Student recruitment is the process of finding and getting the best-qualified students to enroll and finish their education in a specific educational institution.
For many higher education institutions (HEIs), student recruitment is a crucial process that they have to initiate for their institution’s sustainability and success. It has also created an environment where competition is high.
HEIs usually allot most of their resources for domestic recruitment. However, the need to invest in international student recruitment strategies has also become important. If institutions are able to grow and maintain a culturally diverse student population, it can help build their general funding base.
For many HEIs, student recruitment is a priority included in their strategic planning and even budgeting. In fact, without student recruitment, there’s a possibility of a shrinking student population that may negatively affect an institution’s quality and reputation, resulting in a loss of income and funding leading to eventual closure.
This kind of situation has been apparent even before the COVID-19 pandemic started. In the United States for example, some institutions, despite having been around for a long time, were forced to close after failing to attract enough students, affecting their operations to serve other students.
Those possibilities are just some of the reasons why it is important to invest in student recruitment and stay ahead of trends in the market, and to understand students’ interests and behavior.
Current Student Recruitment Strategies
In the past, traditional ways of recruiting students were more basic and relied mostly on human effort and marketing. These strategies include face-to-face methods such as on-campus events, tours, and fairs, advertising through prints, mass sending of materials through email, school visits, and so on.
However, because of the increasing competition between schools in recruiting the best students, and also because of the changing behavior and interests of students, many HEIs have begun using digital recruitment strategies to complement their traditional methods.
Studies have shown that young adults report being online almost constantly daily, and they use various social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Teenagers have also been found to spend an average of 9 hours online every day.
These current trends have pushed many HEIs to expand their student recruitment reach through various social media platforms aside from their official websites.
Why Focus on International Students?
According to a report from Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL), a higher education consulting company, the average cost of recruiting a single undergraduate domestic student in 2020 in the United States cost $470 in public institutions and $2,114 in private institutions.
Meanwhile, for international students, the cost is around $125 for public schools and $585 for private schools.
As seen in the numbers above, HEIs allocate less to the recruitment of international students.
However, there are many reasons why HEIs should focus more on their international student recruitment plans and it goes beyond the financial benefits that they get. These benefits include the following:
- Boosts an institutions excellence due to diversity in its student population
- Helps in creating a global culture in HEIs
- The revenue HEIs get from international students are higher because they pay the full cost of tuition fees
- International students’ tuition fees help subsidize a lot of research initiatives in HEIs
- More international students help fulfill the research demands of HEIs
- International alumni become their host country’s own ambassadors, increasing their respective institutions’ prestige and reputation abroad
- In a macro situation, international students contribute billions of dollars to their host country’s economy and help in supporting thousands of jobs.
Future-Proofing Higher Education for International Students
The COVID-19 pandemic across the world has affected different industries and sectors, including higher education. As a result, international student recruitment has become more difficult than before.
News of HEIs being forced to close because of low enrollment rates and delays in the return of international students have become usual. For HEIs whose student population largely consists of international students, this has become a troubling scenario.
The negative effects of the pandemic have forced HEIs to delay exams, graduations, cancel international study programs, and switch to a remote type of learning.
These effects have also made it apparent how important it is to future-proof international student recruitment plans. This way, HEIs will be able to adapt to the changing environment and mitigate challenges that they may face down the line.
To help HEIs and other stakeholders involved in the recruitment of international students, here are some ways to future-proof international student recruitment strategies.
Get to Know and Understand Your Target Audience
In all marketing strategies, it is important to know and understand your target audience to make it easier to focus your efforts and make your marketing activities more cost-effective.
This enables HEIs to create a better marketing strategy before they delve into methods of recruitment through digital advertising, increasing their online presence, and student engagement.
To do this, it would help to invest in market research through surveys, reviewing international student feedback, creating a detailed student persona, identifying your demographics, and researching your target market’s behavior.
Optimize Your Website for Online Student Recruitment
Another way to future-proof your international student recruitment strategy is by optimizing your website. Optimized websites are usually the ones search engines such as Google and Yahoo display on the first page of search results. This is a big deal since first-page websites are usually the ones that capture 71 percent of search traffic clicks in Google.
Website optimization makes it possible for an HEI’s target audience to easily find it when they do their college or university search online. It can even make international students know about the study programs of an institution they were previously not familiar with, urging them to learn more about the institution.
Moreover, it has become crucial in democratizing online student recruitment as search engines do not necessarily look at a school’s name and prestige when showing these to people who search for them.
Enhance Your Presence Online
Many young people — the usual target audience of HEI recruitment efforts — are online most of the time. The internet in general and social media in particular are here to stay.
So, instead of lamenting the loss of physical events traditionally held for purposes of student recruitment, why not go where the students are and create a bigger presence online? This includes doing the following:
- Launching more virtual events for international students
- Being more active on different social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Increasing the digital marketing budget for better online promotion
Collect and Understand Your Data
Collecting and understanding data about your online presence gives you insights that will allow you to plan how to recruit international students. Data-driven insights help you make sound decisions to increase your online engagement and hit your recruitment targets.
Website analytics provide you with data on who visits your website or engages with your social media posts. Having this information allows you to further optimize your site and tailor your content according to what your target audience is interested in.
Provide Training and Assistance to Your Staff
Challenges in international student recruitment are always there and evolving. Thus, it is important that HEIs, especially staff involved in student recruitment, are prepared.
This can be done by providing continuous training, seminars, workshops, and other professional development opportunities for staff and partner recruitment agents. Undergoing training equips staff with skills they need to successfully address issues if and when these arise.
How Technology Reimagines the International Experience
Technology has more than simply changed education institutions, learning processes, and international student recruitment strategies. It has revolutionized them.
On the part of HEIs, reaching their target international students even in areas where they don’t have a physical presence has become easier and cost effective.
On the part of prospective students, information about colleges and universities has become more accessible. Many HEIs have an applicant portal, making the application procedure easier especially for international students.
Other institutions, particularly those with a limited marketing budget, have also partnered up with student recruitment service providers that use technology to promote program offerings internationally on their behalf.
Online platforms such as MSM Unify provide prospective international students with the tools to choose the right college or university and find out more about a particular study area. These sites also provide information about standardized exams, student permit application procedures, accommodations, loans, and more.
These online portals are able to reach students on a global scale, bringing together international learners and giving them value-added services tailored to their needs.
Adapting Your International Student Recruitment Strategy by Region
In the past, the top study destinations for most international students in Asia mostly included countries in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. However, because of the increasing number of flourishing economies, modern societies, and better higher education in Asia, the competition to become a top study destination has intensified.
In fact, HEIs in countries like China, Japan, Malaysia, and the UAE are all starting to catch up to their western competitors.
Although there is currently a trend on the increasing number of international students choosing Asian HEIs, adapting strategies by region still applies to everyone.
Some international student recruitment strategies you can adapt in other regions include the following:
- Translating marketing materials
- Leveraging the HEI’s relationships with its alumni organizations overseas
- Adjusting payment preferences to what the locals use, and
- Improving relationships with local agents
We hope this gives you a clearer idea on how to recruit international students to achieve a more diverse student population. What are the other student recruitment challenges you’d like to address? Let us know!
Read more:
