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5 Ways to recruit international students

 

5 Ways to recruit international students

Get ahead of your competition with these 5 ways OR STRATEGIES OR tactics to recruit international students and grow your enrollment for your next intake!

Today, there is fierce competition among universities looking for qualified students in the international student market.  Only those universities that manage to have a good brand presence, a strong reputation, and remain active in attracting new students in a creative way, succeed in enrolling enough international students to fill the empty seats in their classrooms.

Are you one of these universities? Well, if you think you are not there yet and can do better, check below five strategies that can help you recruit international students. We hope they will be useful to you as you consider growing your
student enrollment.

1. Attend educational fairs

One of the 5 ways to recruit international students is to sign up to participate in education fairs attended by your target student group. These fairs allow you to interact with potential students and learn more about them for future marketing outreach.

Attending educational fairs also give you an opportunity to check out the competition and observe how other universities connect with students and try to stand out in the crowd. It is a good way to learn what works in this environment, and how to adjust your focus and your marketing strategies.

One downside of the educational fairs are the costs associated with registration and travel, as they can run quite high, especially when compared to online recruitment techniques. An additional consideration is that there is never a guarantee that you will get a new student from these in person efforts. Therefore, if you would like to try an educational fair, we highly recommend you do your research first to make sure that this particular event is where your prospective students will be.

2. Visit schools near your area

Among the 5 ways to recruit international students, a very practical one is to visit secondary schools in your area. This is the cheapest and safest option in your tool box. It makes a lot of sense to create a relationship with school officials and start connecting with those students around you. They have probably heard of your university and are aware of your reputation.

Visiting with the senior students in person and using a more personal and friendly approach will help them see the benefits of a local university campus and speed up their decision to enroll. Don’t forget to hand out some brochures about all the educational programs that your university offers.

3. Set up Social Media Campaigns

Our 3rd recommended way to recruit international students is to set up social media campaigns. Make sure to have an in-house expert in the field or hire an external, experienced company to help. Use the internal data you have gathered through the years to create a profile of your typical student, so that the social media experts can tailor your campaigns to identify and reach qualified leads that will later convert into real students.

Consider all social media platforms and use the ones where your target audience is. LinkedIn is perhaps a good option to promote master and PhD programs, while Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram might work well to attract Bachelor degree candidates.

4. Host a couple of Student Recruitment Webinars

The 4th tactic in our list of 5 ways to successfully recruit international students is to host a couple of student recruitment webinars. Many universities nowadays are relying on this virtual tool due to the COVID-19 pandemic which seriously disrupted international travel for recruitment officers and students.

This recruitment method gives you extensive opportunities to reach thousands of students through webinar promotion and to present to hundreds of them in a single event. Connecting with students in real time allows you to showcase your university and make a more convincing argument for the benefits of enrolling in one of your programs. You can, for example, create a series of webinars focusing each time on a different college or academic area from your institution. Creative and unique webinars will let students experience the student life they hope to be part of and give them a much deeper insight into their program of interest.

All through this year, we, at ISN EXPO, have been working to help universities connect with students looking for higher education programs in the US. Our online student recruitment webinars, offer these universities the opportunity to promote, present and meet students from all over the world interested in continuing their education, despite the limitations on mobility caused by COVID-19.

5. Host a Free online masterclass

Last but not least in our list of 5 ways to recruit international students, we recommend you offer prospective students something they would really value: a free online masterclass. This is a great way to give them a taste of what they will experience and learn when they choose to study at your university. Why a master class? In contrast to Bachelor degree students, the more mature students at this level of education are surer of their next steps and what they are looking for in a career. They probably already know what they want to specialize in and would be excited and challenged by this opportunity to experience a Master level class offered by an American university.

If you are interested in hosting an online masterclass, we can help you set it up using our professional webinar platform and the expertise of our technical team. You only need to focus on presenting it. We will take care of the rest. Contact us here for more details.

Ready to begin implementing our 5 ways to recruit international students?

Contact our student enrollment experts at ISN to talk about our effective and successful webinars and any of the other ideas shared here today. We hope this article will be helpful to you when planning your next strategy to recruit international students.

If you have any questions or would like to share with our community other useful ways to recruit international students, feel free to leave a comment below.

Please check this page to get more details about how our student recruitment webinars work.

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FAQs

Will ISN provide the student data so that I can remain in contact with prospective students?

Absolutely. For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, there is a 24-hour turnaround time for you to receive the complete and comprehensive student registration information and the list of students who attended the webinar. The information includes the students’ full name, email, home address, contact number, gender, age, intended level of study (undergrad/ post grad/ ESL), program they are interested in, and when they plan to enroll (Fall 2020/ Spring 2021).

How many institutions will be at the webinar?

For multi-webinar, there will be 5 presenters from 5 different institutions. Each presenter will have a 5 minute presentation (25 minutes in total for all presenters).The remaining time will be used for Q&A session.

For solo-webinar, your institution is the ONLY one presenting to prospective students. The first 30 minutes will be spent for your presentation and the remaining 30 minute is for Q&A session. You may choose the topic/s to be presented.

How many presenters will be at the webinar?

Multi-webinar will have 5 presenters from 5 different institutions. Each institution can have 1 presenter.

Solo-webinar can have a minimum of 1 presenter and a maximum of 4 presenters.

ISN recommends that all presenters have wired internet connection to ensure a stable connection. Please refer to Zoom’s system and bandwidth requirements HERE for more details.

What support does ISN provide during and after the webinar?

For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, ISN will provide a dedicated host and technical support throughout the webinar. The host will introduce the presenters, create polls during the webinar, and read the questions asked by students out loud for the presenters.

How does ISN market these webinars?

For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, ISN markets webinars through different digital marketing channels such as email marketing, social media marketing, paid ads, SEO, etc.

For multi-webinar, we target students who are interested in the specific webinar topic and we market the 5 institutions equally. For solo-webinar, we will focus on marketing your institution alone to ensure that all attendees are interested in your institution.

What is the accepted payment method?

ISN accepts payment through credit card. ISN will send a secure payment link and payment should be settled 24 hours upon submitting your registration.

What is the attendance rate?

For both multi-webinar and solo-webinar, the attendance is 10-15% of those registered, based from the past webinars.

Do students need to pay for the webinar?

No. The webinars are 100% free for students and parents who are interested in attending both multi-webinar and solo-webinar.

After the webinar, does ISN help follow up with the students?

ISN will provide the student database 24 hours after the webinar session. Please use your institutions’ CRM to follow up and send a message to these students right away; a thank you email is a good start in following up with these leads.

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