Internationalization - Starting at Square One
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This presentation is from the #AACRAO22 Conference in Portland, OR. Steve McKellips from UNLV and I walk through the journey that this R1 institution began last May 2021 to internationalize its campus in a strategic way.
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Internationalization - Starting at Square One
- 1. Starting at Square One: Our Internationalization Journey from Principle to Practice
- 2. 30 Years of International Enrollment Perspective • 1990s to ~2005 • “Seemingly” No Fiscal Difference between International and Non- Resident Tuition in terms of Revenue • International Recruitment Poses Practical Challenges • NACAC Rules Forbid Agent Partnerships • ~2005 to ~2015 • Changing Fiscal Realities: Domestic Headcounts Stall While Costs Grow • We Need to Find More Revenue • NACAC Rules Recommend Change (2011); Rules Change (2013) • ~2015 to Present • Facing REAL Domestic Student Decline Possibilities • International Enrollment Seen as A Major Contributor to Offset Revenue • We Need it. And, We Need it - NOW!
- 3. Global Student Mobility Growth Unstoppable https://www.nacacnet.org/globalassets/documents/knowledge-center/international/agent-series-_part-1-cr.pdf
- 6. What Happened at UNLV? • Long History of Not Prioritizing International Enrollment • Interest in growing student headcount and revenue change the narrative in 2019 • Work with a 3rd Party to Expand International Enrollment • All the Way to the End – About to Sign Contracts (Jan. 2020) • Pandemic • Academic Deans Wanted to Explore the Revenue Options • Built New, Comprehensive University Strategy for UNLV • International Recruitment and Strategic Partnerships Office (IRSP) • Needed to Find an International Student Consultant to Show the Way
- 7. Insert: International Enrollment Consultant • Developing a Plan to Internationalize the University • The 6-Ps of Strategic International Enrollment Management (SIEM) • Perspective • Planning • Platforms • Partnerships • Personalization • Peers • Developing a Plan to Develop the Plan • Applying the perspective to the campus • Knowing the climate, pitfalls, advocates, and process • Inventory of assets
- 8. SIEM P1: Perspective • Institutional Commitment • Global Awareness • Application of Internal and External Perspective to Messages • What does this mean? • Perspective at UNLV.
- 9. SIEM P2: Planning • Multi-Year Strategy • Multi-Level Approach • Country-Level Planning • Semi-Annual Review Process • What does this mean? • Planning at UNLV.
- 10. SIEM P3: Platforms • Live where your Audiences Live • Take a Digital-First Approach • Utilize Multi-Channel Communication • What does this mean? • Platforms at UNLV.
- 11. SIEM P4: Partnerships • Who Exists Already who can Help? • EducationUSA, Dept of Commerce • Agencies, Counselor Networks • Overseas university partners • Consortia, Service partners • On-Campus Allies • What does this mean? • Partnerships at UNLV.
- 12. SIEM P5: Personalization • Ask what You Want? • Use Humor and Personality • Provide Multi-Lingual Content/Resources • Develop Key Student Personae • Leverage Storytelling • What does this mean? • Personalization at UNLV.
- 13. SIEM P6: Peers • Develop a Team of Students, Alumni, Parents, and Faculty • Host Country-Specific Chats and Interactions • Involve Peers at ALL POINTS in Recruitment • AMA Chats • Admitted Student Events • Parent-to-Parent Chats • Pre-Departure Orientations • Don’t Go Through This Alone; Share the Narrative • What does this mean? • Peers at UNLV.
- 14. Thank You and Questions • Thank You for the Opportunity to Share our Story • Questions: • Steve McKellips, Associate Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services (steve.mckellips@unlv.edu) • Marty Bennett, International Enrollment Consultant, SMIE Consulting, LLC (marty.bennett@unlv.edu) • IRSP Email for future inquiries: irsp@unlv.edu
- 15. QR codes for handouts • 6 Ps of SIEM handout • NACAC Agents Trends
Editor's Notes
- 1990s to ~ 2005 Seemingly No Fiscal Difference between International Revenue = Non-Resident Revenue Extra Expenses to Generate Same Revenue (Lose Money in the End) International Recruitment Poses Practical Challenges Big World – Where to start, How to Start? No ACT/SAT Prospect Pool for International Applications Nobody in Recruitment has Done it Before Agents are Bad – NACAC Prohibited their Use Easier Not to Start – No Way to Predict Success (Need 3-5 Years in Market to See) ~2005 to ~2015 Changing Fiscal Realities Rising College Expenses Pressures on Student Growth Expectations Impending Cliff and Headcount Drops Begin to Appear We Need to Find More Revenue Agents are Good - NACAC Overturned it’s Policy on International Agents (handout) ~2015 to Present Facing REAL Domestic Student Decline Possibilities Drops in Entry, Retention, and Persistence International Enrollment Can Offset Revenue We Need it NOW! Not Every Campus Hits this Moment at the Same Time BUT, We All Seem to Hit it, Eventually
- Long History of Not Prioritizing International Enrollment California is Closer Passive Recruitment – Those who want us, Find us, Worked So Far Interest in growing student headcount and revenue change the narrative in 2019 Work with a 3rd Party to Expand International Enrollment Roughly $1.5M-$2M up front to size-up, expand our resources Sudden staffing increases, Expansions planned for Immediate Growth Promise of hundreds to thousands of students in return Shared Revenue Model from Enrollment All the Way to the End – About to Sign Contracts (Jan. 2020) Pandemic Academic Deans Still Wanted to Explore the Revenue Options Started Looking into Solutions on Their Own Built New, Comprehensive University Strategy IRSP Unit Developed within ESS Need to Find a Consultant to Help Us Figure out What to Do
