Recruiting Intelligence

Five years from now what will you be glad you did right now, this year? 

IIE here in the US and other prognosticators across the pond who track student mobility have predicted the number of international students in the US and around the world could double by 2030. Some projections suggest upwards of 10M or more globally. We’re not placing any bets on that figure. However… 

We’re optimistic about international student numbers and the opportunities ahead in higher education. We’re not banking on 10M+ in the next few years. That’s a bit of a stretch by our measure. But continued growth will come and the question is whether your institution is psychologically capable of weathering the storms and building for the future, or bureaucratically paralyzed and unable to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.  

Said simply: Resilient individuals and businesses adapt, leverage their strengths, and pursue opportunities to grow. 

Pro Tip: Your academic leadership will value reading this post. (Share button below)

What you do in the coming year will set the stage for the benefits you reap five years from now. Sit on your hands due to fear of the ambiguity that surrounds us, and all those who are acting now will be miles in front of you in 2030. Miles.   

Below we offer three specific areas where we think smart institutions and academic leaders will focus their attention in the years ahead to capitalize on future growth opportunities. How many of the three do you think you can help your institution address? 

Some context: Back in the day, our industry’s powerhouse forecasters were looking at the global growth of students seeking a foreign education from 2010 through 2016 and said with absolute confidence that there would be 8M+ international students globally by 2020. Maybe you were sitting with me in those conference presentations? Had trends continued on pace, that would have been true. Emphasis on “had trends continued on pace.” 

Instead, global factors combined with the US Muslim ban (Trump 1.0) were followed by a global pandemic (COVID 19). Those student numbers (8M+) have yet to pan out. But significant growth has happened - just 20% shy of the projection by 2020. (UNESCO reports 6.4M students globally studying in a country other than their own that year and we are at about 7M today.) Trend predictions are complicated by so many factors. Some might say predictions are truly unpredictable ; -)

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Look for us at ASU+GSV next week, and NAFSA in May. Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.

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.

Here's the thing: there are some human behaviors and economic factors that we feel very confident about. And that helps us understand the world and get a strong sense of what is likely coming our way in the years ahead.  

Reality: The US is now grappling with Trump 2.0, which is full of bluster and chaos-inducing pronouncements equivalent to watching an over-the-top World Wrestling Federation pre-fight drama. It’s all designed to draw attention and ramp up excitement for a spectacle. Often, there’s no substance to the bluster, though it consistently delivers pain. 

This drama coming from the US White House makes predictions all the more challenging. You need to push past all the obfuscating dry ice smoke machine billows to get at baseline reality. 

So yes, despite the chaos surrounding US policies and politics and how that will play out around the world, we have reason to believe international student numbers will rise over time similar to our confidence that the stock market will rise over time. We can’t tell you if the market will be up or down tomorrow or next year, but longitudinally, stocks have gone up since the market’s founding, and international student mobility has gone up as international travel has become more accessible. 

Consider this: In 1970, there were 310M airline passengers globally according to the World Bank. In 2024 the figure was 5.2B according to the International Air Transport Association. That’s an indicator of accessibility. Important to note, those figures include domestic and international flyers. 

Our belief in future growth of international student mobility primarily comes down to basic consumer (student) behavior trends, like increased usage of international flights (accessibility).  

Making the Accessible Visible 

Hailing from Hyderabad, Satya Nadella, current CEO and Chairman of Microsoft, earned his engineering master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990 and his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 1997. On the minds of nearly every Indian engineering student today: “If he could do it, so can I.” A lure as strong as it is old.  

With the rise of social media since 2010, success stories have proliferated in ways the world has never seen before. Basic human behavior: communicating success builds desire among others (word of mouth referrals drive sales).  

Among all those who have not risen to the top of Microsoft, there are millions of former international students who have carved out careers and influential positions, inspiring and encouraging future generations to follow in their footsteps. And hear us when we tell you that your prospective international students are looking for the proven path forward. Without overpromising, your institution needs to tell that story and build confidence in that future. 

A graduate student from India attending a private New England university recently told our staff how searching for (and making real connections with) alumni and current students on LinkedIn is what landed her on campus in the US. In her words, she appreciated but generally bypassed the university’s marketing and contacted other international students who had been there, done that. Their stories convinced her to enroll in the institution. Case in point: basic human behavior tied to the advent of internet communication. 

