q1 ’25 with links to the articles and resources.
You’ll find perspective on:
- 3 Things to do now, despite the enrollment chaos
- AI tools admissions teams will love
- How to spot and fix admissions pain points
- AIRC & AIEA conference insights
- How WPI students are ideating systems to address student mental health
As an added bonus, at the end of the post, we offer a link to our uplifting April Fools Day post that caught more than a few people off guard. We all need a reminder of the fun life can offer now and again. This one is worth the click. A quick read for a lasting smile.
This quarterly wrap-up is a bit shorter than those in the past per our recent switch to posting every other week - our content optimization guided by our analysis of our reader data. Let us know if our new cadence is working for you.
Read on…
Why International Student Numbers Will Grow (and 3 things you can do)
This post received a lot of shares online. What you do in the coming year will set the stage for the benefits you reap five years from now. Sit on your hands due to fear of the ambiguity that surrounds us, and all those who are acting now will be miles in front of you in 2030. Miles. In this post, we offer three specific areas where we think smart institutions and academic leaders will focus their attention in the years ahead to capitalize on future growth opportunities. How many of the three do you think you can help your institution address?
AI Built for Admissions
On the surface, new AI-powered edtech for enrollment/admissions work may seem like a game-changer. Yet, many institutions find they are swimming in data without a clear strategy for leveraging the opportunities beyond the task for which a specific AI tool is employed. Accept or reject these integrations? We have ideas. Get our take in this post.
Finding and Alleviating Admissions Pain Points
Working with a wide range of institutions, public and private, over the past 15 years (and with guidance from David DiMaria’s excellent book in the NAFSA bookstore), we have helped admissions leaders streamline international student admissions processes for graduate and undergraduate programs. This work identifies the admissions pain points that drive students away rather than drawing them closer in. This post tells you how the process works.
AIEA 2025 Reflections
The AIEA Conference in February delivered exactly what academic leaders and SIOs needed. An opportunity to gather amidst the chaos of the new administration in Washington, DC. An opportunity to fret, consider, and plan. In this post, we share observations about the conversations at the conference and links to our session slide decks addressing career outcomes, admissions processes and our exciting new research with AIEA on internationalization office structures.
AIRC 2024 Reflections
The AIRC 2024 Conference in December produced offered valuable insights at end of a pretty arduous year. It’s all about the people in the room, their knowledge and expertise, and the culture of the gathering. AIRC achieves all of the right elements, repeatedly. The information we gathered will help us perform better in 2025 and beyond. Read more here (plus download our slides).
Cracking the Student Success Code
This is what student learning and engagement with real-world applications looks like. Grad students Poorajith Sasikumar Thenmozhi and Anurag Bansal needed a problem to solve. As founding members of ColibreClub, a student-led tech-focused organization at Worcester Polytechnic Institute Business School, they were gearing up for their inaugural student hackathon and were in search of a real-world problem statement their competitors could sink their teeth into. That’s when Intead stepped in. The result: a bevy of ideas to address rising rates of student mental health concerns.
Our April Fools Day 2025 Lift Just For You
Intead Luxe launches to rave reviews. Marketers around the world find relief in our latest offering.
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