The international education sector is facing unprecedented change. From shifts in geopolitics to new technologies to a heightened focus on career outcomes and new imperatives around affordability and the return on investment from study abroad.

These factors have a profound impact on all of us, from institutions and recruiters to students and their families.

In this special episode of the podcast, we’re dedicating our entire discussion to the main insights and key takeaways from the very in-depth discussions at the Summit in London.

Join us as we review some of the observations shared by leading experts and leaders in the sector, offering a timely look at how the sector is responding to these challenges and shaping a new path ahead.

You can listen right now in the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• “黑料官网 Podcast: Redrawing the map of global student flows from the 鈥楤ig Four鈥� to the 鈥楤ig Fourteen鈥�“

The post 黑料官网 Podcast: From ‘policy focused’ to ‘student centred’: A new era in international education? appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

A year ago, in this very room, we looked at two macro trends that are shaping the international student market. One is the considerable and continuing demand-side growth 鈥� that is, the considerable growth in demand for study abroad and for access to education across markets worldwide.

The other is the pushback on historically high levels of immigration in a number of the world’s leading study destinations, and the changing political culture around immigration in many of those countries.

There are obviously some significant implications for us in both of those points, and so let’s just revisit them very quickly.

The 9 million students

In the following chart, we see a forecast from HolonIQ. It’s one that I pay attention to and I appreciate the detail and thought reflected here, but it’s also in line with other serious forecasts that we have for how student mobility is likely to take shape over the rest of this decade.

The short version of all that is that 鈥� tracing the arc of student mobility over the previous decades up to the present day and looking ahead through the rest of this decade 鈥� the most likely scenario is that we will reach around 9 million students abroad in higher education by the end of this decade, whereas we’re at about 7 million right now.

I should highlight as well that this chart describes only students abroad in higher education, and of course there are other really significant aspects of student mobility that are not factored here, including language learning and K-12.

But we can take the higher education trend line as an important proxy for the sort of broader movement of students in all segments around the world. This is important as an evidence-based projection, but it also points us to that reality that the number of students is going to continue to grow. The question is how will that really take shape? Where will those students go? And what and how will they study?

Public sentiment and political culture

The other thing that’s in play is that context around immigration that I mentioned earlier. These are recent headlines from our coverage on 黑料官网 Monitor.

This has obviously been a big story going back about 18 months or so now where we began to see some of the major study destinations 鈥� Australia, the UK, Canada, the US 鈥� introducing new policy settings and new processes that essentially all add up to a more restrictive environment for international students.

What we’re really seeing there is that the political culture in those destinations is changing in an important way. It reflects a growing public concern around historically high immigration levels, and that gets rolled into domestic concerns around costs of living, access to housing, access to healthcare, and more.

International students are a very small part of that historically high immigration globally, but of course, they’re caught in that same dynamic. And the result is that more restrictive policy framework for students and really in particular an active effort on the part of many of those national governments to reduce the number of new students coming into each country.

Right now we’re about 18 months or so into that cycle, and indeed we can see the effect is profound in Canada and in Australia where the number of new student commencements has been reduced quite significantly.

And that brings us to our first related trend for this year.

The Big 14

One of the most important trends we are tracking this year is the shift in student demand to destinations outside of those Big Four destinations.

We speak colloquially about the Big Four, meaning Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US. They are thought of as the Big Four, because historically and up to the present day, they are the hosts for a majority of the world’s internationally mobile students.

There are of course many students who go to many other destinations besides, but those four English-speaking host countries have always had a lion’s share of the international student market.

But what we’re seeing now is that we’re actively moving from that Big Four state to something that’s more like a Big 14. You can quibble about what the number is, but the point is that really we’re seeing a shift in student demand, student interest, and student movement to a wider field of destinations. And we see more and more evidence of that shift all the time with every passing month.

I was looking recently, for example, at the QS ranking this year for the top student cities. And this year, for the first time, the top-rated city was Seoul. The number two city in this year’s ranking was Tokyo, and they are just two of the eight city-destinations in Asia that appear in the top 20 cities in the QS ranking.

The point is there is a lot of movement happening there. We can explore in a minute what some of the factors are that are driving that, but that has to get our attention that it’s not London, it’s not New York that is in that top spot. We’re seeing a lot of movement in that table that’s reflecting something about the attractiveness of those cities and their success in attracting greater numbers of mobile students.

As we highlight those cities, we’re really talking about a pattern where that student interest and student movement is flowing across a wider field of countries, particularly in Europe and in Asia.

So in Europe, we’d be talking about countries like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. In Asia, we’re looking at destinations like Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

They’re all notable in that this is not a new story. I mean, many of these countries have been growing their international enrolment for some time. But it feels like something has tipped over in the last year, and we’re seeing more significant growth in many of those destinations.

Many of them are also becoming much more active recruiters of students. And this is really changing the market dynamic in an interesting way 鈥� at the very least, global market share is becoming more widely distributed.

Part of that is a function of that disruption in those Big Four destinations that I mentioned. But part of it is that at the same time as those leading destinations are being disrupted by that type of policy change, those growing destinations in Asia and Europe are taking steps to gain a greater share of the international student market: in the form of expanded marketing activity, in policy alignment that smooths visa processing and opens up new work and settlement opportunities, and in new programmes and services for international students.

Take Japan as an example. The following chart shows foreign enrolment in Japan over an extended period of time. And it happens that that enrolment reached a historic high last year.

At that point there were, in 2024, just under 337,000 international students in Japan. So once you’re into that 300,000鈥�400,000 enrolment base, you’re starting to talk about real numbers that have a material effect on the marketplace.

That 337,000 students last year reflects, you can tell from the sharpness of that red line at the top of the graph, really significant year-over-year growth, 21% last year alone.

So that a clue that those students are moving in greater numbers to this type of destination. Japan has a target to grow its foreign enrolment to 400,000 students by 2033. And as you can see, they are well on their way and they’ll almost certainly reach that goal. In fact, they will probably exceed it by the time we get to 2033.

Most of those students, it should be said, are coming from within Asia, particularly from China, from Nepal, from Vietnam.

Just think about those three markets for a moment. Up until the last several years, China had been the driver of global growth for decades, in terms of international student mobility. And the major destinations were in the habit of relying on that steady and reliable flow of students from China.

But think about what Nepal and Vietnam represent. Those are some of the fastest-growing outbound student markets in the world. And a couple of years ago, I started looking at Vietnam more closely. We have been following the Vietnamese market for some time, but I was not seeing the numbers of students coming through to some of those traditional destinations 鈥� like the US, like Canada 鈥� as we would’ve expected.

And it took us a little while to understand what was happening. But what was happening 鈥� what is happening 鈥� is that those students from Vietnam are going elsewhere in Asia in greater numbers as opposed to coming through to those Big Four destinations as we would’ve expected in earlier years.

Japan is a great example of that, and they’re earning a greater share of those important growth markets.

It is early days for this shift that I’m talking about. It will take another year or so before we have more detailed data, obviously for this year and for 2026, where I think we can expect that movement, that wider distribution of students across destinations, to become a lot more established. But you can see plenty of indicators of it already, like the student city ranking that I mentioned, like some of that early growth data that we can see for individual destinations.

This next chart, for example, is showing us aggregated search data from Studyportals. They have a number of online properties where students can search for programme options abroad. And what this is tracking is just the destinations that students are searching for across those properties over the years and leading into the first half of 2025.

Where is that demand going? Obviously, for the Big Four destinations, we see it trailing off. And we see that spike in student interest for destinations about the Big Four.

And what’s interesting about this, I mean you can only take this so far, but I do pay attention to this type of search data from Studyportals. IDP is very good about sharing this type of search volume data as well because it provides you with a kind of early indicator of where demand is going.

We can understand that students that are searching on these platforms are probably 12 to 18 months out from a programme start. So they’re at some early stage in their search and in their planning process for study abroad. The pattern that we’re seeing here in terms of where that interest is going, we might expect will play out in 12 or 18 months in terms of actual enrolments.

That’s what I mean when I say when we get that actual full-year enrolment data for 2025 and eventually 2026 I think we’re going to see what the real effect of some of this shift in interest might be.

But what we see across all these indicators is that global student flows are disrupted and they’re changing from those historical patterns. And I think the bottom line is that in the next five years, student demand will be much more widely distributed across the range of destinations that we’re talking about. And the competition to attract those students will become only more intense than it is even today.

How do you spell ROI?

And that brings us to our last macro trend, which is the greater emphasis across student markets on affordability and on the return on investment for study abroad.

Those factors 鈥� affordability and ROI 鈥� have come to the fore in recent years. This is not new, but what we’re talking about here is a matter of degree. The extent to which this is a priority for students in the decisions that they make about where and how they study abroad.

When you look across all the large scale student surveys 鈥� IDP, Etio, QS, Keystone, Studyportals, you name it 鈥� you see the same findings coming through. Issues around affordability and the expected value of study abroad are now the most important decision factors for students when planning their study abroad programmes. The importance of that reflects in different ways. Students talk about cost of study, cost of living, availability of scholarships, work opportunities, graduate outcomes, but we can understand that what is underpinning those priorities are these important drivers in terms of affordability and return on investment.

We see even this year that in some of the, there’s early indications that these decision drivers are changing the value proposition for students when they think about study abroad. They’re changing, for example, how students look at and how they measure quality of education. IDP had a really interesting finding earlier this year, which was indicating that students increasingly are equating quality of education with graduate outcomes.

It’s not that rankings are not important anymore, but what is the case is that students are looking past that to say, what can I really expect? What am I going to get from this experience? And what is that return on investment going to look like?

To put that another way, this is something that Tim O’Brien from INTO University Partnerships shared with us. And I thought it was a really interesting illustration of what return on investment actually looks like.

Basically what is happening here is that Tim and his team are measuring cost of study against opportunities to work during and after study in the destination against the earning expectations of a student when they return to their home market.

And what this is illustrating to us is that in these different destinations, under these different scenarios, a student stays and works for X number of years and so on, how long it takes the student to earn back the cost of study abroad. And as you can see, there’s considerable range there that hinges on things like the availability of work opportunities in the destination country, the cost of study there, the earning potential at home. This is, in short, a very vivid illustration of what that ROI driver means to an individual student.

The changing face of student mobility

But sitting behind those calculations is another important reality, I think, for all of us, which is that the composition of the international student body has shifted quite a bit over the last 10 or 15 years, and it’s continuing to shift in terms of where students are coming from.

In 2010, there were just about four million students abroad in higher education. Just under a third of those were from China. And as I said earlier, China was the driver of global growth in international mobility for a couple of decades.

Just think for a minute about the profile of those students coming out of China. They’re supported by a burgeoning economy, by an exploding middle class. They were self-funded, they were able to return to their home country and have an expectation of a higher earning potential.

In 2024, with more like seven million students abroad in higher education, only 14% of that total now comes from China, another 19% from India.

And indeed, the lion’s share of that international student body writ large is now coming from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

This includes a greater mix of students who are loan-funded or who are funded with family support or by scholarships. They come with very different needs and expectations. And, as Tim’s work demonstrates to us, they have a different earning potential at home. So that ROI calculation is necessarily different, depending on where you are coming from.

That top city ranking from QS that I mentioned earlier perfectly reflects this. The reason that so many of those Asian cities are moving into the top 20 is because not only are they having greater success in attracting international students, but they are relatively affordable. They’re rising up the rankings on the strength of that affordability. And that is obviously a huge driver as these numbers would suggest to us of student movement.

The point I’m making here is that these macro trends are all linked.

That continuing surging demand for education, the more restrictive policy settings in the top destinations, the ambitious growth plans of a much wider field of destinations in some of the major global regions (particularly in Europe and Asia), and those changing student priorities and decision factors, especially around affordability and ROI.

Everyone sitting here is thinking those are not new ideas and they’re not new factors in the marketplace, but what is different through 2024 and now into this year is really the first time that we’re seeing them act on each other in the way that I’m suggesting here.

And that as a result, we’re beginning to see the market move at scale in a way that it hasn’t done before. The full impact of those shifts will become more clear over the next five years in particular. But there are plenty of implications in those trends for every institution and every organisation in this room.

For additional background, please see:

• “Asian destinations show their strength in latest ranking of student cities“
• “New analysis forecasts international student mobility through 2030“
• “黑料官网 Podcast: Redrawing the map of global student flows from the 鈥楤ig Four鈥� to the 鈥楤ig Fourteen鈥�“

The post The four key trends that will shape international student mobility for the next decade appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The question hinges on the core immigration mechanisms for international students in the UK. In order to apply for a student visa, an international student must first obtain a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) document. Only a sponsor 鈥� that is, an educational institution licensed by the Home Office to sponsor international students for visas 鈥� may issue a CAS. In effect, the sponsor is vouching for the student-applicant and his/her eligibility to study in the UK.

That sponsor status places a number of obligations on the institution, and particularly that a sponsor must apply for . When UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) carries out the BCA, it currently assesses the sponsor based on the following thresholds for three “core requirements”:

• a visa refusal rate of less than 10%;
• an enrolment rate of at least 90%; and
• a course completion rate of at least 85%.

The linkage there is quite explicit: the institution is expected to carefully evaluate each applicant to determine that they are eligible for admission but also, once admitted, will have a high likelihood of following through to take up their spot in their intended programme of study and then go on to successfully complete that programme. In other words, the university or college’s ability to continue to admit international students rests on its ability to recruit qualified, bona fide students that are committed to their intended programme of study.

Institutions that are found to have fallen outside of those benchmarks may be placed on . This is essentially a probationary mechanism, typically ranging from three to six months, that provides “a sponsor who has committed a breach, short of a serious breach, an opportunity to improve its processes in order to avoid any further breaches.” UKVI adds that, “An action plan sets out specific actions that a sponsor must take by a given review date,” pending the successful conclusion of which a sponsor may be taken off the action plan and carry on in good standing.

In the worst case, a sponsor found to be in more serious breach of compliance requirements, or who does not successfully progress through the action plan process, could have their sponsor license revoked by UKVI for up to two years.

Coming back to the white paper

When the immigration white paper was released in May, a lot of the initial reaction centred around the government’s decision to curb post-study work rights for international students by reducing the term of the Graduate Route from 24 to 18 months.

In the months since, however, the more stringent compliance requirements set out in the white paper have come to be seen as its most impactful component. In short, the government intends to increase the compliance thresholds by 5% across the board so that the new core requirements for the BCA will be:

• a visa refusal rate of less than 5%;
• an enrolment rate of at least 95%; and
• a course completion rate of at least 90%.

The white paper also sets out a number of related measures, including the following.

• A new, public-facing Red-Amber-Green banding system indicating the BCA performance of each sponsor, “so that it is clear to them, the authorities and the public which institutions are achieving a high rate of compliance, and which are at risk of failing.”

• Beyond the action plan, new measures for sponsors that are falling short of, or straying too close to, the BCA compliance thresholds, including “limits on the number of new international students they can recruit.”

• A requirement that all sponsors that are engaged with education agents sign up to the Agent Quality Framework.

The Home Office has indicated that these new measures will be implemented for the 2025/26 academic year, beginning as early as September.

A more stringent approach

There is already some indication that UKVI has been applying a more rigorous approach in BCA assessments this year. Earlier this month, for example, the University of Essex and Glasgow Caledonian University were placed on action plans. They join the University of Central Lancashire, which has been on an action plan since December 2024, and a small group of additional education providers who have moved in and out of action plans through the first half of 2025.

Commenting on LinkedIn, Nous Group Director Nicholas Dillon said, “Looking at the two universities affected, you can see variants on the same story – a massive increase in in full-time [postgraduate taught] students from Pakistan, Nigeria, and India鈥hese are far from the only universities with this narrative – though they are the ones caught up right now. And the change from a 10% to a 5% refusal rate will only make this a larger challenge.”

In a related comment to , Jonathan Hill, a senior manager with the immigration law firm Fragomen, said that UKVI had “stepped up” its audit activity this year. He added: 鈥淲e are seeing quite a stringent view on these audits by UKVI and they鈥檙e taking quite a hard-line approach when it comes to how they鈥檙e assessing institutions, so that can also cause an action plan.鈥�

How will this affect recruitment?

There is an element of risk management at the heart of the CAS-sponsor-compliance model. Indeed, these mechanisms rest a great deal of responsibility for student performance and student outcomes with the institution itself.

“The tougher BCA thresholds will require student sponsors to reassess their international student recruitment strategies in order to protect their BCA metrics,” says immigration lawyer Anna Blackden.

Some institutions are already responding reducing or suspending recruiting activities in countries that are seen to be associated with higher risk. “Higher risk” in this sense being defined as markets where students are more likely to not follow through on their study plans or to complete their programmes of study 鈥� often for reasons relating to academic background, language skills, or financial difficulty.

Last month, for example, London Metropolitan University said that it would suspend admissions for Bangladeshi students. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Gary Davies has attributed the decision to high rates of visa refusals for Bangladeshi students in particular, which were putting the university’s compliance at risk.

Other UK institutions have reportedly 鈥� although less publicly 鈥� made similar decisions to limit or suspend admissions from specific markets and/or for particular fields of study where there is seen to be undue compliance risk.

A related commentary from Universities UK International (UUKi) says of the heightened BCA thresholds: “UK universities welcome talented students from around the world. These changes will help prevent abuse of the visa system by non-genuine actors. Agents have a very important role to play in supporting visa compliance and universities will continue to work closely with their agents to make sure their processes are as effective as possible.鈥�

UUKi will work closely with UK universities and the Home Office on rolling out a phased approach to implementing these tightened BCA thresholds, and on what constitutes each of the red-amber-green bands. These measures will not require rules changes but rather updates to sponsorship guidance for institutions recruiting international students.”

For additional background, please see:

• “UK sets out new immigration strategy, will reduce Graduate Route work term to 18 months“
• “New analysis sounds a note of caution for UK immigration reforms“
• “Who decides about quality? Education agents and the question of increased regulation“

The post UK’s stiffening compliance regime already having an impact on international student recruitment appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

DEMAND AND REVENUE OPTIMISATION

鈥淗alf the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don鈥檛 know which half,鈥� observed businessman and political figure John Wanamaker (1838鈥�1922). This famous truism is relevant to the international education sector, where many institutions still do a lot of guessing about what is going right or wrong with regards to recruitment, marketing, on-campus student services, and admissions management.

The time for guessing is over. Demand for study abroad is volatile and fast-changing; students are considering an ever-wider range of destinations and institutions. Committing to data-backed strategies is the only way to remain competitive and to maximise return-on-investment (ROI).

It鈥檚 tempting to believe that intuition 鈥� perhaps based on years of experience and success 鈥� is enough, especially when margins are tight and data collection and analysis seems like a big investment. But consider this scenario:

Your institution ran a campaign or scholarship initiative that yielded some good results in a key market. But, could those initiatives have performed even better? Did the scholarship need to be that large or would demand have remained strong if it had been smaller or more targeted? Or vice versa: would a bigger scholarship have filled the seats you couldn鈥檛 fill in an undersold programme?

There is no way of knowing without data, because there are no comparison points or analytics. And so, the answers to whether your ROI was as strong as it could have been will always be at least slightly vague.

For many institutions faced with a less certain marketplace, answers to questions like these would be extremely important to know:

• How do we increase demand/revenue for certain programmes? For example, in Canada, business courses are no longer linked to the Post-Graduation Work Program (PGWP). Study fields that are linked are agriculture and agri-food, healthcare, STEM, skilled trades, and transportation. Educators are trying to find out how to price programmes in those fields given that they are now the only ones tied to the PGWP. Would demand fall if the price went up? Which programme features could be emphasised to keep demand high (e.g., internships, on-campus housing, the ability to study at home for the first two years, etc.)?

• If demand appears to be low, could it increase if we decreased tuition fees? How much of a price cut would make a difference?

• Which programme/campus features are game-changers for prospective students? The answer would help inform marketing messaging and future investments in different services.

• And for all these questions: how do the answers differ by international student market and segment?

At the , attendees learned more about the benefits of optimising price, features, demand, and revenue in target markets.

Oliver Fortescue, a partner in the education consultancy firm , presented about the firm鈥檚 capability to determine the relationship between demand and pricing, and between demand and programme features, in key overseas markets. The model allows institutions to see how students鈥� 鈥渨illingness to pay鈥� changes according to different scenarios.

Mr Fortescue used a travel industry example to illustrate that most people will trade off certain features of a journey to arrive at a fare they are comfortable with 鈥� e.g., departure and arrival times, number of connections, allowed baggage, or carrier. If a traveller must arrive at their destination as quickly as possible, they might be willing to pay more. If they have more flexibility, they might be more likely to choose a less optimal departure time for a lower fare.

Prospective international students also make trade-offs when deciding where to study. They consider such variables as campus location, cost of living, ease of transportation, length of course, graduate outcomes, rankings, and scholarships.

The Edified team works with institutions to determine their top goals (usually regarding revenue, demand, yield, or all three) and then designs a project accordingly. A partner company secures a custom survey sample of ideal students/parents in key markets (at least 1,000 per market, often more). A choice modelling framework determines how students would respond to different scenarios (e.g., this tuition fee with this course length, this tuition fee with this course length plus a scholarship, this tuition fee/course length/scholarship plus on-campus housing).

Among other results, the model can show the exact points at which demand begins to increase or decrease depending on the scenario. The following slide shows that demand for arts programmes is the most sensitive to a tuition fee increase or decrease of all the programmes in this illustrative choice set.

Institutions can also discover how willing students would be to pay for different features. For example, in the slide below, you can see that a 12-week internship is the most valuable of the possible durations, and that Southeast Asian postgraduate students would be willing to pay significantly more if they were able to study in Melbourne.

This kind of research is not inexpensive, but it adds much greater certainty to recruitment decisions, eliminating the likelihood of costly mistakes such as offering:

• A large scholarship where a smaller, more targeted one would have been just as effective;
• A campaign aimed at a city where there is no intrinsic demand;
• A programme priced so high that it is impossible to sell;
• Additional campus services or a facility expansion that students don鈥檛 care about.

Mark Pettitt, founder and CEO of Edified, observes that a more challenging recruiting context can also be viewed as an opportunity:

鈥淚’ve been in this industry for a long time, and the policy environment we are seeing now in some destinations is just another example of a crisis鈥搑ecovery pattern that has played out for years and that will continue to play out. There will always be changes in government policies, global viruses, geo-political tensions, currencies bottoming out, etc. 鈥� followed by a new normal once the crisis has passed. A devotion to students鈥� well-being and career outcomes; personalised, timely communications with prospective students; strong leadership with a long-term perspective; and an investment in data-informed decision-making will allow some institutions to survive 鈥� and even thrive 鈥� where others cannot.鈥�

Mr Pettitt adds that data can help to maintain a diversification effort even when visa refusal rates are going up:

鈥淎n example of short-term thinking is, 鈥業 need to cut back in the risky markets because there鈥檚 less chance of students being approved 鈥� and everyone else is doing that as well.鈥� What a shame if you have been developing those markets for years 鈥� and what a shame for the bright students in those countries who would be perfect for your institution.

What you could do instead is use targeted scholarships to top students from highly reputable schools in the markets everyone else seems to be leaving. Over time, your mix of students can shift dramatically 鈥� to high-quality, low-risk students from a range of target countries. Well-considered scholarship programmes can align with diversity goals and boost your competitive position in some of the most promising markets for years to come. Especially during periods when competitors are dropping out of these markets.鈥�

TREND #2

PERSONALISING COMMUNICATIONS

As with understanding demand, precision is key when it comes to communicating with prospective international students. Generic emails are just not going to cut it anymore 鈥� students are used to personalisation in their shopping, and they expect it from the schools and universities they are checking out.

A well-configured customer relationship management system (CRM) offers a foundation for the ability to personalise. On the CRM, you can enter information on leads, segment them, and track every contact and result. The information in your CRM enables the creation of custom emails based on individual students鈥� programme preferences and that skip past general content.

Website data analytics allow you to personalise further. As per :

鈥淐reate landing pages tailored to different segments of your audience. These pages should highlight the most relevant information to the visitor, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. For instance, a landing page for international students could feature visa information, housing options, and success stories from other international students.

Implement dynamic content on your website that changes based on the visitor鈥檚 profile. A prospective student from a particular region might see testimonials from alumni in their area, while another visitor might see information on scholarships they鈥檙e eligible for.鈥�

The Amazon.com main storefront offers a masterclass in personalising content. For example, data-informed recommendations such as 鈥淏ased on your browsing history,鈥� 鈥淥ther items you might like,鈥� 鈥淚nspired by your shopping trends 鈥︹��. Amazon is explicit in personalising content 鈥� but effective personalisation can simply consist of creating and sending custom content to each of your leads

TREND #3

ON-THE-GROUND REPRESENTATION

Data can show you that in a certain week (or even day), students in target markets:

• Lost interest in one destination and began to consider another;
• Warmed up to a programme they hadn鈥檛 considered before;
• Finally accepted an offer of admission because a scholarship was offered;
• Spent a great deal of time on the accommodation section of your website;
• And all sort of other essential insights.

However, data insights do not replace human insights. A student鈥檚 ultimate decision about where to study may be decided by such things as:

• An agent who sits down face-to-face with parents and dispels the myth that no one is being approved for visas;
• A returning student who sets up a successful start-up company, signalling to the local market that their study at a particular institution paid off;
• An alumnus who speaks with local school leaders about pathway programme options that will guarantee admission to an institution with high admission standards;
• An in-country representative who sets up a fancy event with great food and successful alumni speakers, and shares video testimonials of happy current students.

Partnering with trusted agents and in-country reps is even more essential when travel budgets are tight and when an institution is trying to keep diversifying despite cost-cutting measures.

Prediction: More sophisticated recruitment strategies in 2025

In times like these, institutions will either lean into or back away from investments in international student recruiting. If the former, the obvious approach is to become more surgical in recruiting, in order to zone in on ideal students who have a good chance of being approved for a visa. Enrolling best-fit students begins a chain reaction of greater student satisfaction, better graduate outcomes, and positive word-of-mouth about your institution.

For additional background, please see:

• “International education has a data problem. It鈥檚 time to do something about it“
• “The way forward: Shifting to more strategic and student-centred recruitment“

The post Three international education trends for 2025: Revenue optimisation, marketing personalisation, and on-the-ground local intelligence appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

This year鈥檚 sweeping policy changes in Australia, Canada, and the UK have created major challenges and confusion for thousands of schools, universities, agents, and students. But they also underline the significance of goals that many in our industry have already been pursuing, such as improving student experience and being more deliberate and targeted in marketing.

Important conversations are taking place across our sector about lessons learned from the events of this year and how to move forward, including at the inaugural that took place in London in September 2024.

This article is based on the dialogue at that event, and even if you haven鈥檛 been directly affected by volatile policy settings, read on for insights on fresh approaches to recruiting and hosting foreign students.

Focus on student fit

Without doubt, meeting enrolment targets and diversifying sending markets remain essential goals. But there is a growing consensus that there must be an overarching mission to attract students most suited to programmes, national policy parameters, and economic trends.

This mission can be accomplished by placing a greater emphasis on recruiting for student fit.

This approach involves creating protocols and processes designed to build a carefully targeted prospect pool. Admissions offers are then sent only to students who have met criteria qualifying them as likely to acquire a study visa and complete programmes successfully.

At the end of the day, students enrolled in programmes that match their goals, academic preparedness, and financial means are much happier than students who 鈥� because they weren鈥檛 well screened 鈥� soon struggle with courses, mental health, language issues, cultural adjustment, or a higher cost of living than they can afford.

Sharpening the recruitment lens makes particular sense in destinations that have witnessed rapid growth in international student numbers over the past few years. That growth put pressure on housing, programme capacity, and student support services. It has made it more difficult for some institutions to apply quality controls and improve graduate outcomes.

How to measure success

Dr Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA, says that 鈥渆conomic value is absolutely important, that is indisputable, but we have to put students at the centre.鈥�

She elaborates: 鈥淭his means our institutions need a student success model [to guide them]. Outcome data is absolutely important. Pathways to employment are absolutely important. Fit is very, very important. And we鈥檝e been very clear with our institutions: Do not bring international students if you do not have the structures in place to do right by those students and their families.鈥�

Students have their own criteria

Joanna Kumpula, head of international education and integration support at Tampere University in Finland, points out that students, too, are thinking more carefully about fit: 鈥淚nternational students are becoming much more discerning 鈥� they are now looking for niche programmes and specific career paths, and institutions must recognise these individual goals rather than relying on broad assumptions.鈥�

Better screening leads to better outcomes

Marie Braswell, associate vice president of global strategy and market development at Canada鈥檚 Centennial College, says: 鈥淚nstitutions often look at student success only in terms of enrolment numbers, but we need to assess whether students are achieving academically and integrating socially.鈥� Ms Braswell emphasises that diversification strategies remain important, but at the same time, 鈥淲e also have to think about economic feasibility: Are students able to meet the cost-of-living requirements for a visa?鈥�

Judith Lamie, pro vice chancellor for international engagement at Swansea University in the UK, explains that firm entrance requirements are required to ensure an institution is selecting students who are ready for programmes: 鈥淲e should be careful about lowering entry standards for international students 鈥� this is not sustainable and sets them up for failure.鈥�

Ms Braswell and Ms Lamie鈥檚 points emphasise that offering a 鈥渜uality鈥� experience starts well before a student is admitted. It starts as soon as the student makes contact, whether through the website, social media, an agent, or institutional staff.

Strengthening the narrative

鈥淲e know that demand for international student mobility is going to be there,鈥� says Bobby Mehta, pro vice-chancellor for global engagement at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. 鈥淯nderstanding where it is, what it is, and how we can work together to [recruit effectively] in a safe, compliant, and organised way is the challenge we need to address as we go forward. [This approach] will provide national and global assurance of international education鈥檚 broader value.鈥�

鈥淲e need a new narrative around international higher education and the global role of
universities, adds Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International. “It鈥檚 about foregrounding the academic, social, and cultural benefits that come from internationalisation, and bringing those to the fore in the public discourse and public policy.鈥�

The shift from quantity to quality

A shift to student-fit recruiting may change the amount of budget or staff time allocated at various points along the enrolment funnel 鈥� especially at the beginning of the transition. Preparing for recruiting will become almost as important as recruitment campaigns, because:

• Ideal student personas will need to be developed;
• Marketing and admissions staff must be crystal-clear on policies, education systems, and assessment standards in target markets;
• Agents must be thoroughly vetted and receive excellent training;
• Marketing materials, social media, and website content and structure will likely need tweaking to encourage only best-fit students to apply;
• Student journey mapping and CRM training will be essential to keeping all teams collaborating and nurturing the most promising leads.

Once the shift is underway, international recruitment will be more efficient than any kind of volume strategy. Along with a promising prospect pool, you will also have much better ratios of students approved for visas, completing programmes, landing high-skilled and well-paid jobs, and transforming into powerful alumni.

What鈥檚 more, your admissions staff can concentrate on reviewing higher quality applications rather than sifting through mountains of unsuitable ones.

Don鈥檛 forget the data

Student fit is also about better data collection and analysis so you can make evidence-based decisions to drive your recruitment plans and track what is and isn鈥檛 working. Which overseas schools and cities are yielding the ideal student profile for your programmes? Which agents? If you don鈥檛 track what is and isn鈥檛 working, the result will be sub-optimal.

鈥淩ecruitment is now much more datadriven,鈥� says QS chief executive officer Jessica Turner. 鈥淜nowing employer needs is crucial for aligning recruitment with labour markets.鈥�

Collecting data on post-graduation outcomes 鈥� outcomes that will improve as you commit to student-fit marketing 鈥� is also incredibly important. This is because:

• Students want to know what proportion of graduates go on to get jobs 鈥� it proves ROI;
• Employers are impressed by good graduate outcomes;
• Peak body associations are in dire need of more data to show governments the value of international education 鈥� and that means:
  • Quantifying value in more ways than revenue or economic contribution;
  • Demonstrating that international students are indeed essential to filling skills gaps and innovation.

NAFSA鈥檚 Dr Fanta Aw underlines the need for better data by saying: 鈥淎s international education increasingly works to link student mobility to larger economic goals, the necessity of data to help address skills gaps and meet labour market demands is increasingly obvious.鈥�

Dr Aw provides examples: 鈥淭he fact that we can cite that one in four of the United States鈥� billion-dollar start-ups was founded by former international students is powerful. We can show that 42% of the major companies making advances in AI have been established by former international students. That鈥檚 important. We use this data to prove the value of international education.鈥�

For additional background, please see:

• Join the . A landmark one-day summit bringing together the industry’s senior leaders, policy makers, and experts, all focused on shaping the future of the international education sector.
• “Industry experts conclude that better recruitment results begin with a focus on student outcomes“
• “Is employability still the holy grail for the new generation of international students?“
• “International education has a data problem. It鈥檚 time to do something about it“

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Ms Best went on to outline that, of the roughly 740,000 PBSA beds in the UK, just under half (44%) are owned and operated by the universities themselves. The remaining 56% are privately owned and operated.

She believes as well that private investment is the more likely path to building capacity in terms of student housing: “Given the current and likely future financial pressures that the sector faces in the UK, there will continue to be constraints on all universities, even the largest, most reputable, and financially strong ones,” she explained. “This is causing universities to prioritise [capital spending] in [academic programming]. I expect to see universities looking for further support from the private sector to deliver new beds and to support refurbishing of a lot of the university-owned stock鈥hile there are and will continue to be new PBSA developments, the ability to deliver affordable accommodation in the places it is needed most continues to be a challenge.”

The affordability dilemma

The panelists all agreed that housing costs remain a significant issue for students. While price inflation has eased somewhat in the UK this year, there have been significant price hikes in the years following the pandemic.

“We’ve seen huge increases in pricing over the last couple of years, including some double-digit increases in some cities last year, which is quite staggering,” noted Ms Best.

Meanwhile, Hannah Chappatte, the founder & CEO of Hybr reported that there has been a huge rent increase this year in the HMO market (which refers to privately owned housing, a shorthand for which is HMO, or “a house in multiple occupation”). She noted as an example the case of Bristol where, “What we saw was that a lot PBSA developments were paused because of the impact of COVID. So the HMO market had a heyday over those two or three years where a lot of students that would have gone into PBSA went into the HMO market. And we saw consistently rents increasing by 15% year on year.”

The panel discussion revealed that there is a lot of nuance and granularity in the student housing market, and that you cannot measure the health or balance in the market simply by counting beds and heads.

“It can lead you down the wrong track if you are looking at here is how many rooms there are and this how many students there are,” said Ms Chappatte. “Really, you have to break it down into segments: this is the type of student, this is their budget, this is what they are looking for, and this is the type of accommodation we have in each city. Often you will see that it is not just a ‘rooms’ issue, it all comes down to price. It all comes down to budget and that is what we have to tackle: thinking creatively around how can we build more affordable units; not just more rooms.”

Not just how many but where

In spite of continuing strong student demand, PBSA stock continues to lag considerably behind demand in many study destinations due to a number of factors, including delays in the building planning process, labour shortages, and inflation in construction costs. Another inflationary impact for developers is the relatively high cost of financing in a climate of rising interest rates.

Ms Chappatte made the case that international education needs to draw lessons from other industries in its search for solutions. “We need to give investors conviction around how they can build and develop affordable units,” she said. “In our sector, we need to look at hospitality because hospitality has done that really well, You have Travelodge and Premier Inn that are really affordable brands that are also huge drivers of revenue. So why can’t we have the same in the residential sector where we have more self-service, more self-managed types of just rooms rather than these amenity spaces? I think there is so much that we can do [in that area] and that we are still so far behind in terms of residential versus hospitality.”

The panel acknowledged that prices typically fluctuate according to local supply and timing of booking — with the best rates being available for advance bookings and with prices tending to increase the close the student gets to programme start. This can be offset, however, in cases where local supply increases, causing prices to soften.

But the discussion also revealed that price is closely connected to location in student decision making. Ms Chappatte adds, “We’ve done a number of focus groups this year and rent is number one and location is number two, in terms of what [students] are prioritising in their search.” We can understand as well that that trade-off is carefully made and students definitely weigh proximity to campus very seriously in their decision.

Who is responsible?

The panelists also stressed the need for more and better collaboration between institutions, developers, students, government, and community stakeholders in order to boost local housing stocks.

“Universities need to speak to accommodation providers more,” concluded Arunima Dey, research manager with The Class Foundation. “How many students are they expecting? How many beds do they need? But it’s also extremely hard to build sustainable, future proof housing and provide all those amenities that students appreciate and keep rents affordable. [So we] need incentives for developers and investors in order for them to have a varied portfolio, and those incentives essentially needs to come from municipalities and [other levels of government]. Students are seen as a transient group but if there is more student housing than there is also more housing for all other demographics as well.”

She added, “For example, one of our partners, RESA, is a private PBSA provider in Spain. They [set a target] of having 70% of their beds to be affordable beds. They are able to do so because they have good ties with universities and with the city government. Operators and investors in the current climate cannot just do it by themselves.”

For additional background, please see:

• A recommended reading list of important themes and insights from the .
• “Better living and social environments for students linked to better mental health“
• “Quarterly survey finds rents for student housing in Europe increasing ahead of new academic year“
• “UK ELT providers report restricting enrolment because of bed shortages“

The post The three persistent themes in student accommodation: affordability, availability, and accountability appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

This month’s episode features a panel discussion 鈥� recorded live at the in London last month 鈥撀爋n how the sector is adapting to new policy settings in some of the world’s major study destinations.

That conversation was moderated by Edified’s Sara Sandford, and features Bobby Mehta, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) at the University of Portsmouth; Rachel MacSween, Director of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement with IDP; Marie Braswell, the Associate Vice President Global Strategy & Market Development for Centennial College; and Andy Howells, the Chief Marketing Officer of NCUK.

