Over the past two weeks we have shared data and tips on how to stay relevant in the international student recruiting market in Africa. Starting with a broad overview of this market, our first blog post of this series Africa's Competitive Edge (Part I) showed the positive trends and opportunities for recruiting in African countries. Nigeria (Part II) took a closer look at one specific market, and the trends of students studying abroad and how to market to them in this country. In this Part III post, we will explore the international student recruiting landscape and prospects in Kenya.

Touted as the Silicon Valley of Africa, Kenya is one country that has been a focus in recruiting since it graced IIE’s list of top 20 places of origin in the early 2000s. However, steadily since 2003, there has been a decline in the number of Kenyan students studying abroad. Between the 2013/14 and the 2014/15 school years, the number of students coming to the U.S. from Kenya has dropped 4%. Restrictions for students have become tighter and competition from within Africa is becoming fiercer. Still Kenya is the number two sending country of students to the U.S. (3,072) behind Nigeria (9,494).

Kenya is hoping to hold on to the slight economic boost they received at the end of 2015 from their growing agriculture sector. Hopefully, this kind of growth will empower more Kenyans to study abroad. Though the U.S. still beats the UK and Australia in the number of Kenyan students they are able to recruit, universities in the U.S. may still struggle to provide affordable options for Kenyan students, especially as the number of advanced study options in other African countries continues to grow.

Bottom Line: Schools outside of the African continent will need to use local connections and targeted digital marketing to attract Kenyan students to specific academic programs. Emily has some tips on how to do that and which programs might be most attractive in this valuable market. And she'll tell you why that beautful picture above represents great job opportunities for the right graduates...

This past summer, the Chinese student organizations of the Big Ten universities  hosted meet-ups in Beijing and Shanghai. During the events, 600 interested Chinese students and parents went to the Shanghai Kempinski Hotel and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Learn more about these events and how you can use Meet Ups for your university.

Understanding your prospective international students is a perpetual task. Our colleagues from Hobsons Australia and UK published this report with sound advice, called "Beyond the data - influencing international student decision making" 

Mary Meeker has become well-known and lauded for her annual PowerPoint. This year is no different. Her 164-page PowerPoint on key global internet and technology trends is a treasure trove. Mary's information helps us show you more about the trends that will affect your university marketing. As you know, your customers are early adopters and they drive these trends. We all fear falling behind as technology advances. Don't get caught off guard. Read on...

Google is a powerful force in all of our lives. Searching for a education options is no exception. So, what can search trends can tell us about our area of work? Google shares a quarterly report on the latest search trends in education. We'll share the highlights. 

Online learning is becoming integral part of teaching and education. We recently covered the impact of Khan Academy (Insight: Recruiting Students with Video: Lessons from Khan Academy), today we are looking at how public universities cope with that challenge and opportunity. We selected a report from American Association of State Colleges (AASCU) and Learninghouse, called Online Learning at Public Universities a new path to a degree, addressing the implementation of online teaching at universities. 

By 2025, the Lumina Foundation wants to announce: Mission Accomplished!

They want to announce that 60% of Americans are obtaining a college degree, certificate or other high quality post-secondary credential. Hey, MOOCS, do you think that you will count?   

We have admired for many years the single, focused mission of this foundation. This month, Lumina published its report "a stronger nation through higher education." It's not only a beautifully prepared report and website, but we love the message and data provided to all of us.  

Lumina Foundation CEO Jamie Merisotis, a relentless advocate for education, says, "we see even more encouraging signs - unmistakable signals that the need, the hunger for education is stronger than ever." He quotes that three of four Americans believe that a postsecondary degree or credential is important to attaining a better quality of life, while fully 90% believe it's important for the nation to increase college attainment rates. We second that. 

Demographics are destiny. And educational institutionals rely on demographic trends to chart their futures. In most cases, the demographic trends that are most important to any particular institution are fairly narrowly defined by geography. A relatively small percentage of US institutions can effectively draw students from across the country and around the world. 

To give us insight into the demographic trends that will define our future, the U.S. government's National Center for Education Statistic's published it's very comprehensive updated Education Statistics to 2022 . Do the math -- you are only 8 years from this recruiting environment. 

Five Trends to Watch in Higher Education, published this month by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consulting group, has some dramatic and valuable things to say. You may recall that last week, we presented our thoughts on another BCG report in our Intead Insight: Can Millennials Change Marketing Forever? Uh, yes (eyeroll). We certainly consider both of these BCG reports worthy your attention. 

In this latest BCG report, the authors talk about influential forces rather than trends, saying that "five forces are reshaping Higher Education." Today, we'll review these forces and offer up a few of the report's charts that we find the most informative and intriguing.