Recruiting Intelligence

US student visa approval rates have long been a topic of concern and consternation by everyone involved, the approvers (State Department) and the approves (students). While academic leaders, students, and agents often dwell on the rejected, the US State Department focuses on the approved. Numbers are up overall.  

Regular readers here know that the Intead team collects and dissects data to give strong counsel to university and high school enrollment leaders. This week, while we acknowledge there is plenty of data to analyze about visa application volume, wait times, and denial rates, we offer a different actionable perspective and guidance in another visa-related area: what your team can do to improve yield on your international student applicants (with the visa process in mind). 

During the EdUSA Forum earlier this month, there was a slightly tense luncheon that caught everyone’s attention as academic institution leaders poked at State Department leaders regarding visa approval rates and processes. Truth is, in any operation, processes can always be improved.  

Last week, in this two-part blog series, we talked about the importance of developing STEM curriculathat meet the current tech industry demand for talent. As noted, Microsoft is seeking to fill 6,000 to 9,000 open positions around the world on any given day, according to Bruce Thompson, Head of Americas, Microsoft Education who spoke at the recent EdUSA Forum in DC. If you missed that post, well, take a few minutes for some practical advice doled out by tech industry execs who spoke at the Forum. 

At the Forum, I had the privilege of presenting on student recruitment budgeting alongside SIO extraordinaire Jill Blondin from Virginia Commonwealth University to a standing room only room. (The slides are available to Intead Plus members.)

This week, it is all about student visas. Consider: the US State Department’s visa operations team is charged with keeping the US safe from harm by ill-intentioned actors (economic schemers and of course, more serious hardened criminals). Hundreds of millions of people in the US and around the world count on State to do a really good job at that. 

Our next opportunity to meet!   
NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct 27-29. The Intead team will be there presenting on Admission Process Analysis, Marketing Data Analytics, and Marketing Study Abroad Programs with university partners from our New England region friends from Quinnipiac, Johnson and Wales, Clark, and Emerson. Practical strategies and creative tactics to hit your enrollment targets.  Hope to see you there! 

PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov 19-20. We will be talking about our analysis of career success data and how institutions can use that data to improve recruitment initiatives around the world. Our powerhouse co-presenters: Kerry Salerno, Chief Marketing Officer, Babson College and Andrew Chen, CEO, F1 Hire.

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Take your challenge of the day and plop it into our search bar. With 800+ publications and our 15 years of weekly blogging, you will find relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting. Check it out.

One of the great things about the three-day EdUSA Forum is the opportunity to chat with EdUSA’s REAC’s (Regional Educational Advising Coordinators) from around the world. These approachable, super smart, and culturally adept folks shared their views on current realities in every region around the world – economic realities, education system realities, visa approval realities.  

Today, a closer look at the process of obtaining student visas and the actions those responsible for international student recruitment (university and education agent representatives) can take, given where we all are right now. Our view: it’s all about setting and aligning expectations. 

Read on… 

The tech industry moves fast. Can’t help it. The rate of change, the development of new stuff from quarter to quarter never stops.  

As they move forward with their development roadmap, Microsoft has between 6,000 to 9,000 open positions around the world on any given day. So says Bruce Thompson, Head of Americas, Microsoft Education. He spoke at the EducationUSA Forum earlier this month.  

At the Forum, people working on the global front lines of student recruitment gathered in DC for three days. These knowledgeable folks shared their views on current realities in every region around the world – economic realities, education system realities, visa approval realities.  

The US State Department has been supporting US institutions for 25 years and this year’s EducationUSA Forum delivered on many levels. The intel shared is so important as we evaluate where to invest our recruitment budgets globally. Where should we travel? Where should we develop new partnerships? Where should we invest in digital campaigns? Where will the student demand and family financial capacity levels provide the strongest returns on those investments?  

I had the privilege of presenting on student recruitment budgeting alongside SIO extraordinaire Jill Blondin from Virginia Commonwealth University to a standing room only room at the Forum. (The slides are available to Intead Plus members.) 

Beyond the valuable on-the-ground perspectives shared at the Forum this year, the high-level stuff that struck me were deep and valuable discussions about: 

• The challenges inherent to the student visa approval process and
• Consistently stale STEM academic offerings found at institutions   

Our next opportunity to meet!   
NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct 27-29. The Intead team will be there presenting on Admission Process Analysis, Marketing Data Analytics, and Marketing Study Abroad Programs with university partners from our New England region friends from Quinnipiac, Johnson and Wales, Clark, and Emerson. Practical strategies and creative tactics to hit your enrollment targets.  Hope to see you there! 

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Take your challenge of the day and plop it into our search bar. With 800+ publications and our 15 years of weekly blogging, you will find relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting. Check it out.