What we know: A student who graduated just a few years ago and is now a manager at a major company is immediately relatable to prospective applicants (much more tangible to them than their aspirations to run Microsoft someday). These conversations make the journey feel more attainable.

So, when international alumni share their experiences—whether through personal networks, mentorship, or social media—they reinforce the appeal of studying in the US (or any other country that contributed to their success).  

Considering how well your institution leverages its international alumni? Find customized perspective here. 

While we believe word-of-mouth marketing will play a role in future international student enrollment growth, there are other factors working in our industry’s favor – namely how institutions are poised to react to the changing market and the pace at which these changes are implemented on your campus. You may be surprised to learn our take on the opportunities ahead. Read on…

For years, Intead has focused on the craft of enrollment marketing - tracking engagement, refining messaging, and building campaigns that blend strategy with creativity. 

We have built systems that are not only intelligent but elegant, approaches that are not only effective but artful. 

But everything changed when we read that New York Times article about the most exclusive restaurant in Boston - a place with no website, no phone number, no sign, and almost no food.  

We have come to realize that our (previous) principles do not speak the language of prestige. Prestige that exists beyond data, beyond scrutiny - beyond the need for proof.  

We know now that true marketing cannot not be functional. It should not be cluttered with vulgar “data” or measurable "outcomes.” It should not chase results.  

It should simply be. 

With that, we are proud to introduce Intead Luxe - softly lit enrollment marquéting.  

This is not an evolution of our past work. It is an abandonment of it. Read on…

AIEA rode into town overlapping the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March. You tell me which one brought more excitement and better BBQ? 

The truth: I was down for the whole AIEA thing more than the rodeo. Clearly, I’m not the one to call when you are going out to a raucous party. It’s a character flaw, I know. 

AIEA’s board and their dynamic staff, led by newly minted CEO Clare Overman, delivered exactly what academic leaders and SIOs needed. An opportunity to gather amidst the chaos of the new administration in Washington, DC. An opportunity to fret, consider, and plan.  

Under the heading of planning, our boldest initiative, launched at the conference: a two-year research project in conjunction with AIEA to identify and share the effectiveness of various internationalization office structures. A complex endeavor to be sure. Learn a bit more about it HERE and sign up to stay informed. We are thrilled to be collaborating with former ACE Internationalization Lab leader Brad Farnsworth for this research. 

Those in this field do a whole lot with fairly little support or budget. Shared models and simply thinking together has so much value. The Intead team was honored to share the dais for three very different presentations with colleagues Balaji Krishnan (University of Memphis), Vivian Wang (University of Tulsa), Helen Zhang (Northeastern University), Mirka Martel (IIE), Andrew Chen (FrogHire.ai), and Brad Farnsworth (Fox Hollow Advisory).

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Will you be at ASU+GSV in April or NAFSA in May? Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.  

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.

Below, I share a few observations about the conversations at the conference ranging from fundraising from international families (alumni giving) to global partnership development and how that plays with enrollment management and student services. You’ll also find links to our slide decks and an invitation to chat if you’d like more information about our ideas on how your institution can improve in three areas: 

• Global Partnership Development and Management 
• International Student Career Placements
• Internationalization Office Structure and Outcomes

Read on for perspective on the machinations over White House pronouncements and access to our slides… 

Grad students Poorajith Sasikumar Thenmozhi and Anurag Bansal needed a problem to solve. As founding members of ColibreClub, a student-led organization at Worcester Polytechnic Institute Business School, they were gearing up for their inaugural student hackathon and were in search of a real-world problem statement their competitors could sink their teeth into. 

That’s when the Business School’s Assistant Dean Sandhya Balasubramanian stepped in. Sandhya a friend and colleague of ours reached out to the Intead team to see if we had ideas. Our answer: Always! 

Trend watchers and challenge seekers, we didn’t take long to share one of the many higher ed research topics that interest us in the area of student success. Prior to and through the Covid-19 Pandemic, we watched student mental health concerns grow dramatically. We also noted that issue rising on the list of major worries being carried by university presidents and provosts.   

