Recruiting Intelligence

Worth evaluating: will your 2022 student recruitment plan and budget be relevant for 2023?

Some are saying Search is dead. It is certainly getting increasingly complex. And hello ChatGPT.

An old Chinese adage (loosely translated): May you live in interesting times. The original idea from Ming Dynasty Poet Feng Menglong in1627, "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos." (寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 – thank you Wikipedia!)

The good news: not everything changes. The core questions you use to evaluate next steps remain the same. The truth is, no matter the tactics your strategic plan includes, the framework for budget planning and evaluation is (or should be) constant. If it’s not, let’s talk.

That’s why “3 Essential Budget Questions: A Framework for Planning” is one of our top go-to downloads. And why we often give it a reboot around budget season.

This free download distills any budget request/evaluation process into three essential questions. A quick 2-minute read, our framework for evaluating your plans and whether they merit additional investment, narrows your focus on a consideration of what is truly important to you. Where are the strongest opportunities for growth? What do you truly value? And are you performing at the level that produces desired results? 

Here's the thing, if you are not willing to fund something to get the results you want, then you don’t value those desired results as much as the thing you do decide to fund. What went into that decision? All too often, institutional politics carries more weight than an evaluation of values and growth opportunities. Ouch!

This download will be available for free to our blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises (annual budgeting, new team member training, etc.).

Ready to get your copy of Intead’s budget framework flowchart? Read on…

Let’s be honest. We’re not all people people. And we’re not all data nerds. Or content creators. The point: we need a team with varied talents to cover all the tasks required to run a successful enrollment management process.

One of the common areas we explore with our clients (it also comes up during conference discussions frequently): “What is the best staffing structure for student recruitment and enrollment processes?” And we have some basic analysis available to help you get this conversation started in your own shop.

To help your team (read: provost and VP of finance) understand why you need the full complement of skills, we’ve developed an at-a-glance info sheet that shows the skill sets needed at each phase of the admissions funnel. It’s pretty interesting to approach it from this perspective. And it’s pretty important that you do.

We’ll be presenting our enrollment staffing perspective as part of a session at the AGB (Association of Governing Boards) conference this April in San Diego with Brad Farnsworth, principal of Fox Hollow Advisory and former senior VP at American Council on Education, and Gretchen Bataille, president of GMB Consulting Group who also served in leadership roles at University of North Texas, University of North Carolina system, and at American Council on Education. University trustees and presidents gather every year at AGB to identify best practices for growth.

We’ll also be presenting with Karin Fischer, senior writer at Chronicle of Higher Education, and Ahmad Ezzeddine, vice president of academic student affairs and global engagement at Wayne State University, at the AIEA conference in DC in February. If you’d like to meet at either of these events, please drop us a note.

The annoying answer to the question about staffing structure is: “It depends.”

That's also a legit answer because institutions fall into different categories. As a simple example, consider an institution seeking an incoming class of 1,000 students vs another seeking 10,000 students. These institutions clearly need different reporting structures to process different volumes of marketing recruiting and inquiry nurturing, much less application processing and student orientation.

Nevertheless, there are common skills needed, from people skills to data crunching skills. And with enrollment offices typically run by an efficient crew (read that as skeleton teams) most staff are expected to wear many (or all) the hats: marketer, analyst, tech guru, travel agent, career counselor, social butterfly, academic genie, social media manager, digital marketer, and even coffee maker.

Sound familiar at your institution? Even if a Venn diagram from the latest psychological assessment shows your team of two (or four) has significant overlap among disparate personality traits, it’s impossible to create the kind of student cohort your institution aims for by asking just a few people to do it all.

We see it all the time. And it’s tough because no institution has all the resources they need. But the smart ones know how to build the right staff structure and partner relationships that will yield great results.

Our enrollment staff structure info sheet will be available for free to our blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises (annual budgeting, new team member training, etc.).