- Perspective: Colleges get tunnel vision when diving into internationalization, e.g. We’ve gotten a budget to recruit, but… Where do we travel to get the most students? Do we have broad support to internationalize the college? We have a strategic plan, but do we see international students even referenced within the document? We have core marketing messages for domestic audiences, but do those messages resonate the same way with international students and parents? UNLV Some areas of the campus really wanted the benefits ($$) for the increased enrollment from international students. Started to schedule meetings with vendors on their own. Group on campus convened to get hands around international enrollment component Built out a new strategy that would service the entire campus and govern a standard protocol that the university could latch onto and support without winners/losers relative to money, space, capacity, and even marketing impact. Started the International Recruitment and Strategic Partnerships (IRSP) unit in ESS to anchor project. ESS has the admissions offices, the transfer credit articulation components, the records and accreditation background and knowledge, AACRAO EDGE services, and this AACROA team of experts to help Keeping it in ESS was crucial to its ethical, defensible, and consistent deployment for sustainability.
- Planning: If you’ve never done something well (or at all) before, do you expect immediate results in year 1 with limited effort? Any sound approach to developing an international plan must be strategic and must be long-term. If recognition of this fact up the chain is not clear, revert back to #1 – Perspective. Planning must be driven by data-informed decision making with managing expectations up the chain made clear from the outset. Achieving results through one designated method is dangerous (“all eggs/one basket”) and short-sighted. Spreading institution too thin, too fast with too many approaches is also dangerous and short-sighted. Threatens college by being susceptible to inconsistency, burn-out, and dissatisfaction from all parties (students, institutional employees, and international partners). UNLV We had to take a moment to see where the road would lead from an IRSP perspective; how many roads were there; how many forks in each road – really? More than just student enrollment Faculty partnerships and academic program enhancements or creation; research opportunities for faculty and students; revenue possibilities connected to departments and research threads Study abroad chances for students (as well as faculty for sabbaticals and research efforts as well as international conferences and paper presentations) Increased connections for jobs, solutions, strategies, and global impacts Required a Strategic Plan that outlined the effort in totality Could not focus only on student enrollments – hollow, selfish, and opportunistic If we don’t want international students, they’ll feel it – has to be real, authentic. Needed an anchor for why we would do this now – what does it matter, why bother? For UNLV it was diversity and inclusion: if that wasn’t window dressing, we have no choice Should have been done long ago Needed to show that this was a campus initiative, would take all of us in some way to make it work. Need to identify each objective sufficiently to see how each was entirely different. Helping everyone see how they benefit from internationalization was an important characterization of the need for internationalization in the first place. Not everyone wants more students, but the chances to get faculty more opportunities has value. Seeing how international students will benefit from being here is important, but what our domestic students will get out of having more international students and international presence on the campus is immeasurable, but reemphasizes the importance of our diversity mantra.
- Platforms: One of the central tenets of marketing is identifying the right channels where your intended audience spends its time. Focusing on development of a robust online presence is an absolute must to attract overseas students Far more than having a laser-focus on your institutional website. Though that is the first important piece of the puzzle. Easy to understand language and a clear process outlined on your site Attention must be paid where prospective audiences spend their time. Social media sites, college search sites, live virtual events, and other online portals UNLV Immediate need was to start using images, stories, and posts from/about international students. Need to immediately look at the user experience of international students as they move through our current protocols. They work – but do they work well? What about terminology? Does the domestic application (or the RFI for that matter) work well for international students? How does this information handle international data (addresses, phone numbers, CRM communications)? Does the communication plan understand that the reader is international? Can they “come visit” like all the other prospects? Can they “come to an open house” like all the other prospects? Can they even “call to talk with one of our great admission counselors?” Forced realization – what if it doesn’t? Need to face the reality of if can’t all be changed at the same time. Some things work better than others – but a closer look needs to follow on everything. Set a plan for when/how to look at everything. Document the things that need attention, who needs to do it, and how. Know that the international calendars are very different from domestic calendars. May need to recognize that you are two cycles away from getting things the way you want them. This is where “how to eat the elephant” becomes an issue. One bite at a time.
