This document discusses strategies for international student recruitment. It begins by analyzing international students at both the regional and individual level. Regionally, it examines factors like a country's economy, culture, English proficiency and educational structure that influence student decisions. Individual factors like academic preparedness and financial resources divide students into categories. The document then outlines steps to make, evaluate, and execute recruitment strategies, highlighting the importance of understanding yourself, students and competitors. Specific strategies proposed include using technology and partnerships, emphasizing student life, and evaluating trends to focus resources on converting the most promising prospects.

1. UNDERSTANDING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS,
MAKING RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES
Katia Hua

2. Dichotomy of International
Students

3. Dichotomy of Analyzing International
Students
• Region (macro level): due to economy of that country,
culture, educational structure, and language fluency level.
• Individual perspective (micro level): purposes of the
study. Offers information about the demographics and
aspirations of potential customers, and shows how these
characteristics are associated with certain patterns of
behavior.

4. Region
Economy
Place of Origin Rank in 2012
(Change of rank
from 2004)
Undergrad
Enrollment in
2012
% change from
2004
China 1 (↑6) 74516 828%
South Korea 2 (-) 38232 68%
Saudi Arabia 3 (↑28) 14344 609%
India 4 (-) 13059 -3%
Canada 5 (↓2) 12866 -8%
Vietnam 6 (↑22) 11244 405%
Top 6 Source Countries of International Undergraduate Students in the U.S., 2012 vs. 2004
Source: WES

5. Region
Culture
• Selection of majors: Asian students are driven by employment
rate instead of their interests. Asian students are less talkative.
They are less likely to choose majors require a lot of talk.
• Selection of college: In Asian countries, parents play a very
important role when students choose college. Asian students
care ranking very much. It is the first factor when they choose
college, more than faculty, tuition, location, and students’ life. If
they received admission from top ranked university without
financial aid, they would rather pay by themselves instead of
choosing lower ranked with financial aid. Parents consider
education as investment.
• Application process: Asian students care more about
standardized tests. They put great deal of effort on preparing
TOEFL, IELTS, and GRE. They are more likely to hire agents
to write personal statement, recommendations and essays.

6. Region
English Fluency Level
• European students have the highest average TOEFL
score, therefore they are able to choose majors have
higher language, especially speaking requirement. Such
as political science, journalism. Asian students, on
another hand, have high reading and writing scores, and
low speaking and listening scores. They prefer to choose
majors don’t require too much speaking. Students from
middle east prefer to start with English program due to
low average TOEFL score.

7. Individual perspective
• For the purposes of the study, WES segmented the international
students along two dimensions: academic preparedness and financial
resources. Based on these two dimensions international students can
be classified into four categories:
Source: WES

8. • STRIVERS: Among all segments, they are the most likely
to select information on financial aid opportunities.
Financial challenges do not deter these academically
prepared students from pursuing their dreams: 67% plan
to attend a top-tier U.S. school.

9. • STRUGGLERS: They have limited financial resources
and need additional preparation to do well in an American
classroom. They are relatively less selective about where
to obtain their education.

10. • EXPLORERS: Explorers are likely to need language and
academic support. They are interested in the experiential
aspects of studying abroad. 19% of this segment reported
that information on student services was in their top three
information needs. They are also the most likely to use
the services of an education agent (24%).

11. • HIGHFLIERS: are academically well prepared students
who have the means to attend more expensive programs
without expecting any financial aid from the school. They
seek a U.S. higher education primarily for its prestige:
almost half of the respondents in this segment (46%)
reported that the school’s reputation is among their top
three information needs.

12. Combine region and individual

14. Recruitment Strategies

15. Overall spotlight
Making
strategies
Evaluating
strategies
Executing
strategies

16. Making strategies
• Understanding yourself
• Understanding international students
• Understanding competition

17. Understanding yourself
• Strategic objectives and challenges.
• University commitment of internationalization.
• Know institutional strengths and weaknesses

18. Understanding yourself
• Strengths:
1) Liberal arts college
2) Good location
3) High ranking
4) Great potential

19. Understanding international students
Preferences (Source:WES)

20. Distribution of majors
(Source:Opendoors)

21. Source of information
(Source:WES)

22. Use of agents
• Chinese students are the most likely to use educational
consultants. Indian and Saudi students are No.2 and No.3
often use the services of agents. Indian students use
agents to shortlist universities, whereas Chinese students
are more likely to use agents for application assistance
and essay editing.
• Academic achievement was low among agent users: 40%
are “Explorers” and 22% are “Strugglers”.

