Recruiting Intelligence

In 1985, Coca-Cola’s leadership concluded the soft drink needed to change. Sales of nemesis Pepsi were on the rise and thousands of blind taste tests suggested consumers preferred something sweeter. Their answer: New Coke.

So, on April 23 of that year, they unveiled an “improved” formula, giving consumers a new taste, new logo, and a massive new product rollout. Welcome to New Coke. You can imagine the financial investment made.

Almost immediately, consumers revolted. Recorded consumer sentiment:

“Changing Coke is like breaking the American dream, like not selling hot dogs at a ball game.”

“My dearest Coke: You have betrayed me.”

“Millions of dollars worth of advertising cannot overcome years of conditioning. Or in my case, generations. The old Coke is in the blood.”

We all absorbed a few sucker punches at NAFSA 2025. And we experienced all the feels. 

While the White House released a new set of directives to further disrupt international student access to US institutions, NAFSANs gathered and found support amongst each other in San Diego. We ran as a pack (more on that below).

I spent my time at the conference largely with community and institutional leaders who have been down similar paths before. With sighs, eyerolls, and steadfast determination, we assessed what we knew, gave each other hugs, and took to planning for the future.  

As NAFSA CEO Dr. Fanta Aw says, “We do not get to be tired.” 

Meet Intead!  

• Find us at APLU in NYC in June, NACUBO in DC in July, and NACAC in Columbus in September. Be in touch to share a cup of coffee in person.

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.

While many NAFSANs did express a weariness and some sessions had a very somber tone, that feeling was not pervasive. There will continue to be pain along the way, no doubt. Some of us will suffer losses due to the threats and disruptions. Student stress (and worse) is no joke. Fabulous and motivated international students will be denied access. Nevertheless, the dust will settle. Reason will prevail. And our community will fix what is being broken. NAFSA, among other leaders in our field, will be there throughout and after.  

To be clear, no one is giving up the fight.  

We were part of three presentations at NAFSA this year, mostly about career outcomes for international students and about how institutions can use this information to improve enrollment and advocate for our community. Find the link to our data (slides and a report) later in this blog post. 

Read on… 

Our aim with the original 88 Ways to Recruit International Students, published in 2012, was to create an accessible compendium of international recruitment tactics for edu institutions.  The download took off. At the time of publishing, we were hoping to get 300 downloads. We hit 10X that number in a couple months.  

So successful and widely used by academic and enrollment leaders in 2012-2013, a number of edu service providers in the field (our competitors) started paid search campaigns using our ebook title as their keywords ; -). Digital indicators that we were on to something. 

We have received terrific feedback and suggestions over the years from enrollment leaders. And we owe a debt of gratitude to our original authors, Lisa Cynamon Mayers and Michael Waxman-Lenz for their vision and groundbreaking research to compile our first edition back in the day. Our field has changed with new tools emerging (generative AI), others going away (remember Renren?). 

Currently, in 2025, some of our mainstay data sources (IIE, IPEDS, and EducationUSA) are truncated and under threat of disappearing as we go to press with this edition. Previously unthinkable. Also, potentially making some of our writing in the section called “Recruiting with US Government Support” a bit risky. Hopefully, that does not require an update too soon. 

A truly valuable addition to our latest edition: The intead team has been conducting market research and publishing our findings in our blog for more than a decade. Almost every summarized entry in this edition of 88 Ways has a link taking you to Intead’s deeper analysis of how that particular idea can work along with relevant data. 

So, yeah, you’re welcome.  

Meet Intead!  

• Find us at APLU in June, NACUBO in July, and NACAC in September. Be in touch to share a cup of coffee in person.

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.

Over the years, the Intead team has contributed to the evolution of our field. In 2012, the world was still crawling out of the 2008 market crash. (Remember AIG? Bear Stearns? Credit Default Swaps?) International student enrollment numbers were really starting to climb. And digital marketing was just starting to mature.  

For perspective, the first iPad was released in 2010. In 2012, Facebook had almost 1 billion users. (Today, it has more than 3 billion.) Back then, Renren was very popular and growing as the Chinese Facebook alternative.  

Here’s an interesting digital tidbit: Google Vine launched in January 2013 and died in 2017. TikTok arrived on the scene in 2016 and by October 2018 was the most downloaded app in the US. Today, 3 billion downloads worldwide. 

 So, yeah, it’s been a minute and much has changed.  

Where are we now? In 2025, there are new global threats to the economy, to geopolitical safety, to student mobility. Generative AI is THE hot topic. WeChat is on every Chinese citizen’s phone. WhatsApp (owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent company) is one of the preferred communication tools for 2.75 billion global users (think Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America). 

Importantly, there are many, many new enrollment leaders and practitioners out there who are trying to make sense of it all. Enrollment leaders are trying to bring their new hires up to speed with a global perspective. 

That’s no easy task. 

This is where our 88 Ways ebook truly shines: as a resource that helps folks old and new to the field get a quick overview of the many channels, tools, tactics available to help enrollment teams find and recruit relevant pockets of international students around the world. 

The reality that no institution has the resources to market to the entire world prompts smart leaders to evaluate options and focus investments where they have the greatest return value, the greatest potential for success. 