- Partnerships: How institutions recruit international students has changed dramatically in the last twenty years, and especially during the pandemic. Institutions cannot do it by themselves, even if they wanted to. Too slow, too expensive, too vulnerable to international variables, and too much staff turnover (on both sides of the equations) to be “really” successful. Let’s face it – nobody is getting into the international enrollment business to enroll 5 students. Choosing the right partners provides colleges the best opportunities for success. There are a variety of sources for partners who can help: Agents (the one most people think of) for sure, but there are more: On-campus staff and faculty have international contacts. The United States Government houses multiple offices that can help gather interested populations to help support international education efforts. Professional organizations impact populations of supports both nationally, and internationally. Institutional partners from other campuses – we might call them competitors. Students don’t search internationally the same way they do domestically. Not competitors for the same students. Selection of partners, especially with agents, requires having a rubric against which you can determine suitability for your institution. What do you want from a partner? What can you tolerate from a partner? Can you imagine how your internal, campus procedures do NOT match the way the world works in this space? You may have to remove substantial presumptive bias to continue. i.e. agent fees that students pay to connect with your institution. You may not think it is necessary, so you may not want to work with agents because of that bias. Have to eliminate your bias to work with the process – whole world works differently, and YOU ARE JOINING IT – not the other way. UNLV We knew the appetite was there to work with agents, but we didn’t know if everyone who thought about using agents fully understood what that meant when they used one? Training and understanding has to happen to make sure everyone understands what these partners can provide – and what they cannot. Not all partners provide the same services; not all partners are genuinely unbiased Many agent partners only recommend those institutions who will pay them for the referrals. Teaching people how search engines, agent marketing, and agent aggregators work is important to keep assumptions down. Training and sharing the university story with these partners requires participation from the campus community as a whole. The more we all participate, the better the results for everyone. Informational videos, situational presentations, livestream messages, etc. Sharing the first-person accounts with those who represent the campus is important. These partners will help do our recruiting for us – not just introduce us and leave us be.
- Personalization: One-Size NO LONGER Fits-All These are the same digital native students we see all the time – they are just on the other side of the world. If you would personalize for domestic students, then you must for international ones, too. Students now want and expect colleges to offer a level of customization and dynamic, engaging content that recognizes who they are, where they’re from, what they want to study, and even what language they speak Investing in tools and messages across different platforms that takes your institution to the next level in terms of meeting student expectations and truly show your interest in them. Let’s face it – not everyone gets all their info from e-mail. Show them you see them, where they are (international), and you are not surprised to see they are interested – of course they are! Your institution is worth their interest! You need to convince the students that you are not bothered by the need to deliver exactly what they want to service their needs from the other side of the globe. Don’t ever wonder why someone from “their country” would be interested in your programs. They already decided to come to school in the US – they just want to know if it will be with you or not. Don’t make it easy for them to choose someone else. Nobody wants to be a bother, so don’t make them feel inconvenient. Showing students that you anticipated their needs as an international student provides comfort and care that soothes the anxiety of traveling to an unknown part of the world to work with completely unfamiliar faces. Be that familiar face, the one who knows they can help, and the one that knows what they need. That comfort is much more valuable than the materials you send. UNLV We knew how do personalize and customize, but we didn’t have our skills quite that nuanced. We had received international students forever, so we knew our processes worked. But did they? These students got our come visit the campus messages like everyone else, open houses, etc. These students completed our same application for admission. In Las Vegas, we have a series of questions that are directly related to scholarship availability So, if you are related to a former Showgirl on the Strip, or things like that – you’re eligible for a scholarship through a special program in Financial Aid. International Students used out application – you guessed it – they all got that question. Think about the conservative nature of some of these countries – and they had to walk through these questions. But that’s not all, questions about residency for tuition purposes, self-reported academics, etc. – all were driven by our domestic processes. These kinds of shortcomings were not catastrophic, but it shows you where we are having to focus for the future.
- Peers: We talked about having a variety of partners to reach international students (and their parents). In the end, what can often make the difference between a prospective intl student committing to your institution (or not) will be a connect they have been able to make with current students. Lesson one in admissions – your students are your best recruiters. Let them tell their stories and present multiple ways for future students to hear from them (via chats, emails, video, and more). Often, the difference between a prospective international student committing to your institution (or not) is as simple as whether or not they have been able to make a contact/connection with any/many current students. We have known for many years that students need to see themselves on campus before they can imagine it for themselves. Lesson one in admissions (international or domestic) – your students are your best (and worst) recruiters. Give them the platforms to tell their stories and present multiple ways for future students to hear from them (via chats, emails, video, and more). Share these stories widely and keep them fresh and frequent. Even the best compliments don’t always age well, but 5-year old ones never do. Let the ones having a great experience tell others about it. Not all the experiences that need to be shared are “recruitment” messages. Focusing on having students talk about the campus’s commitment to them as people, the care-ethic they are shown by campus (particularly around the pandemic), and the manner in which the university strives to make sure they feel a sense of belonging and an appreciation that they are here. Have them share how important they are to you! UNLV Real Talk – we are still in the stages of getting this information together. We have some of this on the domestic side – particularly through social media and the other segmentations of audiences that are ‘most common.’ We do not have these channels set up yet for international students, and we are committing to do that now. We can’t do everything all at once, and we’ve been working on this for barely a year. Somethings working through: GET THE INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION NUMBERS FOR FALL 2022 to DATE.