23. Understanding competition
• 5% of universities host 66% of total number of international students.
• Doctorate-granting universities host 64% of international students.
• The top 3 host states (California, New York and Texas) host 32% of all
international students in the U.S. in 2011/12. (Source: Opendoors)

24. Executing strategies
• Using technology
• ESL program
• Building Partnership
• Emphasizing other features of university

25. Using technology
Overall, especially Highfilers, Strivers
• Functional website:
1) Cost calculator: having tuition and cost calculators on the
website in order to help students better understand the process
of financing their studies.
2) Different languages: for parents and friends
3) Students ambassadors: International students tend to obtain
information from students come from their home country due to
sense of empathy and similar background.
• Social media:
1) facebook
2) twitter
3) Renren.com
4) Sina microblog

26. Building ESL/IEP programs
Explorers, Strugglers
• ESL program benefits academic programs.
• Keeps students stay at same university

27. Building Partnership (school)
Strivers, Highfilers
• Partnership with schools: working with local high schools
and higher education institutions.
1) In top expert countries (China, Indian, South Korea),
working with reputable education institutions creates a
direct pathway for international students, and guarantees
good quality of students.
2) In countries export less number of international students
partnership strengthens diversity.
3) Working with higher education institutions releases
students’ financial burden (2+2 programs)
4) Hire staff who are able to do credit conversion, familiar
with grading scales.

28. Building Partnership (agents)
Strugglers, Explorers
• Use of agents is controversial because of lacks of
informational transparency and low level of mutual trust.
• Hire staff familiar with markets and working process of
agents, work with selective agents. There are good
agents, but we need to be able to find them.

29. Emphasizing other features of university
Explorers, Highfilers
• Explorers and highfilers not only want to earn a degree
abroad, but also to gain valuable life experience.
Institutions should emphasize information about student
life and location in their marketing materials, such as
students organizations, recreation center

30. Evaluating strategies
Research empowers universities to make more targeted
decisions in their recruitment efforts. As U.S. institutions are
increasingly defined by tight budgets, data and research
will increasingly shape strategic decisions.

31. Historical Trend Data
Store and analyze 3-5 years of comparative data.
• Prospects (students who have not yet expressed interest in the
institution, such as students whose names and addresses were
purchased from a list vendor)
• Inquiries (students who have expressed interest in the
institution)
• Applicants
• “Stealth applicants” (students who made their first contact by
submitting an application without inquiring beforehand)
• Applicants who fully completed the application process
• Accepts/admits
• Deposits/confirm

32. Market Research
• Prospects
• Inquiries who did not apply
• Applicants who did not complete the application process
• Admits who did not enroll
• Enrolled students who did not return
• Alumni
• High school counselors
• Parents
• Businesses/employers
• Graduate schools

33. Predictive Modeling
Predictive modeling for admissions identifies individual
prospective students who are most likely to enroll. Universities
can use this research to:
• Acquire qualified names from list vendors
• Focus limited admissions staff travel, time, and resources on
students who are most likely to enroll
• Increase conversion and yield rates
• Enroll the desired number of students

34. Making
strategies
Evaluating
strategies
Executing
strategies

35. The End
Thank you!

36. Use of agents
• Most students who use agents do not know whether the
consultant would receive a commission. Although
students from China pay more than other students for
agent services, only 7% of Chinese respondents ranked
them as the most trusted source of information, compared
to 12% of overall respondents. They are also the most
likely to be aware of agents “double dipping,” or collecting
a commission from an institution while being paid by the
student or their family for their services.

37. Student segments by country and academic level
(Source:WES)

38. Region
Educational structure
• Chinese and Indian schools focus more on math and
science, comparing to other regions.
• Korean high school graduation date is in February. They
have more time to apply for colleges in the US.
• European high schoolers have more choices of further
education.
• Chinese high schoolers finish all school works in two
years.

39. Applying different strategies to different countries
• China
• India
• Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia