The presentation covers lessons that I learned as a new international manager. International recruitment requires adjustments and organizational adaptability.

1. Lessons Learned
Dr. Aparna Vashisht-Rota
These are the lessons and insights I learnt at an old role. As new enrollment managers step into
international recruitment, I thought I would share my experiences that may help another professional.
The literature quoted in this presentation is from 2013-14 but it is still relevant today.
Kindly attribute this to August Network if you share it with others by emailing us to inform us where
you are publishing the paper.
Attribution Requested:
• Dr. Aparna Vashisht-Rota, CEO, August Network, authored this presentation to aid other new
international recruiters worldwide. August Network is at the intersection of program innovation,
technology, and jobs. Dr. Rota can be reached at avrota@augustnetwork.com.
What we seek:
– In the U.S., we are looking for Ph.D. programs and STEM MS programs that will consider work study
programs. We work on an exclusive basis and seek regional offices in India.
– We are looking to partner with universities in Australia, Canada, China, and Europe.
– Hire us to grow your international presence.

2. • Recap: Indian market opened in Fall 2013. There is another
report for China and other countries being developed.
• Report & Main Lessons
• Retention Strategy
• Services needed
Overview
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

3. Fall 2013 to Fall 2014 Comparison
Most of our Spring 2015 students are from India.
Budget vs. Actuals
Budget Actual Over Over %
Fall 2013 35 64 29 83%
Spring 2014 14 32 18 129%
Fall 2014 44 90 46 105%
Spring 2015 15 53 36 250%
Total 108 237 129 119%
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

4. BSBA Country of Origin Fall 2013/2014
2014 Count of Resident Country
BAN 1
BRA 1
CHI 14
FRA 5
GER 7
IND 4
QAT 1
TAI 1
USA 3
Grand Total 37
2013 Count of Resident Country
CHI 21
FRA 2
GER 4
RUS 1
UAE 1
USA 1
Grand Total 30
CHI 70%
FRA 7%
GER 13%
RUS 3%
UAE 3%USA 3% BAN 3%BRA 3%
CHI 38%
FRA 14%
GER 19%
IND 11%
QAT 3%
TAI 3%
USA 8%
Fall 2013/14— ∞ Indian Student growth.

5. MBA Country of Origin: Fall 2013/2014
2013 Count of Resident Country
BHR 1
CHI 11
GER 5
IND 2
IRA 1
MAL 1
QAT 1
SK 1
USA 6
Grand Total 29
2014 Count of Resident Country
CHI 16
FRA 8
GER 5
IND 7
IRA 1
NOR 1
SA 1
USA 4
Grand Total 43
BHR 3%
CHI 38%
GER 17%
IND 7%
IRA 3%
MAL 3%
QAT 3%
SK 3%
USA 21%
CHI 37%
FRA 19%
GER 12%
IND 16%
IRA 2%
NOR 2%
SA 2%USA 9%
Fall 2013/14—250% Indian Student growth.

6. ASM and INTR Admissions Stats
Country of Origin (ASM & INTR) Spring 2015

7. International Population Increase on campus
• There are greater number of Indian students every semester since Fall 2013.
• Indian student:
• Good students
• No English issues
• ROI savvy and cash conscious.
• Like a sense of community—they leave their community behind to come here.
• Tech savvy
• Smart and have a network in the US (family, friends, etc.)
• Tend to follow the group.
• Chinese Students:
• ESL challenges
• Good students, study well.
• Our China population has been flat despite numerous BD efforts.
• Active on campus, help other international students as well.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

8. Fall 2013: Issues
• Indian student Retention Issues
• Fall 2013: We got 2 applications from XXX Agent, M. Sharma and A.
Agarwal
M. Sharma had a poor experience with onboarding.
He was 17. He arrived here early and had no one on campus housing. He was
lonely and homesick and wanted to go visit family in LA. He also mentioned
Transfer and our DSO threatened to call the police on him. The kid got really
scared, called his parents and bought a ticket back home. The agent heard about
this story and helped the other student transferred too.
Both M and agent are wealthy and connected.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

