Recruiting Intelligence

It’s well understood that future careers motivate students to pursue higher education. You could ask almost any student – domestic or international – whether career opportunities and outcomes influenced their decision to enroll, and the answer will be yes.   

Take the 2024 State of Higher Education study by Lumina Foundation and Gallup. In it, 84% of respondents cited at least one employment-related reason for pursuing (or potentially pursuing) a degree or credential. Another Gallup study found that students who stopped out were less likely to be motivated by career goals (they were more motivated by general learning) – suggesting that career motivations don’t just drive enrollment – they support retention. 

Five years from now what will you be glad you did right now, this year? 

IIE here in the US and other prognosticators across the pond who track student mobility have predicted the number of international students in the US and around the world could double by 2030. Some projections suggest upwards of 10M or more globally. We’re not placing any bets on that figure. However… 

We’re optimistic about international student numbers and the opportunities ahead in higher education. We’re not banking on 10M+ in the next few years. That’s a bit of a stretch by our measure. But continued growth will come and the question is whether your institution is psychologically capable of weathering the storms and building for the future, or bureaucratically paralyzed and unable to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.  

Said simply: Resilient individuals and businesses adapt, leverage their strengths, and pursue opportunities to grow. 

Pro Tip: Your academic leadership will value reading this post. (Share button below)

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.   

Below 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? 

Some context: Back in the day, our industry’s powerhouse forecasters were looking at the global growth of students seeking a foreign education from 2010 through 2016 and said with absolute confidence that there would be 8M+ international students globally by 2020. Maybe you were sitting with me in those conference presentations? Had trends continued on pace, that would have been true. Emphasis on “had trends continued on pace.” 

Instead, global factors combined with the US Muslim ban (Trump 1.0) were followed by a global pandemic (COVID 19). Those student numbers (8M+) have yet to pan out. But significant growth has happened - just 20% shy of the projection by 2020. (UNESCO reports 6.4M students globally studying in a country other than their own that year and we are at about 7M today.) Trend predictions are complicated by so many factors. Some might say predictions are truly unpredictable ; -)

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Look for us at ASU+GSV next week, and NAFSA in May. Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

Here's the thing: there are some human behaviors and economic factors that we feel very confident about. And that helps us understand the world and get a strong sense of what is likely coming our way in the years ahead.  

Reality: The US is now grappling with Trump 2.0, which is full of bluster and chaos-inducing pronouncements equivalent to watching an over-the-top World Wrestling Federation pre-fight drama. It’s all designed to draw attention and ramp up excitement for a spectacle. Often, there’s no substance to the bluster, though it consistently delivers pain. 

This drama coming from the US White House makes predictions all the more challenging. You need to push past all the obfuscating dry ice smoke machine billows to get at baseline reality. 

So yes, despite the chaos surrounding US policies and politics and how that will play out around the world, we have reason to believe international student numbers will rise over time similar to our confidence that the stock market will rise over time. We can’t tell you if the market will be up or down tomorrow or next year, but longitudinally, stocks have gone up since the market’s founding, and international student mobility has gone up as international travel has become more accessible. 

Consider this: In 1970, there were 310M airline passengers globally according to the World Bank. In 2024 the figure was 5.2B according to the International Air Transport Association. That’s an indicator of accessibility. Important to note, those figures include domestic and international flyers. 

Our belief in future growth of international student mobility primarily comes down to basic consumer (student) behavior trends, like increased usage of international flights (accessibility).  

Making the Accessible Visible 

Hailing from Hyderabad, Satya Nadella, current CEO and Chairman of Microsoft, earned his engineering master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990 and his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 1997. On the minds of nearly every Indian engineering student today: “If he could do it, so can I.” A lure as strong as it is old.  

With the rise of social media since 2010, success stories have proliferated in ways the world has never seen before. Basic human behavior: communicating success builds desire among others (word of mouth referrals drive sales).  

Among all those who have not risen to the top of Microsoft, there are millions of former international students who have carved out careers and influential positions, inspiring and encouraging future generations to follow in their footsteps. And hear us when we tell you that your prospective international students are looking for the proven path forward. Without overpromising, your institution needs to tell that story and build confidence in that future. 

A graduate student from India attending a private New England university recently told our staff how searching for (and making real connections with) alumni and current students on LinkedIn is what landed her on campus in the US. In her words, she appreciated but generally bypassed the university’s marketing and contacted other international students who had been there, done that. Their stories convinced her to enroll in the institution. Case in point: basic human behavior tied to the advent of internet communication. 

What we know: A student who graduated just a few years ago and is now a manager at a major company is immediately relatable to prospective applicants (much more tangible to them than their aspirations to run Microsoft someday). These conversations make the journey feel more attainable.

So, when international alumni share their experiences—whether through personal networks, mentorship, or social media—they reinforce the appeal of studying in the US (or any other country that contributed to their success).  

Considering how well your institution leverages its international alumni? Find customized perspective here. 

While we believe word-of-mouth marketing will play a role in future international student enrollment growth, there are other factors working in our industry’s favor – namely how institutions are poised to react to the changing market and the pace at which these changes are implemented on your campus. You may be surprised to learn our take on the opportunities ahead. Read on…

Here we go again. Entering a new year with a certain trepidation. Recent headlines warning of mass deportations and reeking of transnational skepticism harken back to a pre-pandemic era of not so long ago. The difference this time: we come prepared. This is a road we’ve traveled. So, lace up your long-distance sneakers and let’s get going. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March and NAFSA in May, we'll be presenting our latest findings at both. Want to connect at either event? Let us know.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

Despite our wariness of upcoming US, UK, Australian, and Canadian policy changes that are sure to impact our international student community, we are looking forward to 2025. We will find our way forward even despite the incoming US administration's often petty, often chaotic, and consistently unpredictable management style. Sigh.

One important change to how we move forward here at Intead, a resolution if you will, is an adjustment to the cadence of this blog.  

We’ve been publishing Recruiting Intelligence since 2012, on a weekly basis. Our goal has always been, and continues to be, to provide you with deep industry insights that are practical, highly actionable, and meaningful to your day-to-day work. We report on markets, tech tools, recruitment trends, marketing strategy, you name it. If it can improve your enrollment management, we are researching and writing about it.  

This year we are shifting our output slightly by moving to an every-other-week schedule. This shift in cadence is born out of our digital strategy analysis and watching your engagement. Turns out, given our long form content format, not everyone has time to read our posts every week!!!   

OK, obvious, right? What this means in simple terms: our efforts to disseminate meaningful content to as many people as possible is not as effective as it could be with each post. 

By shifting to an every-other-week schedule, our digital team can use social channels more effectively to promote the content we produce. There will be more time for the social algorithms and your clicks and shares to do their work.  

So, long story short, you will still see our longer form musings here, and an increasing presence on social media as we hold true to our goal of providing useful content to industry insiders. Speaking of, we are connected on LinkedIn, right? If not, follow us here.  

In the meantime, a quick look back at 2024 through this blog’s top 10 posts as chosen by you, our readers. We were not at all surprised at #1. Read on…  

All recruitment conversations with students lead to careers.  

Disagree? Convince us otherwise.

When prospective students ask about your top programs, they’re really inquiring about their career paths. Questions about student outcomes? They’re assessing their post-degree job prospects. Asking about your institution’s rankings? They are assessing how your degree will play on their CV as they apply for jobs. Inquiring about alumni connections? Clearly thinking about their career network. Calculating your institution’s ROI? All about grads’ salaries. 

Look to our recent Know Your Neighborhood (KYN) survey where a full 84% of respondents view career advancement as their primary motivation for studying abroad. Over 99% will tell you this is also their family’s top reason for pushing them forward. So, career opportunities matter – a whole lot. 

Which begs the question: If prospective students are thinking about careers so much and you have a thoughtful, creative (not stale) social media presence (you do, right?), then wouldn’t it make sense to weave LinkedIn, the top social media platform for the career-minded, into your marketing strategy? Especially when it comes to your graduate programs. More reasons? Consider your referral sources including your alumni network and adjacent target audiences like high school counselors and consulate staff. Turns out, LinkedIn is where these folks live and the platform could be a great place for your institution to connect with a career-minded (read as "less playful") tone. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7, 2024

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slide decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

The latest data from LinkedIn shows its network boasts over 1 billion registered users from 200 countries and regions worldwide. That said, per We Are Social, only 1 in 3 (or somewhere between 330 – 350 million) are active on a monthly basis. This is not Tik Tok! Still the numbers are high enough to matter and much more audience targeted. Within these data you can also find 136,000 schools listed. Yours is likely among them.

Impressive numbers overall, though at some point these supersized stats can feel a bit meaningless. That's why we write about them - unearthing sense from the writhing mess that is social media.

The following numbers may be more tangible for your recruitment work: 50.6% of LinkedIn users worldwide are between the ages of 25 and 34; 24.5% are 18 to 24 (Statista). Further, it’s the 4th most used social platform among our KYN respondents (prospective international students), falling in line behind #1 Facebook, #2 YouTube, and #3 Instagram. Where they use other platforms for entertainment, connecting with friends, and yes, research, they turn to LinkedIn with far more specific tasks in mind. It's all about career opportunities. Perhaps your case for building a LinkedIn recruitment strategy is beginning to take shape.  

Fact is, institutions like yours are increasingly using LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. Its professional focus and networking capabilities make it useful for connecting with career-oriented prospects, particularly those seeking higher degrees, as well as alumni who are arguably your ultimate word of mouth advocates. Not sure if you’re getting the most out of your institution’s account? We’ll tell you how.

This post is a great read for those involved in the details of your social media execution as well as those trying to evaluate the value of the platform in your overall strategy. Be sure to forward it along to the right folks on your team. Read on… 

Spoiler alert: It is simply not ok to tell prospective students you have a vibrant campus community. You gotta show them.  

Our goal: marketing messaging that resonates based on very real consumer connection. 

Human beings rally around things. We rally around our families (biologic or chosen), our sports teams (Celtics, Manchester United), our celebrities (TSwift, Beyonce), our professions (cybersecurity engineer, IP attorney), events (Rio Carnival, Chinese New Year), crises (Gaza, Ukraine), political issues (don’t get us started). 

It has a lot to do with shared experience over time. The connections we make with others who engage in a project, achieving a goal, together. As humans, we want to protect and bolster the things we love.

So, no wonder, people rally around their campus community. Having shared a period of time together and having a degree conferred by the same administrative body – these activities and achievements form bonds. 

We eat in the same cafeterias, walk the same halls and pathways, endure the same exam schedules, and wear the same cap and gown as we walk the same stages to receive our parchment pressed with our school seal. 

With the rise of online degrees, a new sense of shared experience develops.

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7, 2024

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

There is far less connective tissue to draw students together with the online experience. Yet, there remains a common set of activities and the earned degree creates that same sense of pride in achievement born of concerted effort toward a shared goal. 

When we think about student recruitment from the prospective student point of view, as the university selection list gets shorter, the heart plays a larger and larger role in determining where they will enroll. In focus groups, the most common phrase is some form of, “After all the thinking, I felt this was the right choice for me.” (emphasis added) 

Here’s the thing: it’s hard to build student evangelists within your community when they see their education and their community as entirely transactional.  

Not rocket science. However, it takes the investment of dedicated time. This is more than a simple 90-minute brainstorming session with your team's marketing talent. There's trend data to evaluate, focus groups to convene, influencer affinity groups to build and manage. 

Sounds like a fair amount of work, right?

And when you think about those institutions out there who just seem to be crushing it, what do they seem to have going for them? Sure, they have the product mix and the measured price point. But what hits you right in the face is the vibe. That is the thing that gets you thinking, "Oh, I wish we had that connection to our audience."

That audience connection doesn't just happen. It is cultivated by talented, thoughtful, invested people who believe in the opportunity.

Below we share a few pointers. Please be in touch if you'd like to dive into a deeper analysis of the specific opportunities for your institution (info@intead.com). This is about the consumer insights the Intead team is so very good at identifying and leveraging. Read on… 

Cue the confetti. A new guide for international education practitioners just hit the bookshelves.

Produced by Star Scholars and filled with analysis and counsel from luminaries in our field, you'll want to grab a copy (link to purchase below). With thanks to editors Dr. Jing Luan, Leilt Habte, J.D., Dr. David Di Maria, and Dr. Krishna Bista, and too many amazing chapter contributors to list here, this book packs a punch.

We were honored to participate by contributing a chapter on how to Leverage International Student Alumni in your student recruitment efforts and another chapter on Using Digital Marketing for International Student Recruitment. Below, we will be talking about your international alumni and serving up a really nice interactive tool offering guidance based on where you are at with your alumni program.

We could not have provided the clear and actionable content without the leadership of our friend and colleague, Dr. Gretchen Dobson with the depth of her work in this area.

The value of your international alumni cannot be understated. Few ready-made resources can connect as quickly and honestly with prospective international students, making them feel understood and welcome. This is about helping them connect with what is real and tangible based on a degree from your institution. Yet, for many institutions, tapping into this network remains on the to-do list. It’s one of those great ideas that remains underutilized. Blame resources, blame poorly maintained databases, blame, well, you know exactly what we are talking about.  

Of course, your institution has strong institutional support for building and maintaining a robust domestic alumni network. All the while, the relative importance and financial value of international students are often overlooked. In some cases, 7% of the total student population being international represents as much as 30% of total tuition revenue. A good idea to do that math for your institution if you have not already. Yet our institutional infrastructure remains lopsided, heavy on domestic alumni, light (or non-existent) on international alumni despite what they can contribute.

Our next opportunities to meet!  

EducationUSA Forum, Washington, D.C., July 30-August 1. Ben and Virginia Commonwealth University SIO Jill Blondin will share insights on Navigating Budget Challenges in International Recruitment: Practical Strategies for Every Phase.  

Be in touch! We’ll buy the coffee. 

In Entry Points to US Education: Accessing the Next Wave of Growth, our chapter on international student alumni management is a great read for any enrollment leader looking to justify the costs associated with building a stronger connection to international alumni. It delves into the motives behind such an effort, including: 

• Brand awareness 
• Reputation management 
• Recruitment 
• Employability 
• Global connections 
• Public diplomacy 
• Financial resource  

At the end of the chapter, we offer the link to an interactive questionnaire designed to assist international student recruitment teams in evaluating their ability to deploy alumni ambassadors. This simple 8-question form provides customized recommendations based on your responses.Today this tool is available to Recruiting Intelligence blog readers (even if you don’t purchase the book. But really, purchase the book!) Read on to check out the evaluation form… 

…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.

If career outcomes truly drive prospective student decision-making (they do), then a critical question arises for most institutions: Are you effectively utilizing your alumni to recruit new and retain current students? (We know what your answer will be).

Last week’s blog post laid out the benefits of building a strong global network of alumni and three cost-effective ways to get it off the ground:

• Modernize data management
• Start small and build out
• Key into senior class leadership

Now, let’s talk about getting that network to engage, recruit, and help retain students.

But first, come learn with us. Your key international student markets are not what they used to be. Among our colleagues in this field, we see a tremendous thirst for gathering and evaluating recruitment options. Now is the time to pause and think this through. Join us at the Intead/San Diego State University One-Day Workshop, it’s a hands-on opportunity to learn from awe-inspiring international student recruitment faculty. You won’t want to miss it.

• A full-day hands on workshop on strategy & execution. Come with questions, leave with a plan.
• Two luminary keynotes
  • Luncheon on Social Justice with Dr. Jewell Winn and Adrienne Fusek
  • Dinner on Chinese Student Influencers with Dr. Yingyi Ma and Brad Farnsworth

• At $200 for the day (inclusive of all meals), this full-day learning opportunity is a steal. (Pricing goes up to $350 on October 24, 2022).

Ok, back to the power of your alumni!

The Michigan State University Alumni Association has had a strong program with clear goals for its Alumni Student Recruitment program:

• Increase the number of highly competitive and qualified students considering Michigan State at the undergraduate level and increase the percentage of admitted students who enroll
• Provide a local information source for inquiring students, applicants, admitted and enrolled students, and their families
• Provide regional assistance to the Michigan State admissions staff

Back in 2018, we were fortunate enough to co-present with Daniel Spadafore when he built and led this program at Michigan State in his role with the International Advancement Office. Also part of the presentation, Dr. Gretchen Dobson who has provided strong, consistent advocacy for the importance of alumni engagement that universities typically overlook.

Michigan State's goals can be adapted to other institutions based on their leadership, resources, and of course, the alumni network they have tracked to date. The process of implementing such a program is not as complicated as you may think.

Read on to learn more about how to develop an action plan for your alumni network that can yield positive returns on your investment.

Going to university remains a search for direction and a process of maturation. And yet, there is a culture shift that has been growing over the past few decades. That culture shift is around the value of degrees vs. short-term certificates. It is around the value of a traditional 4-year university education vs. acquiring the skills to quickly land a valuable job. Cybersecurity and data analytics anyone?

Before we dive in, how confident are you with your selection of international student recruitment markets right now? You, our blog subscribers, have first shot at this limited seating workshop.

Among our colleagues in this field, we see a tremendous thirst for gathering and evaluating our options, with time to really talk it through. The Intead/San Diego State University One-Day Workshop will be a hands-on opportunity to learn from an awe-inspiring international student recruitment faculty.

• Come with questions, leave with a plan.
• Two luminary keynotes
  • Luncheon on Social Justice with Dr. Jewell Winn and Adrienne Fusek
  • Dinner on Chinese Student Influencers with Dr. Yingyi Ma and Brad Farnsworth
  • A full day of international student recruitment strategy and execution discussion
• At $200 for the day (inclusive of all meals), this learning opportunity is a steal. (Pricing goes up to $350 on October 24, 2022).

For most undergraduates, studying at a university is now the first opportunity to interact with and cultivate the network connections that are so vital to getting a job and building a successful career in the 21st-century global economy.

In their recently published book, The Real World of College: What Higher Education is and What It Can Be, authors Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner note the shift in attitude and expectations among students from ‘we’ to ‘I’.

“The prevalence of ‘I’ over ‘we’ gives insight into what we believe is a troubling problem for the sector of higher education—students’ preoccupation with ‘self,’” Fischman notes.

Now we can debate if this shift is troublesome. Maybe. Maybe not. But we can’t deny the shift in attitudes toward it and how this new mindset should influence your recruitment strategies.

Read on to learn how a shift in strategy can help you secure stronger enrollment among the so-called ‘I’ generation…

The world’s largest democracy with dominant film, agriculture, and livestock industries has the third greatest economy in terms of purchasing parity around the globe. As a fast-growing global economy, their educated, English-speaking workforce has a strong desire to work in tech fields. They boast the world’s second-largest population of 1.3+ billion that will surpass China’s population in 2028 by current UN projections. And really, 2028 is sorta near-term at this point.

We are talking about India – the second largest source of international students in the US.

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about international student mobility in the near term. And every reason to be confident about the future of the education industry.

Human aspiration does not disappear due to strife, especially among young people.

Academia has struggled through and adapted to changing consumer needs and demands for centuries.  Our colleagues at IIE have the historical data demonstrating the ups and downs of international education for the past 80 years or so. Now is the time to take the innovations the industry has been wrestling to implement (truly engaging online learning, truly engaged alumni networks, digital marketing and audience segmentation, artificial intelligence powered student support, etc.) and make them a reality.

Today, let's take India as an example of why international student enrollment is something important for your institution.

So many Indian students aspire to a US education. And there are tangible examples of success motivating those dreams. Let's talk about why your Indian students will be coming back to your institution, eventually...with the right enrollment marketing initiatives.

Take a look at the global tech companies that innovate with real power – IBM, Microsoft, Google, Adobe. There are some non-tech global dynamos as well. They are turning to Indian talent to lead them. Consider that many of the talented Indian CEOs playing leadership power roles on the global stage were trained in the US.

Read on to find out what academic programs were the steppingstones for these once-upon-a-time students to head some of the largest, most respected companies in the world. Is your institution on the list? Can your institution appeal to the next set of global leaders?

Here is a key question from a student recruitment point of view: Are your amazing alumni part of your international student recruitment efforts? There are ways to make your global alumni network become the inspiration for students’ hearts and minds…to raise awareness, kindle passion, and draw them to your academic programs to fulfill their dreams.

And yet, so few institutions develop and leverage their international alumni network to help future students make a really smart decision. You can change that.

Read on.