To get your free “International Enrollment from a Marketer’s Point of View,” read on.

In what month do students in Brazil graduate high school? How about China? Are they the same? Germany and France must be on the same schedule though, right?

Out of the top 29 countries sending international students out into the world, 11 of them have academic years starting in September and ending in June. Eighteen others don’t. And, no, German and French school calendars are not aligned.

Knowing when to reach prospective students is as important as knowing where to reach them. And when your audience is spread across the globe, school admissions and matriculation timing is anything but consistent.

This is important information to your student recruitment team if they are going to reach those students with the right information at the right time. Handy to have a cheatsheet with that information at your fingertips, right?

That’s why we’ve created the Global School Start Calendar featuring 29 top-sending countries. Knowing what drives your international students' planning plays into your recruitment and admissions messaging and timing.

This cheat sheet gives you at-a-glance dates and other relevant reference points for:

• Secondary academic calendars
• University academic calendars
• Major academic exam dates
• Perspective on student recruitment campaign launch dates

An important side note: Because dates change all the time, as do undergrad exam requirements, we will be updating this resource as appropriate. And, since you are part of the global student recruitment community, we more than welcome your input and updates to this reference tool.

If you see any information that has recently changed or want additional details added, please let us know. We want this tool to be really useful and can use our crowdsourced community’s help to keep it current.

This cheat sheet will be available for free to blog subscribers for a limited time. Or, join Intead Plus and your team can access this and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises.

Ready to download your free copy of our Global School Start cheat sheet? Read on…

If social media isn’t part of your student recruitment strategy, then, uhm, we need to talk.

[crickets]

Ok, good! Because of course social media is part of your strategy. Now, knowing which platform(s) makes the most sense and how much to invest for which audience segment in which part of the world, that’s just a bit trickier. We’ll give you that.

A useful tool for you would be a list of the major global social channels with key user stats and other perspectives to help you scan the options and focus quickly on what matters. Funny you should ask for that…

The Intead team (with special tip of the hat to our international student interns) offer you the next in our Intead Index series: Virtual Worldwide Channels Cheat Sheet.

You’ll definitely want to download this one right now to support your team as you develop your international social media marketing plans. In a week, we will restrict access to this download to only our Intead Plus members.

Our Worldwide Social Media index provides a high-level view of the 15 most popular social media channels that boast the clearest paths for organic and paid marketing (sorry BeReal, maybe you’ll be marketing-ready for our next index).

Just about your LAST CHANCE to Come with Questions and Leave with a Plan.

If you are attending the AIRC or ICEF Conferences - here is a huge plus opportunity.  

The Intead/San Diego State University One-Day Workshop on December 13th, 2022 will be a hands-on opportunity to learn from an awe-inspiring international student recruitment faculty.

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

Join Intead Plus and your team can access this newest index and all our other Intead Index student recruitment essentials any time the need arises. Helpful as training and reference materials for your enrollment and recruiting team.

Ready to download your free copy of our Virtual Worldwide Channels index? Read on…

While the holiday season may look a little different this year, our gratitude for this community remains steadfast.

If this year has proven anything, it’s what we’ve known all along, that the education community is resilient. That connection and communication, whether from six feet away or six thousand miles away, via text, email, Slack, Zoom, FaceTime, and even TikTok, is what keeps us moving forward and growing together. Here’s to weathering the storm, together, whatever may come our way.

Two more pearls of wisdom validated this year:

• Taking care of yourself is relief work.
• You are never far from that source of community and energy that helps keep you going.

Turns out the airline safety videos had it right all along: put your own mask on first and then help those around you put on theirs.

We will be taking next week off from the Recruiting Intelligence Blog and hope you’ll be taking some well-deserved rest, too.

Read on for a preview of the year ahead (new research, insights and more). Plus, a look at how Ben has been faring alone in the Intead office while the rest of the team works remotely...

Welcome back! Fall semester is here and we're glad to be back at it!