9. Mayank Sharma
• M Sharma case continued as Mr. XXX from that agency was in
San Diego for NAFSA and we invited him to meet us. He repeated the story told
by M and, we of course, denied it. I also had built a great relationship
with him and he said that he doesn’t feel comfortable sending more students
to us.
• XXX was the first guy who sent us applications and we no longer get any apps
from him. He said that he’d do it once we have some other Indian students there.
Otherwise, it is too risky for his reputation.
• We no longer get any applications from XXX.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

10. Case Study: Ameena Bedina*--Spring 2015
• AB arrived here around 2 p.m. She was supposed to get picked up from
the airport and we didn’t pick her up. Spring 2014, we had a similar issue with a
Chinese student whom we promised to pick up and didn’t. The agent called
Admissions and we went and picked up the student. When raised to the VPSS, it was
said that airport pickup is a courtesy and if we missed one student, it is a non issue.
• Ameena wanted to stay on campus for a week to see her options but our housing
wanted her to sign a contract. Ameena didn’t want that and so refused. Ameena asked
housing if she could transfer to the LA campus as she has relatives there and she
could stay there. Housing flagged Ameena to the DSO* and he told her that if
she transfers, he will call immigration and offered to call them right there.
• Ameena got really scared and called her parents, who called a local temple here. Her
father is the president of temples in India. We offered to let her make phone calls and
call a cab to the temple. Admissions drove her to the temple and stayed with her till
she met the community. She is now settled in an apartment with other classmates.
Student Services is doing the best they can
with the resources and institutional policies.

11. Ameena Bedina
• Ameena had a bad experience. She doesn’t want to transfer, she wanted to
go to A university's LA campus. She felt like she was being forced into a
contract and didn’t like that.
• Recommendations and Lessons learnt:
• Provide airport pickups or at least help with them. Shuttles, taxi
numbers, etc.
• Provide short term housing to international students so they can settle
in. This should be for a week and on an availability basis.
• Again, our value is lower than the price and the service provided
doesn’t match the tuition.
• Now admissions and faculty have to over deliver in their areas so we
can move her into the positive zone.

12. Ameena Bedina
• Ameena’s story was heard by A. Mehta, another agent or ours as well as the
Agent that sent us the student to begin with.
They heard that A University didn’t take care of the student and she had to go to
a temple to get help.

13. 2014 Report: India Specific
• We had a huge flow of students from agent X.
• We trained their staff in their 5 local offices in September 2013. X also AIRC
approved agent.
• Key Segments that can be captured from experience
• Transfer Group: Wanted to transfer no matter what.
• Unhappy: Unhappy with food, transportation, lack of housing options,
service style, lack of cultural knowledge, and service.
• Early Adopters: They stayed. We need more of these and more from the
unhappy to move into the early adopters.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

14. Early Adopters: We need to spend all of our time on nurturing these folks so
they help us get a critical mass. We need to get more unhappy people into
the early adopter category.
“Network effects become significant after a certain subscription percentage
has been achieved, called critical mass. At the critical mass point, the
value obtained from the good or service is greater than or equal to the
price paid for the good or service.”
• Right now, our price exceeds our value and we need to reverse this trend.
Creating a Network Effect
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

15. • Admissions and agents need to do a better job or screening for transfer
students. If students intend to transfer, we must keep them away from our
early adopters. This is imperative and must be implemented immediately.
• Reduce load on US based admissions and outsource this function.
• Collect semester fees ahead of time via agents.
• Agent agreements are set up in 2 parts. Half is paid in 1 semester and the
other in the 2nd. Therefore, even though we lost students, they paid us one
semester fees. We don’t owe any agent fees for the semester they don’t
stay.
• Use current early adopters to help new students assimilate. Provide
examples of success stories with model students that get on campus work.
Admissions Recommendations
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

16. • Transfer Group: Want to transfer no matter what.
• Unhappy: Unhappy with food, transportation, lack of housing
options, service style, lack of cultural knowledge, and service.
• Early Adopters: They stayed. We need more of these and
more from the unhappy to move into the early adopters.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University
International Retention Strategy: India

17. Transfer-Outs
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

18. • Educate them on the US Education System
• Several of them are transferring to Southern States University, an ACICS accredited
university.
• Our value is not apparent and therefore, we must talk about our WASC accreditation and
what that means as opposed to a nationally accredited university, implications of credits
transfers. We are in a unique opportunity to educate this group.
• University A is a hidden gem. It is not immediately apparent that it is a good school.
Therefore, they have buyer’s remorse when they get here because they hear stories
and have poor experience which validates the stories.
Transfer Group
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