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• Our AIEA stint ends today as we turn our focus to ASU+GSV in April, and NAFSA in May. Let us know  if you want to connect at these events.  

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.

Data underlines the urgency. Sallie Mae’s How America Completes College 2024 report on undergraduate barriers to graduation reveals 42% of at-risk students who consider leaving school do so for reasons involving motivation and mental health issues. When asked what resources would have helped them stay, 30% said more mental health resources/support.  

In our work with academic institutions, we’ve seen such a range of responses on campuses that make services available to students in different ways and importantly, help students become aware of and access those services in different ways as well. 

Assurances to help individuals who are struggling academically/mentally/physically are part and parcel of student communications. You know as well as we do that prospective students and their parents care a lot about this topic so including it in your recruitment materials has become routine. For some families, wanting to know about academics and sports top the list as they evaluate an institution. At some point, a growing number of parents worry about whether their kid, as mature as they are, is going to have the support services they need to succeed, including mental health services. 

So, the Intead team has been thinking a lot about actual accessibility, or lack thereof, of these types of programs. Some universities promote the services and access far more than others. Are they living up to their promises to students? Are there innovative ways to improve both student communication and accessibility? The WPI student hackathon tackled these questions with gusto!

Read on...

Think instant granular analysis of transcripts. Think about your ability to identify the specific classes and grades indicating future student success. Think about automatically excluding that A in Phys Ed from the overall GPA calculation.  

For the sake of speed and efficiency, institutions rely on the overall GPA, an SAT score (if submitted), or the presence of AP classes on a transcript. All helpful shortcuts as indicators of future success, to a point. And we’re not going to get into the SAT debate right now, though we have some strong opinions on that one. 

But now, along comes AI and admissions teams are apt to place some hope in the promise of what it can do to streamline unwieldy processes that tend to get in the way of enrollment yield. But there’s so much more edtech can now do. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March, ASU+GSV in April, and NAFSA in May. We'll be presenting our latest findings with colleagues from Chronicle of Higher Ed, IIE, AIEA, University of Tulsa, University of Memphis, Northeastern, and others. Let us know  if you want to connect at any of these events. 

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.

In our last post, we highlighted an edtech venture worth watching – especially if you’re among the AI curious. MyDocs is the brainchild of entrepreneur John Reese, whose name you may recognize from Parchment, the company that moved our industry from paper to digital transcripts (PDFs). That little startup originally founded by John grew up and just sold a year ago for more than $800M (all cash). Now, John is taking admissions capabilities a step further – moving institutions beyond digital transcripts into admissions data processing. And last year, he reached out to the Intead team for product launch support. 

MyDocs uses advanced OCR (optical character reader) and machine learning to evolve the tedious tasks of transcript analysis and processing. With application volumes rising thanks in part to the student efficiency tool Common App (don’t get us started), this new edtech helps smooth a specific task – and frequent bottleneck – in the admissions process. MyDocs' AI-powered platform scans and analyzes digital transcripts (PDFs, JPEGs, photos) to make them both human and machine-readable. 

That means the school of origin and every class, every grade, all become actionable data, instantly. Are you starting to see the possibilities? Oh, and if the transcript happens to be in another language, the tool translates to English. 

You can see why we were excited when John approached us and asked for our help with his entrepreneurial approach to transcript evaluation. The data analysis possibilities got the whole team here buzzing.  

For institutions, this kind of AI assist is more than welcome. One forward-thinking private New England institution we work with recently used this edtech tool to evaluate and process 11,000 applications in a single day. That’s just one anecdote, but the expediency is something to behold for anyone who’s ever managed admissions processes and credential evaluation. 24 hours vs. 1,500 hours (when done by humans). Something to think about. 

On the surface, technology like MyDocs seems like a game-change. Still, a challenge remains: institutions may find they are swimming in data without a clear strategy for leveraging it beyond this singular task of admissions efficiency: accept or reject?  

But, we have ideas. So many ideas. Read on… 

As student recruitment consultants, higher ed institutions ask us to focus on a range of pain points. We see an increasing number of institutions, driven by global competition, evolving markets, economic pressures, changing immigration policies, and more, seeking strategic realignment of their admissions and enrollment processes. The evolving ed tech marketplace brings new tools and AI to the process adding to the intrigue. Could technology be the critical player to winning the game? Sometimes, yes.  