In this 2-part blog series we take a closer look at the process of obtaining student visas on the way in and preparing those students for the jobs they want on the way out.  

We’ll start with the jobs thing. If you’ve not already downloaded our Connecting Dots Report, highly recommend. You’ll appreciate how the Intead analytics team dove into mountains of US Department of Labor data to help your marketing recruitment team stand out at any student fair anywhere in the world. How do you do that? Read the report.

A few tech industry speakers at the Forum caught my attention and provided industry perspectives I found truly insightful. Next week, we’ll review the slightly tense luncheon that caught everyone’s attention as academic institution leaders poked at State  Department leaders regarding Visa approval rates.  

Our goal here is getting our curriculum in line with industry needs and getting our students out into highly relevant, industry approved internships, co-ops, and jobs faster. Think big. Think innovation. That means take well-researched risks and follow untrodden, or lightly trodden paths. 

Read on… 

Danger zone of travel: the misperception among your colleagues that your global trip is just another boondoggle.  

It’s a common experience for international student recruitment teams. Jet-setting itineraries make it hard for some travel-hungry colleagues to see your grueling business trip as anything other than a junket. But a junket it is not.  Below we share an 8-point guide to the "why of international travel".

We know images of far-off places seem “luxurious” to those not on your team, which is why so many of you no longer post those photos from your trips on social media. Never mind the 3am (local time) touchdown in Dehli that led to your 7am scramble to the student fair starting in 2 hours where you spent the next 8 hours repeating the same conversation with 122 different students until it was time to cap off the day with a working dinner with your in-country agent. A day lounging at the beach, right?

Our next opportunity to meet!   
NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, CT, Oct 27-29. The Intead team will be there presenting on Admission Process Analysis, Marketing Data Analytics, and Marketing Study Abroad Programs with university partners from our New England region friends from Quinnipiac, Johnson and Wales, Clark, and Emerson. Practical strategies and creative tactics to hit your enrollment targets.  Hope to see you there! 

The Resource Center for Industry Insiders 
Take your challenge of the day and plop it into our search bar. With 800+ publications and our 15 years of weekly blogging, you will find relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting. Check it out.

Here’s the truth. We talk a lot about armchair recruiting and the undeniable advantages of digital marketing around the world. And we stand by that. But for institutions that can afford to, purposeful travel absolutely builds your recruitment strategy in robust ways. We know you agree. But does your provost? 

This week, from-the-field insights on recruitment travel from recent conversations with our SIO colleagues David Di Maria, Ed.D., senior international officer and associate vice provost for international education at UMBC, and Jill Blondin, Ph.D., associate vice provost for global initiatives at Virginia Commonwealth University. Plus, the key conversations that will help you make the most of the travel you do have budgeted. Because you never want to waste a good trip. Read on…  

International student recruitment is hard work. So, when there’s help to be had, it’s silly not to take advantage... right? 

No, we’re not talking about hiring Intead to help you craft the perfect marketing plan (although...).

What we’re talking about right now is affordable, in-country support that not enough universities are using. We describe these options (and so much more) in our updated 88 Ways to Recruit International Students.  

That's right! The SECOND edition of our seminal ebook is now available as part of the Intead Plus membership. Fun fact: more than 8,000 of your global colleagues downloaded the first edition. And as part of the package, you'll have access to our exclusive webinar with Karin Fischer where we will reveal our latest findings about Indian and Chinese parents' perspectives. Gain a few new insights into what these important decision makers are thinking about a U.S. education for their children. Sign up now for the June 26 webinar.

The best-kept secrets we’re diving into in today's blog post are US government resources that can make a big impact on your recruitment efforts—and are accessible even if you’re on a budget. Please read on...

Maybe it's the jet lag (it's not) but this most recent international jaunt has left me thinking big and getting a bit sentimental about the field we are in. You know all those cynics who refer to the international student recruiting work we all do with disdain saying, “It’s really only about the tuition dollars the international students pay?” Perhaps you can send them a link to this post and shift their thinking just a bit.

Last week I was in Moscow presenting on global digital marketing at The Forum on International Education. It was an honor to be invited to play a role in this effort by the Russian Ministry of Education as the government there implements an audacious plan to grow from about 230K international students to more than 700K choosing Russia for their post-secondary education. No small task.

At a time when the American and Russian heads of state are spitting at each other, I found myself in Moscow learning from my colleagues from around the world and taking time to visit many of Russia’s iconic and moving cultural achievements. Each evening, back in my hotel room, CNN told me about how our world leaders were acting in ways that left me more determined than ever.

Read on for reflections on the value of your work and the one important thing you can do right now in the face of international turbulence.