19. Unhappy Group
Create a welcoming, supportive, and friendly experience.
• Help get over culture shock in key moments
• Food
• Housing
• Onboarding
• Sense of Community
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

20. Culture Shock
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

21. Food
• Vegetarian food is a must. Food cooked where beef is cooked is not
acceptable.
• Solutions: hire an Indian cook to come cook on campus. Indian food is cheap
—it is all vegetables, offer food brought in from a service, offer free Indian
groceries so they can cook on campus within reason.
• Food is comfort, familiarity, and shows that we care. Indians value that. Can
you imagine these kids calling home and saying, “Mummy, I am eating roti,
dal.” This is huge. Even if it only happens a few times.
• Sodexo offered some vegetarian options but they were not satisfactory. 3
people out of 11 from Fall 2014 left due to food.
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

22. To create an experience of: “It is fun to be on campus housing!”
• Short term housing: This is a must! We must let these students come and
stay on campus as long as possible and charge a higher rate for per day.
• Ensure that they stay through the start of classes and realize how easy it is
to go to class.
• Offer off campus housing options through vendors or through the
community. See attached Room Rental Form.
• Make housing attractive with following incentives that cover emotional
needs, entertainment, and benefits. More housing improvement ideas in
later slides.
• At this moment, our price exceeds our value in housing.
Housing
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

23. • This needs to be very smooth. We must offer airport pickups. The person
picking up must be enabled to offer a phone to call home and talk to parents.
• Current airport pick ups for on campus housing folks only. Recommended
that we help with hotels within a 2 mile radius so that it is easy for students to
stay close by. Some students are currently near SeaWorld.
• Provide a brochure with all the activities coming up and what is ahead of
them to mitigate home sickness and give them a sense of purpose.
• Engage them in activities and faculty lunches and events to keep them
engaged.
• Reinforce that they made a good choice in A University.
Onboarding
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

24. • Peer networks and student ambassadors to help them. These are key in
retention.
• Academic advising and continual advising not just registration.
• Engage them in activities a lot. For the first 2 weeks, they must be kept fairly
busy.
• Check ups—a quick note to see how they are and if they need anything. If so,
do it as an exception and state that it is one but help them. Talk to parents
with the kids and let them know they are ok.
• Share pictures of this on Facebook page or other places with happy faces.
• Beaches, movies, food, grocery shopping, bank.
• Talk about living in the US.
• Educate them on culture shock and what they are experiencing.
• Talk about how many of them are still converting dollars into rupees.
• How to behave, cultural norms, how to ask for help, etc.
Sense of Community
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

25. • India is a huge market for us and is in the incubation phase. If we are able to
build a critical mass of these students, we will find ourselves growing in leaps
and bounds as the Indian grapevine is incredibly strong.
• We are attracting the right population. Most of them come from wealthy
families and are somewhat spoilt. They are also the right academic profile in
that they are not the top tier student. They are seeking a good experience.
• Admissions needs to do a better job to screen applicants.
• A decision must be made at the senior level to support these students.
• Our system is rejecting these students and their needs as they don’t fit our
student model.
Analysis
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University

26. “In conclusion, as universities plan recruiting and enrollment
management strategies, they must first identify what is
important to students to attract them, then deliver a quality
education to retain them.
However, it should also be remembered that student
recruitment and retention activities are interrelated. The most
effective and efficient means of recruiting students is through
word-of-mouth promotion which comes from current satisfied
students.” (Elliott & Healy, 2001).
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University
Conclusion

27. • The presentation has been developed after studying the following references:
• http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/college_retention.pdf
• Talks about the importance of non academic factors and strong
orientation programs.
• http://www.hanoverresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/
Retention-Strategies-for-International-Students-Hanover-
Research.pdf
• Talks about various strategies used by other universities to retain
international students.
• http://monitor.icef.com/2014/03/new-studies-highlight-the-
importance-of-leadership-and-student-data-in-managing-student-
retention/
• Talks about the need for senior leadership to address international
student concerns.
• http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/09321.pdf
References
“The best recruitment strategy is a good retention strategy.”
David Di Maria Kent State University