Understanding and responding to the changing psychology and emotions of high school and college-aged youth can inform wise choices around programme development, student services, marketing strategy, and coordination with government partners and other stakeholders.

Worries about jobs and income extremely high

The OECD notes that even before the COVID crisis, youth aged 15–29 were 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed than people aged 25–64. As a result of COVID, the organisation warns that,

“Disruption in [this generation’s] access to education and employment opportunities as a result of economic downturn is likely to put the young generation on a much more volatile trajectory in finding and maintaining quality jobs and income.”

In a survey conducted across 48 countries, the OECD found that youth were far more worried about mental health, income, and employment than about their physical health (see chart below). Despite COVID-related hospitalisation rates rising for this generation, deaths are much lower than in other age groups, and this is not lost on young people looking at the next ten years of their lives and wondering how they will support themselves.

The conducted its own global COVID survey and found a high degree of resentment among youth that stems from a belief that the needs of young people are going unaddressed during the crisis in the overarching drive to protect those most at risk from the disease. Take, for example, this comment from one young interviewee from Montreal, Canada:

“We are not in this together, millennials have to take the brunt of the sacrifice in the situation. If you won’t watch out that we don’t end up jobless and poorer, why should we protect you?”

The comment testifies to the pronounced stress affecting many youth who may be more worried about their prospects after the pandemic than about contracting COVID.

Career services have never been more important

We have written extensively over the past few years about students’ rapidly increasing demand for career-oriented programmes. COVID will take this already high demand and push it to a whole other level. As soon as the pandemic eases – and even now, as millions of students anticipate leaving their countries for study abroad in the coming months and years – we can expect a new intensity of interest around:

• Graduate employability stats and testimonials from successful alumni;
• The ability to work while studying;
• Post-graduation work and immigration opportunities;
• Internship opportunities;
• Career counselling resources;
• Scholarships;
• Shorter programmes and upskilling courses.

It’s definitely time to think about whether any adjustments in the portfolio of programmes and services your institution offers are needed, as well as the way in which these are presented on the institutional website and in marketing outreach.

Affordability in focus

As well as worrying about future job prospects, students are also dealing with immediate concerns about whether they can afford to study abroad.

Affordability is already a major factor in shaping student flows to destination countries. But during the pandemic there have been disturbing accounts of increasing numbers of international students having to rely on food banks and other relief efforts for their day-to-day needs. An study reports that in Australia in 2020,

“The free food distribution charity, FoodBank, experienced a 50% increase in demand, much of it driven by international students 
 the chief executive of the organisation told of a group of students who arrived at one of their distribution points having not eaten for a week.”

The same trend of increased numbers of international students becoming food-insecure has also been observed in , the , and the United States.

Many international students have not able to work at all or enough during lockdowns. In many destinations, they have been shut out of federal relief packages to support domestic students. Though some host countries have relaxed work restrictions for international students, it has still been challenging for many students to maintain sufficient income from employment. At the same time, international students are also aware that:

• They are most often paying much higher fees than domestic students;
• They are not having the study abroad experience they expected (e.g., because they are missing out on in-person learning and cultural experiences on campus and in the surrounding community).

The COVID crisis has revealed that international students are often less financially secure than their payment of higher tuition fees might suggest. Moreover, many will be still less secure after COVID recedes and their families take stock of depleted savings.

Being aware of this, and being open to adjusting tuition/fees (and policies, at the governmental level), could well make the difference between attracting students and losing them to other countries/institutions going forward.

Coordination needed for a sustainable, competitive position

Once travel restrictions ease as vaccine rollouts begin to take effect, international students and prospects will feel a dynamic mixture of relief, excitement, and anxiety. They will face economies in various stages of recovery and intense competition for jobs. They will be looking more carefully than ever at national policies enabling them to work during study and to pursue employment after graduation, costs of living (especially accommodation) in destination countries and cities, and scholarship opportunities.

The greater the ability of governments and institutions to coordinate to create compassionate, relevant policies and experiences for COVID-affected international students, the greater will be their ability to compete for these students in a post-pandemic world.

For additional background, please see:

• “New research shows that consumers are evaluating brands differently in the pandemic”
• “șÚÁÏčÙÍű Exchange Podcast: Financial solutions for international students”
• “International students increasingly willing to switch destinations for in-person learning”

The post How the pandemic is shaping the expectations and decisions of international students appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Speaking at the , WYSE Research Advisor Greg Richards noted that the rapid growth of this segment has been driven by inexpensive travel options, the rise of collaborative, freelance work, and by a host of enabling services and tools, including mobile devices and co-working spaces.

Even before COVID-19, there were pronounced trends toward remote work, even among those permanently employed with an organisation. The pandemic has of course been a major accelerator of this trend. Nearly everyone became a remote worker this year, and the post-COVID workplace will likely look very different in the years ahead. Professor Richards notes that US office space is expected to contract by 17% this year and that eight in ten companies say the plan to continue to allow their staff to work remotely (at least part of the time). Most workers (71%) say they would also like to keep the flexibility of working remotely after the pandemic subsides.

WYSE, through its research series, has estimated the global population of digital nomads at roughly two million as of 2017.

Pieter Levels, who runs the destination ranking site , has projected that the global population for this segment will reach one billion by 2035. “Before the pandemic, we might have seen this as ideological dreaming,” says Professor Richards. “But maybe now we might think that the reality would get somewhere closer to the one billion mark by 2035.”

Who are the digital nomads?

The New Horizons research indicates as well that this is a segment that skews a bit older than the traditional student travel market, is well educated, and has the means to self-fund travel and related experiences.

WYSE notes that the core of the digital nomad market is aged 26-to-29-years-old, and that more than seven in ten have at least a first university degree.

Most of these travellers undertake trips of one to two months in duration. Most are based in North America and Europe, and there is an interesting correspondence between the most popular destinations for these travellers and the top study destinations globally. The United States, France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and Australia, for example, are all among the top destination choices for nomads, and are also to be found at the top of the table of global study destinations.

Not surprisingly, these travellers rely heavily on online sources (bloggers and video bloggers, in particular) for trip planning. And also as we might expect, this is a segment whose average travel spend well exceeds those of neighbouring cohorts as they are working, both before and during their travels.

WYSE Travel Confederation’s September 2020 COVID-19 Travel Business Impact Survey found that 20% of members had already introduced new programmes and services specifically targeted to digital nomads, including co-working facilities, improved Internet access, online courses, and other digital services.

A new student segment?

So here we have a rapidly growing travel segment – well-educated, well-funded, and committed to travel and new experiences. This raises a number of questions for operators in the youth travel industry but for international educators as well.

Are there opportunities, for example, for schools to adapt their offerings to better target nomads through an expansion of co-working spaces and services for mobile workers? Or might higher education institutions expand their slate of micro-credentials or other alternative qualifications for remote workers who would like to combine flexible work commitments with skills upgrading abroad?

Whatever the case, Professor Richards advises anyone targeting this segment to think in terms of building community and relationships within the digital nomad segment and to “think digital”. “These people are online all the time,” he says. “They want to be able to receive information digitally and to be able to do everything online. If you are not providing services digitally, you are not in the market.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Reaching millennials: Make it fast but keep it real”
• “Instagram’s profound effect on travel destination choice”
• “Demand for online learning and alternative credentials surges during COVID-19”

The post Could digital nomads be an important growth segment for student travel? appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The report aims to describe the scale and structure of the student group travel sector – a category that is broadly framed to include study tours, language studies, college tours, volunteer placements, and other short-term group programmes. It reflects responses from 149 student tour operators from 26 countries across the world which collectively delivered programmes for 1.8 million travelling students. Both SYTA members and non-members participated in the survey.

Student tour operators and agencies whose business is sending students on both domestic and international trips composed 58% of the market represented by the survey, while domestic-only operators accounted for 24% and international-only operators made up 18%.

Carylann Assante, SYTA’s CEO, explains the importance of the report:

“Our 2019 Business Barometer shows that the student and youth group travel industry is a significant industry segment that was on course to achieve its greatest year ever, prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic brought that growth to a screeching halt, but the great value in our Business Barometer is that we now have a benchmark of real data that we can use to measure growth as we hopefully move into recovery phase in late 2020, 2021, and beyond.”

Growth in 2019

Roughly half of student tour operators reported that demand for international student travel in 2019 had increased over the previous year. That pattern peaked in Q3 2019, with 56% of respondents reporting increased programme volumes for that quarter compared to the same period in 2018.

Ms Assante notes that increased demand in 2019 bodes well for the prospect of a strong recovery once the threat of Covid-19 has diminished and school trips resume:

“We hope that these numbers predict a good sign for recovery later this year and into 2021. If we can count on the strength of Q1, Q2, and Q4 in 2019, we are optimistic that we may be able to see a rebound in business in Q4 of 2020 and Q1 and Q2 of 2021. Of course the majority of our business is derived from school trips, so school openings around the world will be the real determinant of our recovery.”

Other data shows that:

• May is the most important month of the year in terms of the volume of students travelling abroad; on average, each tour operator helped 1,160 students to participate in short-term student travel programmes in May.
• January and July are the months in which students spend the longest time abroad: 10.9 and 10.3 days respectively.
• March and February are the months in which the biggest groups of students travel for short-term exchanges.
• Each quarter of 2019 saw a different kind of exchange become more popular: educational travel dominated in Q1 and Q2, school and college tours led in Q3, and community service and volunteering programs became the most popular in Q4.

 A different time

As recent as the report is, its findings point to a much different pre-pandemic time in the industry and in the world. For example, though safety was growing a concern for student travellers in 2019, students’ top priorities for their trips abroad were cost and content (i.e., programme/area of study). And as much as tour operators used mobile applications and social media for business in 2019, only a minority were using GPS technology to track their students on exchanges. It will hardly be surprising to see safety becoming more important even than cost going forward and to see participant tracking or monitoring become more common at a time where contact tracing is crucial in the fight against coronavirus.

Ms Assante adds,

“We anticipate that we may find some striking differences in the attitudes of operators and their customers to all of these issues in 2020 and beyond. Health and safety will be #1 on each operator’s list of priorities for certain, and we expect both technology and sustainability to play a far greater role as trip planning transforms in a post-COVID student travel industry.”

For additional background, please see:

• “COVID-19 restrictions “unprecedented” in history of international travel”
• “Erasmus+ funding outlook for 2021 and beyond becomes more clear”
• “Specialised camps are raising the bar for junior programmes”

The post New study benchmarks global student group travel market appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

These surveys provide some early indicators of how the pandemic is influencing student planning for study abroad and we have some updated findings below. We should start though with some obvious caveats that attach to their findings.

First, these reflect only student intent or expectation with respect to study plans, and that intention is taking shape alongside a number of related factors that are still very much in motion. For example, will campuses and schools re-open between now and September? And what sort of online or blended learning options will be on offer either way? Will travel restrictions ease – and international flight services and visa processing resume – in time for students to travel for their planned programme starts? And, given the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic, can students and families still plan to fund programmes abroad in the way they had expected to even a few short months ago? In the end, these are some of the key factors that will determine how the intent that is being measured here will convert down the enrolment funnel through this year and into 2021.

Second, these results reflect intent at a point in time and are likely to change. In fact, one of the most important observations that can be made of the survey data we have to this point is that student perceptions of the pandemic and its effects are shifting quickly.

The largest available survey at the moment comes from Quacquarelli Symonds (), whose pulse survey has been in the field since 14 February. To date, the survey has gathered more than 24,000 responses from prospective international students, and QS has been tracking results week-by-week over this period.

As the following chart reflects, student sentiment has shifted considerably from February through the end of April. At the start of the survey cycle, roughly 60% said that their plans were unaffected. But by mid-March, only a month later, that number had fallen to 16%, with 50% of respondents saying their plans had been impacted at that point and another 34% saying they did not yet know if their plans would change. Those values stabilised through April with six in ten students saying their plans had been affected and another 25-27% saying they were unsure of the impacts. As of the end of April, only 10% of prospective students said that their plans have not been affected.

We can also see a shift in student response when they were asked how their plans have been affected by the virus. The next chart below shows that from February through April, deferring or delaying planned programme starts has become the preferred course of action for students.

The bright spot in this is that the proportion of students who say they no longer plan to study overseas has actually declined, from 10% in February to 5% in April. So too has the proportion who said they would opt to study in a different country than they originally planned. “Ultimately, we see this as a good sign,” says QS Marketing Director Paul Raybould, “in that the appetite for international study is still very much there despite the current circumstances and the initial knee-jerk reaction from those that planned to study in a different country or to not study overseas at all has diminished as the weeks have gone on.”

That general pattern of shifting-but-stabilising student opinion is reflected in another student survey from . While based on a smaller cumulative sample of roughly 1,000 prospective students, it also highlights a shift in student intent over March and April.

The following chart shows the proportion of respondents who said they had changed their study plans because of the pandemic. The survey cycles reflected below track weekly responses over four weeks from mid-March through mid-April, and here again we see that the proportion of students affected increased notably over this period and began to level off.

Also interesting in the StudyPortals findings is that when asked how their plans had changed, nearly half (49.5%) said that they would defer or delay their planned programme starts and another 42% said that they would pursue their studies online. Those proportions held relatively steady in the StudyPortals sample over the four weeks for which results are currently available.

These overall patterns are reinforced in a third tracking study that comes to us from whose ongoing survey has collected more than 7,400 responses to date from prospective or current international students, with most of that data coming in between 16 March and 22 April.

