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Student Recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic​

Student Recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic​

Student Recruitment has been transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic as institutions shift their strategies to online platforms. Student recruitment webinars help institutions overcome some of the hurdles created by COVID19 in the education sector. This past year’s events have created significant challenges to university admission representatives all over the world. While most universities have successfully managed to transition their academic courses completely online, admission offices are still struggling to readjust their strategies to promote their institutions while attracting high-quality candidates. The future of student recruitment lies on the ability to transition and to adapt completely to the online environment. Being able to develop an appealing digital marketing strategy to reach international students has become a necessity for institutions worldwide.

Impact of COVID19 Pandemic in Higher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all types of institutions and organizations worldwide, including universities and business schools. The travel restrictions, the economic impact of the pandemic on families and students, and the concerns regarding possible future outbreaks created difficult and unique challenges to attract candidates for the current academic term. However, despite the hardships faced by families worldwide, there is evidence that not all business school students are willing to abandon the idea of enrolling in a college or university.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) analyzed reactions of potential business school candidates and only 29% of respondents were considering delaying their studies, while 46% were considering other alternatives. In the case of international students, in a survey done by QS earlier this year, 27% of prospective international students at the university level mentioned that their plans to study abroad have been impacted by the pandemic, while 37% said they planned to defer their studies to the Spring semester.

What can your institution do to reach prospective students during these times of uncertainty?

How can your institution navigate this difficult period and overcome the challenges created by COVID-19? What can you do internally to reach, communicate, and connect with potential students to offer your programs? Keep reading to learn more about Student Recruitment during COVID-19.

Three ways to recruit international students during the Covid19 pandemic

Shift your marketing budget to boost your online presence

Having a strong online presence is now more important than ever, and you must consider allocating more funds from your budget to these channels. Since most of the in-person marketing events such as study fairs, open houses and college tours have been cancelled and people continue to avoid gatherings, the best option for institutions is to transfer funds already budgeted to online activities that can be measured through time.

Even though students might not be not actively applying to academic courses, they are spending much more time online, which creates an excellent opportunity to connect with them. A strong and appealing branding campaign along with lead generation actions such as student recruitment webinars will help you grow your institutions’ student database during this period.

Connect with Students Online

During this period, you should nurture and grow your database of prospects. With a good social media conceptualization, strategy and execution, along with tools to communicate and connect with your followers, you will be able to promote your programs and your campus, where the students are.

An attractive communication plan in your social media and other digital channels will help you make the most of these resources to grow your student recruitment activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being active in social media, producing blogs and even participating in podcasts are the best ways to improve brand recognition and keep your university present in the minds of students looking to study abroad.

Email marketing also offers a great opportunity to reconnect with your database. You can use emails not only to promote your programs but also to offer specialized downloads, documents, articles that might interest the prospective students in your database. This will make your emails stand out and allow you to get information about the top candidates in the pool.

Create virtual events

Just as classes have transitioned to a virtual environment, this is the time to start hosting virtual open houses or student recruitment webinars. These webinars have been around for the past 10 years and are an excellent, safe and cost-efficient method of student recruitment during the COVID0-19 pandemic.

Student recruitment webinars offer universities a space to introduce their campus, their programs and their values through interactive live sessions that can be recorded and then sent to other prospects. During these events, you can connect with students from all over the world interested in studying abroad and answer their questions in real time. This is an excellent alternative to offline events and a perfect way to recruit students and generate quality leads.

Being creative and adding different digital channels to your student recruitment strategy will help your institution stay relevant and connect with future students. Produce appealing content, communicate with your database and start hosting student recruitment webinars to generate high quality leads to fill your upcoming terms.

Looking to recruit students online?​

If you are interested in recruiting students virtually during these difficult times, we can help. At ISN we bring together universities and international students through interactive and accessible online sessions. Our experience in student recruitment and extensive student database allow us to offer our clients the opportunity to promote their institutions with tailored recruitment events

Want to hear more? Feel free to get in contact with us here or click here to learn more about our student recruitment webinars.

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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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