The most impactful international student recruitment strategies will ensure your institution engages prospective students with the right message at the right time. Good student recruitment strategies identify and react to changing trends, but they also naturally rely on strong foundations such as internal processes and administrative systems. Inefficient processes often lead to inefficient campaigns, so the challenge lies in both refining background processes before turning your attention to relevant campaigns and impactful messages.
In this two-part blog series, we look at what it takes to attract university students to your institution. Here we explore five ways in which to optimise your student recruitment to attract international students. If you want to explore five ways to attract domestic students, check out our next blog here.
International student recruitment strategies
The pandemic has affected international students immensely, with the closure of borders and restrictions on international travel, impacting the overall landscape of this market. For example, the reaction to remote delivery of courses has emphasised the value of in-country and on-campus study for international students. However, it has also highlighted an emerging market segment seeking remote home-country or hybrid-based experiences.
Improved international student recruitment strategies are important in 2022, as international students return to global study. Of the thousands of international prospective students surveyed by New Horizons research by IDP Connect, 71% of respondents were intending to start studying in 2022. International student recruitment is incredibly competitive, with a global market of competing institutions.
5 key considerations for international student recruitment strategies include:
- Emphasising employability and future careers
- Promoting the student experience
- Refining and improving the institution’s website
- Exploring new and emerging market segments
- Centralising campaign management
1. Emphasising employability and future careers
The impact on future careers has now become the number one consideration for international students when selecting a university. Tribal’s 2021 Global Student Experience report found that future career impact was top (96%) for international student respondents, beating even institution and qualification reputation (95%) as the main driving force behind their decision-making. International student recruitment strategies should take this into account when shaping international campaigns. The value that the university provides students for future careers and employability should be a major focus.
2. Promoting the student experience
The on-campus and remote student experience should be explored and celebrated in any international student recruitment strategy. It provides an opportunity to engage students across all cultures and exploring the host university’s culture and history, for example, can be a valuable focus for your campaigns.
Likewise, care should be taken to promote a positive student experience within remote delivery settings too. The use of international alumni case studies and student ambassadors are popular ways to promote student experience within campaigns. Tribal’s 2021 Global Student Experience report found a drop in satisfaction when making friends with students from other countries (from 87% in 2019 to 78% in 2020), so both social and professional connections should be promoted and encouraged.
3. Refining and improving the institution’s website
Tribal’s 2021 Global Student Experience report found that the university’s website (48%) was a key influencer in the decision-making process. This beats both an education agent’s influence (44%) and even family (36%). Therefore, any international student recruitment strategy should consider the university’s website and online experience, ensuring key messages and resources are easily accessible throughout.
You may also consider integrating a CRM that will help turn prospects into students. This should allow you to attract, track and recruit students effectively with helpful features - including email automation following the completion of online forms - helping to remove the time-consuming, manual element of your student recruitment strategy. It will also ensure that any student queries receive a prompt response, helping to maintain ongoing communication with your prospects.
4. Exploring new and emerging market segments
New Horizons research by IDP Connect found that the majority (81%) of international student respondents were seeking campus-based overseas study. However, an emerging segment of prospective students was considering either a hybrid approach or entirely home country-based tuition. Around 18% of respondents were considering a hybrid course delivery, split between their home countries and campus-based teaching overseas. 10% of respondents were considering either remote study or studying at a partner campus in their home country.
These emerging market segments broaden the potential international student base. There’s a need for universities to fine-tune international student recruitment strategies in line with these new delivery options.
5. Centralising campaign management
End-to-end international student recruitment campaigns can be incredibly complex, especially as they span multiple channels, countries, and settings. A student-focused CRM can help centralise these campaigns, providing better insight and measurement of recruitment activities. A student marketing and recruitment CRM tool will also allow you to combine the entire student lifecycle, from application and enrolment to graduation and beyond.
Complex international student journeys which may include partner campuses or remote delivery, can also be easily combined and tracked. This also allows international student recruitment strategies to be considered as part of a wider institution strategy.
How Tribal can help with your international student recruitment?
From initial engagement to recruitment, Tribal’s Student Marketing and Recruitment solution revolutionises the student recruitment process. You can relax knowing that this solution will support your student marketing and recruitment campaigns every step of the way. It allows you to easily monitor and measure return on investment, plan, and deliver campaigns, and gain in-depth insights across every platform.
Tribal Student Marketing & Recruitment solution delivers detailed audience segmentation and seamless automation to ensure your efforts are a success.
