Recruiting Intelligence

The opening plenary at the 76th CIEE conference drew a crowd earlier this month in Paris. No wonder. With a jaw-dropping panel representing Elon, Arizona State, Northeastern, and Dean College, the discussion presented some rare gems. 

The goal: set the conference off on the right foot. Get everyone thinking deeply about how international experiences can reach more students. 

The crowd clearly held the belief that a global education holds the promise of a brighter future. The proof was simply in the stories told by leaders in academia, government, and pretty much every institution in attendance. Those with international experience as a student spoke of the indelible mark that it had on their life and career. The global experiences changed their views of the world and shaped their decisions about how they would participate in it. No doubt, many of you can relate. 

Opportunities to Meet In Person 

The Intead team is gearing up for some amazing presentations and we hope you can join us. 

• AIRC Annual Conference – we’ll be offering our full-day digital marketing workshop here In Phoenix, Dec 6-9, 2023 
• ICEF North America Workshop in Miami, Dec 11-13, 2023 

Let us know if you’ll come share a cup of coffee and a conversation about all things global and digital (info@intead.com) 

Why we work so hard at this and gather to define the path forward: we are looking to make international education more accessible for current and future students. And we want those experiences to be deeply rewarding. We need to be sure the programs have a solid curriculum, strong faculty leadership, and finely tuned logistics and support services.  

We can only take on so much at one time. What I heard as the specific foci at this CIEE gathering: 

• Clarify the steps to improving broad student access.  
• Increase our capacity to provide student mental health support services.  
• Focus efforts on environmental sustainability initiatives. 

The conference provided a foundation for robust, challenging discussions among study abroad leadership and all the many practitioners in the room. And these talks will continue. Fortunately, the resources to do the work, to make these ideas meaningful, not just esoteric, are in place.  

The discussions embraced big visionary approaches (can we foster greater employer engagement in internationalization?) and concrete touch points (can we provide each traveling student with a sustainability cookbook customized to each of 30+ destination cities?). The ideas shared and evaluated poured forth.  

Granted, there is never enough money to do all we want to do. But roughly 75 years ago, a poignant point in time following World War II, many smart and good people got together to launch global initiatives, including the United Nations, IIE, the Fulbright program, NATO, WHO, IMF, the World Bank, and CIEE to name just a few of the most prominent efforts to bridge cultures globally. 

I had the great privilege of moderating the opening plenary and speaking at length with: 

• Kenneth Elmore, J.D., president of Dean College 
• Jennifer Malerich, Ph.D., assistant vice provost of academic and global engagement for Arizona State University 

• Rebecca Kohn, Ph.D., provost and vice president of academic affairs for Elon University 
• Amy Stevens, Ph.D., vice chancellor of global experiential pathways for Northeastern University 

I wish all of you could have been there. That’s why today I’m sharing with you a few of my personal notes from talks with these industry leaders and other observations from the 3-day event. It’s a quick read, but one I know will spur ideas and get your wheels turning. Read on… 

Let’s start with this: our NAFSA 2023 slides are perhaps the most concise and clear educational tool we have produced to-date. When you have 3 strong speakers and just 50 minutes, you really need to focus if you want to get your point across.

Each slide represents far more content and conversations we would love to have with you. During one of our future conference sessions, webinars, or anytime, really, just reach out and let us know you want to chat.

Today we share our biggest takeaways from NAFSA 2023. These are thinking big opportunities.

We were honored to share the dais with Paulo Zagalo-Melo, SIO and Associate Provost at Western Michigan University and Karin Fischer, Senior Writer at Chronicle of Higher Education. Our focus: what kind of data and other information can truly inform our international student decision-making? And we considered the flip side: what information is TBU (True But Useless)?

A bit of foreshadowing: A focus for the Intead team going forward is going to be on international student employment and all we need to do as a community to make that process work better. You’ll see much more on that topic from us over the next year+. We have some amazing partners to help us get you the data and tools you need to improve your institutional approach. Watch this space.

You want answers about valuable vs. TBU data? Check out our NAFSA 2023 slide deck (download link at the bottom of this post.) Yes, we are making you work for it ; -)

Leaders of the student enrollment revolution, we’re here for you.

With so much planning going on for an enrollment cycle so very in flux, and past trend data not quite so predictive as it used to be, we thought now would be a good time to reboot one of our most popular posts, “How to Say ‘No’ to Ideas That Aren’t Good Enough.”

It should be a helpful tool at a time when focus is essential in the midst of so many #EdTech solutions and platforms for recruitment and enrollment continually seek your attention.

Read on for the 5 questions every leader must ask and every department must answer when presented with new plans – those that seem great, not so great, or maybe just crazy enough to work.

Join us at #Nafsa2022 in Denver where we will be offering up four presentations with a range of partners on everything from innovative influencer marketing to new ways to maximize the talent of your global recruiting agent network. We'll be focusing on the need for flexibility throughout your student recruitment and enrollment efforts. Schedule a meeting with a simple email.

We’re here to help you focus on the initiatives that will produce results and justify that budget.

Brilliant and creative enrollment professionals, we know your pain.

So many great ideas, so little time, and so little budget.

It’s the refrain of higher education (that, and “Don’t talk to me during application season”). And while we know you want to tackle everything with an enthusiastic “yes”, saying “no” more often than “yes” is nearly always required to keep your institution and your strategy on track.

With budget season inching towards the finish line, we know you’re already thinking about putting that budget into action in the new fiscal year. We also know that making the most of that budget will require focus, a concrete plan, and most importantly, that discipline to say “no” to lots of shiny new ideas that pass you by.

Steve Jobs said it best: “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” But with great ideas and options coming at you from all sides, how do you decide what will maximize value for your institution?

With this enrollment cycle murkier than ever and past performance clearly not indicative of future success, turning your gaze on some downhome marketing truths is a good idea.

Read on for five key questions to ask yourself next time that lightbulb moment hits you and your team. Our insights will help you hone your efforts on the ideas that will produce results and justify that budget.

So, ICE tells all the online international students in the U.S. to go home and Harvard tells all students to go online for Fall 2020 (without lowering tuition). That’s quite a news day.

From day to day, the landscape continues to shift, sometimes dramatically.

If you’ve missed the past few months of Recruiting Intelligence posts because you’ve had other pressing priorities (we get it), then you may want to take a scroll through it all.

Read on for a quick summary of all the things we all need to figure out. (Spoiler alert: we've already figured out a lot of them).

What are your students willing to pay for an online education?

Here is what you are really after: given your brand reputation, the demographics of your student cohort and the potential to create a new service delivery model, what should you offer and how much should you charge for it?

Let’s get that answered!

Our primary message: custom research into what your student cohort is willing to pay for your brand on campus or online is invaluable. An important part of innovation is the upfront market research that points your team in the right direction.

Below we review some new pricing research that offers insights and a conceptual approach to getting this type of data for your institution.

The context: During a high school Zoom graduation ceremony we watched this past week (my niece got her paper!), the valedictorian shared the experience of his last day in high school in March this year – a day like any other, except that at the end of it, the principal quite suddenly told everyone there would be no school the next day. A mundane day that suddenly marked the end of all he had worked for. No celebration, no Senior Week pranks, no high fives, just, head home and, as it turned out, don’t return.

His comment at the close of his valedictorian graduation speech: Don’t ever doubt that the world can change in an instant.

Across the globe, students and institutions shared that experience. How will all those valedictorians and all their friends make decisions going forward. College? Job? Remote learning and a job?

Read on for pricing research perspective to get you thinking.

And watch this space over the next few weeks as we dive into the doing that is prompted by the thinking. We’ll be sharing detailed case studies of some of the successful digital marketing work we’ve been doing for a variety of institutions around the world.

Yes, even during a pandemic, especially during a pandemic, digital marketing will connect you with your target audiences. We will show you how and give you benchmarks to help you evaluate how you are doing.

Your institution’s mission has not changed.

Despite all that is swirling around us, you are still in the business of helping people improve and achieve. You are still helping them understand what to learn and how to learn it.

Resilience is Built

Many institutional leadership teams are demonstrating the very resilience their mission statements say they will instill in their students. Others are suggesting business as usual with little change to their operations beyond physical distancing practices.

Investing in adaptation and innovation builds long-term resilience. This is what students are doing by investing in their educations – building resilience.

What is the story we tell students and parents? “Take the risk. We know it is a lot of money, but you’ll be better off in the long-term.” We tell students to invest in a 4-year growth plan, and we reinforce it along the way, “Don’t be deterred! Finish in 4 years!”

Are academic leaders following that same advice to build resilience for their institutions? Or are they crying poor, just like the students they are trying to convince to spend savings and take on debt for future gains?

Here’s the thing: institutions rarely stick to their own 4-year plans.

Example: Enrollment marketing initiatives often start with 3-5 year plans. The team acknowledges that real returns won’t materialize in years 1 or 2. And then, turnover in senior administrators and other outside factors suddenly defund the growth plan and little to no progress gets made. The planned investment halts after just 12 months.

I’m sure you’ve seen this happen all too often.

What To Do?

Develop the vision. Build the buy-in. Invest in the execution. Stay the course.

We will be adding a new set of research and resources available to our Intead Plus members over the next 8 weeks to help you do just that.

Read on to take a look at where forward-looking institutions are making these investments for longer-term growth (case studies are available).