So much has happened over the summer and it seems that the rules keep changing. The welcoming tone here in the US, or the lack of that tone, continues to be such an important issue as we plan and implement our recruiting initiatives. And yesterday, DACA appears to be in jeopardy.

The Intead team will be at NACAC next week and I will be presenting on these topics and the latest international student recruiting trends. I'm humbled to share the podium with Sundar Kumarasamy, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Northeastern University and Steven Bloom, Director of Government Relations at ACE. Please let us know if you'll be there too! Our Starbucks card is your Starbucks card - Let's grab a cuppa.

Right now, we're going to jump right into what you expect from our Recruiting Intelligence blog with some great insights into using webinars effectively. Hosting webinars is a popular strategy for international student recruitment – and for good reason. 

As you know (we’re sure you’ve run more than a few yourself at this point), webinars are flexible recruitment tools that can be effective at multiple points along the recruitment funnel – providing general information, generating leads and converting leads to applicants and enrolled students. The best part? The relatively low cost, of course. We know you don’t have an unlimited budget.

There are also plenty of options on the market offering a wide selection of features like CRM integration and multi-language interface. But, you don’t have to break the bank to host successful webinars. There are several free options that don’t have all the bells and whistles, but might be more familiar to your prospective students.

The big question: have you chosen the best tool to host your webinars? Does it make a difference? Turns out—yes, it does. This week we are exploring the wealth of options at your fingertips and helping you choose the most effective tool for your institution. Read on to explore the possibilities and download our free comparison chart (link at the end of this post).

Special thanks to Lu Bai, our international student intern from Bentley University for her outstanding work researching webinar tools and features! Lu, you're the best; good luck completing your Master's this fall! 

If you must, just skip to the end to download her webinar research – you'll just miss all of Cathryn's and Emily's great recruitment insights along the way ;-) 

Thanks for being loyal readers and sharers of our research. Please read on...and let the classes begin! ~ Ben Waxman

Here it is. Delivered fresh to your mailbox. Another exciting edition of the Intead Index, one in a series of indices that provides you with all of the information you need to make informed decisions.

In this edition we provide you with a comprehensive chart outlining the many credential evaluation companies. 

Hot off the digital presses: It's the Intead Index: Book of Lists.

Our expert researchers have gathered the information we wish we had when we were working in admissions offices.

We've spent time evaluating, comparing and then compiling the results. We do this to help you make informed decisions as you scale your international student enrollment.

• Social media tools to help you manage a multi-country campaign
• Tour provider comparisons
• International educator associations listed
• Lead generators compared
• Linked In groups listed

All of these, and more. We are comparing the tools used by some of the most successful institutions. We've gathered information from many sources including administrators who have traveled this path and expanded their international student populations by 100% or more.

Here it is. Delivered fresh to your mailbox. Another exciting edition of the Intead Index, one in a series of indices that provides you with all of the information you need to make informed decisions.

We will cover a variety of information sources, marketing and technology services international university admissions and marketing departments purchase or use regularly. We will publish the lists regularly on the blog over the next few months. We will be publishing a compilation of these lists on a yearly basis. While we'd like to think that our research is comprehensive, we know that there might be service providers we inadvertently overlooked. That's where you, our loyal readers, come into the picture.  We welcome your comments and additions to the lists. Feel free to use the provided link to share your feedback. 

We'd like to proudly introduce a new content source for you-- Intead Index-- a set of indices that provides you with all of the information you need to make informed decisions. We will cover a variety of information sources, marketing and technology services international university admissions and marketing departments purchase or use regularly. We will publish the lists regularly on the blog over the next few months. We will be publishing a compilation of these lists on a yearly basis for you to download and share with your team. While we'd like to think that our research is comprehensive, we know that there might be service providers we inadvertently overlooked. That's where you, our loyal readers, come into the picture.  We welcome your comments and additions to the lists. Feel free to use the provided link to share your feedback.