Recruiting Intelligence

Here we go again. Entering a new year with a certain trepidation. Recent headlines warning of mass deportations and reeking of transnational skepticism harken back to a pre-pandemic era of not so long ago. The difference this time: we come prepared. This is a road we’ve traveled. So, lace up your long-distance sneakers and let’s get going. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March and NAFSA in May, we'll be presenting our latest findings at both. Want to connect at either event? Let us know.

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.

Despite our wariness of upcoming US, UK, Australian, and Canadian policy changes that are sure to impact our international student community, we are looking forward to 2025. We will find our way forward even despite the incoming US administration's often petty, often chaotic, and consistently unpredictable management style. Sigh.

One important change to how we move forward here at Intead, a resolution if you will, is an adjustment to the cadence of this blog.  

We’ve been publishing Recruiting Intelligence since 2012, on a weekly basis. Our goal has always been, and continues to be, to provide you with deep industry insights that are practical, highly actionable, and meaningful to your day-to-day work. We report on markets, tech tools, recruitment trends, marketing strategy, you name it. If it can improve your enrollment management, we are researching and writing about it.  

This year we are shifting our output slightly by moving to an every-other-week schedule. This shift in cadence is born out of our digital strategy analysis and watching your engagement. Turns out, given our long form content format, not everyone has time to read our posts every week!!!   

OK, obvious, right? What this means in simple terms: our efforts to disseminate meaningful content to as many people as possible is not as effective as it could be with each post. 

By shifting to an every-other-week schedule, our digital team can use social channels more effectively to promote the content we produce. There will be more time for the social algorithms and your clicks and shares to do their work.  

So, long story short, you will still see our longer form musings here, and an increasing presence on social media as we hold true to our goal of providing useful content to industry insiders. Speaking of, we are connected on LinkedIn, right? If not, follow us here.  

In the meantime, a quick look back at 2024 through this blog’s top 10 posts as chosen by you, our readers. We were not at all surprised at #1. Read on…  

Increased demand for online learning is forcing institutions to rethink their approach to programming. 

You likely read that line in a news article a decade ago. But it is news once again. 

Consider this: 69% of chief online learning officers (COLOs) surveyed this year reported prioritizing online versions of on-campus courses, and 65% said they are prioritizing online equivalents of degree programs.  

These significant stats unveiled in the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, CHLOE 9: Strategy Shift: Institutions Respond to Sustained Online Demand, produced by Quality Matters, Eduventures, and Educause, reveal just how far our industry has come.  

For the past decade, a common hesitation among campus leaders resisting change was the legit and long-held idea that online courses of on-campus offerings risk cannibalizing campus student enrollments. That concern has given way to the notion that these virtual programs may instead attract new audiences. Have we achieved win, win?  

And what of the potential for Online Program Managers (OPMs) in all of this? 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

It’s obvious that the pandemic dramatically accelerated online edu investment. Now, a few semesters past its throes, demand for online learning remains high, particularly from students – though more faculty appreciate it, too. And obviously, institution leaders are paying attention. Thankfully the mood is also shifting from emergency response to long-term sustainability, hastening more meaningful cross-campus discussions on implementation, support, and strategy.  

The CHLOE 9 report adds depth to the conversations we’re all having about online education: investment priorities, pricing approaches, points of friction, third-party services (oh, those OPMS!), and a handful of other key topics worth consideration. Not least among them: Are the participants (faculty and students) simply phoning it in? In other words, does the convenience of remote learning still achieve the desired learning outcomes? 

And for you, what impact does this report have on your recruitment strategy? Read on…  

Our new Know Your Neighborhood (KYN) 2024 Student Sentiment Analysis is a follow-on report to our previous US election research published in June. This one provides the nuance behind the stats. And yes, there’s a clear Trump factor with some choice words shared in the student comments.  

Available today, this new research adds depth to our KYN 2024 report issued in partnership with global study choice platform Studyportals. That initial data set was all about factors influencing international students’ decisions to study abroad, including the effect of the US presidential election (Biden vs. Trump at the time). If you missed that phase 1 research, download it for free here. 

Today’s data set, also produced in partnership with our colleagues at Studyportals, presents new findings by looking at the sentiment behind the survey responses. This report adds even more to our findings with results from a new 4-question survey regarding Harris v. Trump (per shift in Democrat ticket). The Harris v. Trump survey, which ran Aug. 12, 2024 – Sept. 9, 2024, was accessible as a banner ad on Studyportals’ website, resulting in 1,028 responses.   

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

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.

As you well know, the international student market is a competitive one. The universities that succeed are those that truly understand the consumer in each student segment. So, yes, while the KYN 2024 follow-on report is an interesting read, it also gives insight into the mindset of the international students you’re trying to recruit now. In other words, there’s something to be learned here.  

Read on to download the free report…