We’ve given 88 Ways a reboot to reflect the current world of enrollment operations and opportunities. We’ve updated the suggestions, retired a few ideas, and offered up new recruitment insights that will no doubt spur worthwhile ideation from your team – whether your institution is US-based or not, this compendium will get you and your team thinking.    

Read on to download our rebooted ebook…

Our first time attending the GMAC Conference put on by the talented folks who produce and manage Graduate Management Education (GME) testing and so much more. With 600+ in attendance, the networking flows easily and the conference logistics seem a bit smoother than some of the other conferences we attend.  

GMAC, as an organization, has a larger, more international staff than other U.S. academic associations. And they have a revenue stream (from testing) that others in this field do not have. Their global outposts support academic business programs in countries around the world and confirm the value of their entrance exam for institutions in these countries as well. 

Conference sessions covered marketing, recruiting, admissions, diversity, program management, and predicting future enrollment, among others. With many concurrent sessions, I found it hard to identify the most valuable use of any given hour in my schedule. That’s a good thing. 

Our presentation topic: predicting the student recruitment future based on international data and the global shift toward stronger anti-immigration policies. Our slides will be available to you for the next week before they move to exclusive access for our Intead Plus members. 

Our next opportunity to meet!   
EducationUSA, 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.  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.  Valuable perspective and data ontopics you care about. From agent-university partnerships to predictive modeling and CRM efficiency, to new market development, our Resource Center has you covered. Check it out.

Below we share 4 way-cool and thought-provoking takeaways from the sessions I attended at GMAC. And of course, the slides from my session about the future and how cultivating an innovation mindset is your best approach in the face of national and international policy threats. We compare and contrast very reliable sources (IIE, British Council, and IDP) and make our own case for the value of innovation and perseverance. 

Read on for the insights and be sure to scroll to the very bottom for the link to our slide deck – which we think is well worth the scroll ; -) 

Greetings from New Orleans!  

NAFSA 2024 is well underway, and we are here for it. Literally. There are a ton of Intead team members in the Big Easy this year and we have a lot to talk about, not to mention all that we have to learn. Are you here, too? Let us know (info@intead.com). We’d love to connect! 

If you’ve been following our posts, then you already know we’ve been waist deep in data for months. The result of which is three different reports that we think will help shape the way you approach international student recruitment. Actionable insights delivered. 

One of our new outputs is a continuation of our popular Know Your Neighborhood (KYN) series. This time, a global survey done in conjunction with the global study choice platform Studyportals. 

Let’s meet in New Orleans @ NAFSA 2024! 

Join one of Intead’s two presentations: 

• ChatGPT and AI: What are the real opportunities for enrollment management? 
  TODAY (Wed 5/29/2024) @ 1 p.m. NOCC Room 391
  Featuring David L. Di Maria, Senior International Officer & Associate Vice Provost for International Education at UMBC, and Iliana Joaquin, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Intead 

• Groundbreaking Data: International Student Employment After Graduation
  Thurs., May 30, 2024 @ 11:30 a.m. NOCC Room 398-399
  Featuring Dr. Joanna Regulska, Vice Provost and Dean – Global Affairs, UC Davis and NAFSA Board Member with Ben Waxman, Intead CEO 

Our newest KYN report is our first post-pandemic addition to the series. In it you will find an analysis of the influencing factors and desires of international education-seekers when choosing where and what to study. And this includes the influence of politics and political leadership on their decisions – a question mark for many of us as we move through this long (and painful?) US presidential election season. Does this matter to international students? You betchya! 

The analysis is a thought-provoking comparison to our oft cited 2016 Know Your Neighborhood survey (Intead Plus members can access the full series here), which was conducted with FPP EDU media on the precipice of and in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election when Mr. Donald Trump was a first time Republican Presidential Nominee. Our report lays bare the undeniable shifts in the priorities of international education-seekers in the time since, including their current perspective on choosing to study in the US based on the winner of the 2024 US presidential election (Mr. Donald Trump versus Mr. Joe Biden).  

Were our findings surprising? You be the judge: 

• 30% of the international student respondents are more likely to want to study in the US if Mr. Trump wins, compared to just 14% who said so in the lead up to the 2016 election. 
• 28% are less likely to want to study in the US if Mr. Trump wins, compared to 54% who said so in 2016. 
• 42% said it didn’t make a difference, compared to 32% in 2016. 

Interesting. And we haven’t even gotten to the qualitative insights that really illuminate international student sentiment. We will have that ready for you soon. 

Until then we are offering our blog readers key findings from the Know Your Neighborhood 2024 survey via a downloadable infographic that will give you a lot to think about. It will certainly give you something to talk about. In fact, we can’t think of a better conversation starter for those mingling about at NAFSA this week. Give it a try! Read on… 

Turkey has been in the news a lot recently, and not for the best reasons. Political uncertainty plagues the country and the country’s foreign relations. From an international student recruiting point of view, this is a market where parents truly value education. And, Turkish students continue to seek English language courses and education abroad. Is your marketing approach able to adapt to this changing market niche?

Bottom Line: Stay flexible in uncertain times. As political climates begin to shift and foreign relations appear unstable, it is essential to focus on your relationships with agents and reassure your markets. In particular, in Turkey, local networks are vital to success. Creating strong bonds with agents and other student recruiting channels in the country can help your institution connect directly with the whole family.

Read on for a more perspective on current events and a few tips on recruiting options that might work for your institution in Turkey.