The strength of your educational institution lies in its reputation.
And these are the defining factors that set you apart from your competitors.
Hence, just aspiring to attract local students to your university may not really be enough for your business as much as casting the net as wide as possible would.
How to increase admissions in college?
International students help you create significant income opportunities (It takes a college only a 5% decline in enrollment numbers to lose out on $250M worth of student fees and tuition costs in one year). But this isn’t all about the money. Overseas students foster a diverse campus environment enriched with multiple cultural perspectives, are key drivers for future enrollments and you can boast of having the brightest and the best students from across the globe.
We did some data digging and we discovered that there are 3 major criteria on which international students choose certain universities over the others. They are quality (Excellent academic program) value (high academic rankings and affordable or scholarship opportunities) and access (attainable admission requirements)
If the above stats have you a tad worried, it may be time to evaluate how robust your brand is overseas and revamp your marketing plan to increase student enrollment.
These are the steps to increase student enrollment-
Make relevant information visible and accessible.
- On your website:
No prizes for guessing where the millennials and Gen-Z turn to for all their research and education. But your official website is still the driving force for their final decision. So, maintaining an updated, optimized website which is mobile friendly and which has an appealing yet simple user interface is the best bet to keep users engaged.
You can create a separate web page dedicated for the international students with links to other key pages like scholarships, visa application, financial aid and contact details of an international admission counsellor.
Integrating a lot of dynamic content like blogs, videos, infographics, webinars and even a virtual tour of your institution can be pivotal in influencing the users’ decision.
Solid social proof is very powerful and so sharing testimonials from former and current students is always a clever marketing strategy.Furthermore, you can showcase alumni from top degree programs and establish a networking program so that international students can reach out to the alumni for any career advice. Creating a parent program for international students can keep their parents in the loop about the activities on the campus, as well as use them to help recruit other students from their country. You can also use your current international students and use them as ambassadors to contact other foreign students and interest in considering your educational institution.
Sending out timely individualized communication through emails or phone calls to prospective students quickly after their inquiry is instrumental in capturing their interest.
- On Social Media:With a major percentage of the younger generation hovering around the social media, an impressive Facebook page, Twitter, Linkedin and instagram accounts, and pages/ profiles on different other social networking sites is positively an excellent way of connecting with your target audience instantly and effectively.
Offer scholarships and career placements
Most of the international students grapple with insufficient funds to cover tuition costs to study abroad. Hence offering scholarships that are international-student specific can be a huge incentive for students to enroll.
And since for most of them getting a degree is synonymous to a job placement, promoting internship opportunities and work-study programs that lead to job placement can be a cherry on the cake.
Develop USPs for your institution
Although being true to your educational institution’s core identity is crucial, developing USPs in a dynamic and competitive landscape is imperative. It could be a tuition freeze, degree plans to graduate in 3.5 years, free summer classes, concurrent graduate enrolment, inclusion of majors that are not offered by many institutions and distant learning or certification courses to name a few. Fine tuning your academic structure, orientation, registration and placement modules to accommodate the unique needs of the foreign students can make your educational institution more international- friendlier.
Deliver quality education
Quality education remains at the heart of every institute of repute. Delivering the best of education through relevant topics, variations in academics and pertinent evaluation of the syllabus will ensure that there is an air of competition, continuous improvement around the campus and most importantly an increased interest level from students who want to study abroad.
Reaching out to international education agents & agencies
Education agents have helped recruit almost 40% of international students in European universities using marketing strategies to increase student enrollment (Observatory on Borderless Education and the Higher Education Statistics Agency report). With the rising competition in the international student market, engaging ethical overseas agents to attract foreign students yields great results. However, it is important for you to understand that you don’t risk damaging your reputation by working with agents, but by hiding the fact that you do. Having strategic partnerships with education agents across the globe is one the most important initiatives you can take to bring in international students. And we suggest you get off the beaten path. How about targeting those pockets that are not already saturated with education fairs, tours etc and get your message out there?
Deliver quality education
Quality education remains at the heart of every institute of repute. Delivering the best of education through relevant topics, variations in academics and pertinent evaluation of the syllabus will ensure that there is an air of competition, continuous improvement around the campus and most importantly an increased interest level from students who want to study abroad.
Campus Housing and jobs
Offering campus jobs to international students helps them sustain better and feel more accepted into the surrounding ecosystem.
Arranging accommodation can be a daunting task. On-campus housing not only eases the transition to living and studying abroad, but also serves as a channel to meet and co-exist with new people.
Get your analytics in order
We stressed on an optimised, up to date website with an easy UX experience for the users. This is where you can sit back and count on us.
We can help you improve data credibility and extract more value from your data, assess the effectiveness of your website and advertising content, bridge the gap between your marketing and technology teams. Profile students better on different markers of geography and demography. Declutter the UX interface and enhance UX experience to boost conversions, trace the user journey to capture the students’ interests better, accelerate performance of your marketing investments. We can also help you facilitate a unified student journey across marketing, enrollment and back-end systems through a centralised platform and gain better visibility on how your tests are performing.
And we have more.
We can help you find your best ranking schools and programs, learn from competitors by studying their web assets and help you personalise your student experience.
We are here info@nabler.com with all the analytics support you need.
Signing off with 3 reiterations for great international enrollment numbers- deliver what you have promised, use technology well and welcome overseas students with warmth in terms of attitude and facilities.