1. Justin Kader – IELR PIM 72
International Student Liaison Program: A Student-Centric Approach
to International Student Retention
May 2015
When it comes to international student enrollment management, institutions often
focus primarily on recruitment, with little attention paid to retention. Moreover, a 2014
NAFSA study identified a national trend of disconnect between institutions’ identified
reasons for retention challenges and students’ identified reasons. In light of this context,
I have developed an international student liaison program that serves as a student-centric
tool to help support international students in ways that promote cultural competence and,
ultimately, improve international student retention.
I designed the program with Wartburg College in mind as the host institution. As
a smaller institution, it could more readily provide individual student attention, and its
recent implementation of new cultural competence initiatives makes it a ripe environment
for the international student liaison program. Program design was influenced by the
results of a survey of former Wartburg College international students. In the survey, they
were asked to reflect on their experiences, identify challenges and areas of weak
institutional support, identify relationships between the level of their satisfaction and their
decision about enrollment, and identify how a fully-developed international student
liaison program could have been helpful addressing their needs. Ultimately, the results
indicate a demand for a structured program with high levels of engagement between
extensively trained liaisons and first-year international students.