We conclude with a closer look at China as the latest stop for our 鈥淜eys to the Market鈥� segment.

You can listen right now in the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• “黑料官网 Podcast: The future of ELT: A call to action“
• A recommended reading list of important themes and insights from the .

The post 黑料官网 Podcast: Getting past policy shock: How the sector is responding to new migration settings appeared first on 黑料官网 Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

International students are now building their plans for study abroad with a much greater emphasis on outcomes. They are asking a crucial question: Will my education abroad translate into a meaningful career? 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about securing a job,鈥� says Nick Miller, chief marketing officer of QA Higher Education. 鈥淪tudents are looking for a return on investment.鈥�

鈥淭he prominence of employability as a critical decision factor is affecting student migration and education offerings around the world,鈥� agrees Janet Ilieva, director and founder of Education Insight. 鈥淭he rise of intra-regional mobility, for example, may be partially explained by reduced disposable family incomes post-pandemic and a desire to be closer to local labour markets.鈥�

At the same time, governments in major study destinations are beginning to link student mobility to domestic labour market trends. In Canada, for example, some post-graduate work permits are now tied to sectors with long-term skills shortages, such as healthcare and technology. Marie Braswell, associate vice president of Centennial College, explains, 鈥淐anada is really clearly sending messages that they鈥檙e looking for students who meet labour market gap eligibility.鈥� The same could be said of the Optional Training Program in the United States, which grants an extended post-study work term to graduates of STEM programmes. Policymakers around the world are watching these developments as more countries seek to rapidly expand their international student numbers.

As a result, institutions, and their recruitment strategies, now need to better align with student goals, skills gaps, or other labour market objectives, both in study destinations and in the students鈥� home countries. 鈥淯niversities need to be more deliberate about aligning their curricula with the specific capabilities needed by employers in the markets they serve,鈥� says Dr Florian Hummel, vice-rector for international affairs at Germany鈥檚 International University of Applied Sciences.

But here鈥檚 the challenge. Meeting demand requires data on labour market projections, employment opportunities, and graduate outcomes. And that data is often hard to access or unavailable.

鈥淜nowing employer needs is crucial for aligning recruitment with labour markets,鈥� says Jessica Turner, chief executive officer, QS. 鈥淭he growing interest in AI, big data, and cybersecurity programmes is understandable because they offer clear employment outcomes,鈥� adds Mr Miller.

鈥淩ecruitment is becoming more data-driven,鈥� continues Ms Turner. But the trend will demand more accurate and timely data to achieve its potential. As Nannette Ripmeester, director of performance benchmarking for Europe and North America at Etio, says, 鈥淲ithout data it鈥檚 like making decisions without knowing what you’re talking about.鈥�

Mr Miller explains how advanced recruitment strategies are already benefitting from more strategic approaches. 鈥淲e鈥檝e analysed what employers are looking for in high-growth sectors and have then worked with universities to help develop courses and programmes that incorporate the relevant skills and certifications,鈥� he says. 鈥淒ata enables us to match our degree titles, course content, and modules to the skills employers are looking for, not just what students are searching for.鈥�

Similarly, embedding internships, placements, and partnerships into degree programmes is now a key advantage for recruitment strategies since students are often looking to gain skills or fund their studies. Across the UK, for example, universities are increasingly delivering courses in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, where there are more employers and work experience available. Northumbria University鈥檚 decade-ago decision to deliver courses in London, for example, was a strategic decision to enhance employability outcomes for students in a tangible and marketable way.

Viewing recruitment through the lens of economic demand is valuable, but more nuanced insights are necessary for educators to create the conditions that support the diverse ambitions of international students. As Joanna Kumpula, head of international education and integration support at Finland鈥檚 Tampere University, says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about placing students in dynamic labour markets. International students from all regions are becoming much more discerning. They are now looking for niche programmes and specific career paths, and institutions must recognise these individual goals rather than relying on broad assumptions.鈥� Furthermore, international students are seeking knowledge and experiences that extend beyond practical and theoretical course content.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 job market requires more than just expertise in one鈥檚 field. Graduates must also possess communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills,鈥� adds Ms Kumpula, who regularly engages with businesses to gain an understanding of their future priorities. 鈥淭his holistic approach is crucial for preparing our students to succeed in an increasingly complex global workforce,鈥� she explains. Judith Lamie, pro vice-chancellor international at Swansea University, agrees and adds, 鈥淢aking clear what students gain during their degree that will specifically help them to secure roles in the future has become a primary focus.鈥�

To offer valuable, hands-on experience that enhances employability, institutions should strengthen their relationships with businesses and industries. Not only will these partnerships and alliances attract international students, they will also serve a broader purpose in that they support the sector鈥檚 advocacy efforts with policy makers and community stakeholders.

The relationship between international student recruitment and labour markets is no longer a secondary consideration 鈥� it is central to the future of the sector and the potential to both meet student expectations and help address critical labour market gaps is immense. Connecting policy goals with identified skills shortages in this way opens the door to a new approach to international recruitment 鈥撀爋ne that keeps employability and student outcomes in focus throughout.

For additional background, please see:

• A recommended reading list of important themes and insights from the 2024 黑料官网 Monitor Global Summit.
• 鈥�International education has a data problem. It鈥檚 time to do something about it鈥�
• 鈥�The view from here: How the ‘Big Four’ study destinations are adapting in a year of change鈥�
• 鈥�Is employability still the holy grail for the new generation of international students?鈥�

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