It was no surprise to us when international enrollment officers packed the room for a presentation on Admission Process Analysis during the most recent AIRC conference. The conversation was led by Steven Boyd of Quinnipiac University and Intead’s Chief Strategy Officer Britt Godshalk who spoke directly to concerns we are hearing straight from enrollment staff. Concerns like: 

• “We need to know where our best markets are. We have an incredibly high volume of applicants with a very small yield.” 
• “Sometimes we have enough applications. But how do we make sure students actually enroll?”
• “I need to figure out how to move from our current enrollment plateau. And I feel like we’ve tried everything.” 
• “We have a communications coordinator specifically for admissions and I don’t know how to use him."

Sound familiar? You could write a book with the number of times we hear comments like these. In fact, our friend and colleague Dr. David D Maria, SIO and Vice Provost for International Education at UMBC, literally did (find his Achieving More with Less: Lean Management in International Student Office in the NAFSA bookstore – highly recommend).  

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March, ASU+GSV in April, and NAFSA in May. We'll be presenting our latest findings with colleagues from Chronicle of Higher Ed, IIE, AIEA, University of Tulsa, University of Memphis, Northeastern, and others. Let us know  if you want to connect at of those two events. 

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.

Relying on our experience working with a wide range of institutions, public and private, over the past 15 years (and the guidance from David’s book), we have helped admissions leaders identify the admissions pain points that drive students away rather than drawing them closer in. Importantly, this fascinating day-long exercise uncovers opportunities to fix the problems and the improvement measures to track results. Ah yes, some good news. 

Process mapping is a simple idea on the face of it. Like any problem-solving session addressing a complex, multi-layered process, the key to success is getting the right people in the right room to wrestle the right questions. We’re sure you know just what we mean. Practical to downright critical cross-departmental conversations are too few and far between.   

IT, Marketing, Enrollment, Admissions, and faculty (at the graduate level) all play a role. Credential evaluation always comes up as a pain point (more on that in just a bit). Yet, when institutions bring all stakeholders together for one full day to critically examine how their roles interconnect, the clarity is remarkable. We’ve seen even the most efficient teams benefit. And by the end, everyone has a new appreciation for sticky notes and our whiteboard is filled with sound ideas, big and small. 

The litmus test for us is always this: at the end of the day, does everyone see a clear, achievable path forward? From the clear immediate wins to the more time-intensive improvements, a shared vision for a more efficient process will result. That’s the point of process mapping. Read on…  

Grabbed my briefcase, checked the full-length mirror. Yup, got my badge. Opened the hotel room door dashing to get to the AIRC conference networking breakfast buffet. Eyeroll and back into the room. Forgot to brush my teeth. 

Conferencing tip for my colleagues: If, in your morning rush, you forget to brush your teeth, remove your conference badge and lanyard before you brush. The physics of the lanyard and badge during the lean over sink, rinse and spit process…well, you can imagine. 

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March, ASU+GSV in April, and NAFSA in May. We'll be presenting our latest findings with colleagues at AIEA and NAFSA. Let us know  if you want to connect at either of those two events. 

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.

The AIRC 2024 Conference produced exactly what it was supposed to produce at the end of a pretty arduous year. It’s all about the people in the room, their knowledge and expertise, and the culture of the gathering. AIRC achieves all of the right elements, repeatedly. The information we gathered will help us perform better in 2025 and beyond. 

The Intead team showed up in force. We presented our daylong Global Marketing Workshop as well as conference sessions focused on budgeting for international student recruitment and an approach to streamlining admissions processes to improve the overall intake. All very practical stuff.  

Institutions so often fail to calculate the full cost of IEM, leaving their international recruitment teams to a minimalist (at best) budget. An increasingly important consideration as demand for an international education grows in the coming years: How will changing student purchasing power influence your messaging? Can you reduce students’ total cost for a degree? 

Read on to download our AIRC presentations.  

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…  

Shout out to Q4 for giving us all something to think about. Cue the Chinese expression: "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos." (宁享平安犬生，莫为乱世中人). Yup, got it! Right now, we are those humans, perhaps wishing we were dogs.  

Between the US presidential election and IIE Open Doors data, many of us are recalibrating our approach to 2025. Fortunately, we’ve worked through anti-immigration policies and lackluster international student enrollment numbers before. We’ll weather this. But there is work ahead for all of us. 

So, if you’ve missed a few of our Recruiting Intelligence articles, we understand. This post will catch you right up. 

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.

Below, get our latest insights on topics that matter to you, including:  

• Digital Marketing: The impact of AI on your SEO; Our social algorithms cheat sheet
• Marketing Strategy: 5 Student recruitment markets worth considering; How to find and use your student career outcome data to recruit; Why personas get a bad rap
• Industry Reports: CHLOE 9: Strategy Shift -- Institutions Respond to Sustained Online Demand; Trump v Harris -- Student Sentiment Analysis 
• Conference Highlights: Intead’s notes and slides from AMA Higher Ed, PIE Live Boston, NAFSA XI 

Read on… 

This we know: this is a time to prepare, as in, think 5 years out. #PIELIVE24 in Boston brought industry leaders together as we all move toward the next Trump presidency. Challenging travel and visa regulations will be headed our way. Join us in developing the plans that focus on the international students we support and the progress we need for everyone in this field.

We have work to do.  

As one fearless leader, Fanta Aw, said in a recent NAFSA town hall, “We’re not allowed to be tired!” The Intead team found this rallying cry inspiring. Of course, we are tired. It has been a long year. Nevertheless, we all need to pick ourselves up, face forward, and use all the power we can muster to support the changes we know are worth it. 

Kicking off the PIE event in Boston, Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, pointed to the need to build on our collective strength to find a clear, unified voice. She asked us to use that voice to bolster our individual work and to serve as the foundational support our allies in Congress need from us so that they can ensure the US remains a strong, safe, desirable destination for international students. 

If you are looking for enrollment growth in the current environment, you'll find a Pro Tip at the end of this post you really don't want to miss!

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  

• AIEA in March and NAFSA in May, we'll be presenting our latest findings at both. Let us know  if you want to connect at either of those two events. 

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.

PIE Live Boston wasn’t all politics and regulatory hurdles, though. The rising potential of Africa as a student source market, building trust on campus, university partnerships, and the value of US degrees were all hot topics. Intead’s presentations focused on how to read the latest IIE Open Doors data and our Connecting Dots research about career outcomes for international students. If you’ve not downloaded that yet, find it HERE.

I was honored to share the main stage to foster discussion around the hot-off-the-press IIE student mobility numbers with esteemed colleagues Clare Overmann, CEO of AIEA; John Sherman, CEO of The Evaluation Company; and Maureen Manning, senior vice president of strategy and insights for The PIE, US, who did a truly deft job moderating the discussion. 

A clear-eyed look at the new Open Doors data at PIE Live ‘24.

A key insight from that presentation: as the number of students desiring an international education grows globally, and given the fact that a growing number of them will have less money to spend on that education (see discussion below), lesser expensive degree options are going to attract more students.  

Your To Do: make a strategic decision about whether you want to: 

• Offer less expensive options (think certificates, scholarships, accepting more credits from prior activities to reduce time (and cost) to completed degree, among other options) OR  
• Develop stronger value propositions that make your institution stand out as worth the higher cost.  

Changing global dynamics have pushed the Intead team to focus our recent research on unearthing real data on international student career outcomes. We will be doing more research on the topic in the months ahead. Reach out if you’d like to be a part of it. We’ll also be presenting on this topic at AIEA and at NAFSA in 2025. We hope you’ll join us at those sessions and participate in the discussion.  

At PIE LIVE Boston we were joined by Kerry Salerno, vice president of marketing and communications at Babson College, and Andrew Chen, CEO of F1 Hire,for another presentation oncareer pathways available to international graduates. Standing room only for that session as institutions are clearly getting the message about arming prospective students with useful career outcome data.  

In total, the event brought together 330 colleagues from 25 countries. Since many of you (our faithful readers) were not there, we thought we would bring a bit of the conference to you. Read on to access Intead slides from our sessions on the new Open Doors data as well as career outcomes for F1 students.