The educations.com findings demonstrate again that only a small proportion of respondents (5.4%) now expect to cancel their plans for study abroad, while nearly half (45%) are interested in at least beginning their programmes online. Commenting on the stability in student intent over the second half of March and first half of April, educations.com adds that, “We saw very few changes in the opinions and decisions made in response to COVID-19. We believe that this is because, for the international student community, there are still so many unknown factors regarding [the pandemic’s] impact on plans.”

For additional background, please see:

• “On campus or online? Looking ahead to the coming academic year”
• “Looking ahead: Scenario planning and recovery forecasts for international education”
• “New survey data measures student intent for study abroad”

The post Tracking student intent for study abroad through April appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

“The pandemic has disrupted learning for 9 out of 10 students around the world (87%), .”

This proportion is largely due to the severe lockdowns that remain in place in many countries. Much of the world’s population has been ordered to “stay home” except in the case of essential workers and exceptional circumstances. And staying home, for most, means more consumption of digital content than ever before.

It also means that many students at all levels of education – from K-12 to language studies to university degrees – have made an abrupt shift to online learning within the last few months. As public health measures led to rapid campus and school closures, and as widespread travel restrictions brought a halt to student mobility, institutions and schools quickly introduced or expanded online programmes. Many of those immediate moves to online were essentially a stopgap measure to minimise disruption to students and allow for teaching and learning to continue during the lockdown period.

But how are students adjusting to virtual learning so far? On the one hand, they’re digital natives, so it’s not much of a stretch to go to school online. On the other, most made an explicit choice to learn in a classroom or on campus and they want the immersive and social networked experience that in-person learning provides. And there have certainly been some bumps in the road and quality concerns as institutions worked to quickly ramp up online programming. In fact, there are already examples of students banding together in protest.

For example, nearly 2,000 students at the University of Chicago have signed a petition that argues that tuition should be halved for the spring semester. The university has already reduced student services fees but students say it’s not enough. One student had this to say about how she feels about studying right now:

“It’s a throwaway – a shortened quarter. They took away one week of the quarter. I do not feel like I am getting the same education that I would have otherwise. The sort of enrichment and learning that I would have in the classroom isn’t there.”

Chicago isn’t the only US university where students are upset about the fact that tuition wasn’t lowered when classes transitioned online. Students attending the University of Miami and Drexel University are , claiming that their universities are asking them to pay for classes that cost less to deliver and are less effective.

For their part, the universities facing student protests such as these say that the online learning protocol is both necessary (because of the need for physical distancing) and convenient because students remain on track towards obtaining degrees or other credentials. Chicago students were also told in March and early April that they could obtain a full tuition refund if they asked for a voluntary leave of absence by 10 April. The university adds,

“We recognise that spring quarter will be different than anyone anticipated, but these changes are necessary to safeguard members of our community. On tuition, we take into account that the cost is a reflection of progress toward a degree. UChicago instructors are adapting courses to a remote learning environment to ensure that students continue to receive a rigorous, transformative education.”

Steep learning curve

In fact, a decision to cut tuition fees could be ruinous for many schools and universities experiencing new costs due to investments in online platforms and technologies. COVID-19 has been so disruptive to operations and created such a need for speed – in terms of how quickly institutions can move online – that online learning platforms such as Open Classrooms, FutureLearn, and Coursera are seeing a surge in demand and also offering free content to schools and universities.

, a Paris-based platform offering online bachelor’s and master’s degrees complete with one-on-one mentorship to students, has responded to the pandemic by offering free content to universities. Open Classrooms has now rolled out in many European countries as well as the UK, the US, Canada, and several African nations.

Pierre Dubuc, the company’s founder and chief, said there are now 1,200 institutions and 120,000 students participating in Open Classrooms. “We’ve seen it ramping up as more and more regions in the world move to a lockdown,” he told . He noted that Open Classrooms is being used both as a stand-alone platform for institutions that have never had to offer online instruction and as an additional resource for universities that already have a platform.

Open Classrooms also offers training for teachers on how to instruct online. As Mr Dubuc notes, “online is different to face-to-face; you can’t just provide a two-hour video lecture, it doesn’t work 
 it’s a different culture.”

executives also quickly grasped the huge need for universities to quickly impart online teaching skills to their professors. FutureLearn Campus’s Simon Nelson said, “We realised we couldn’t hand-hold everyone through this, so we decided to develop a course called ‘How to Teach Online’.” Roughly 30,000 people signed up in the span of just few days.

Mr Nelson doubts that there will be a return to normal:

“I just can’t see people going back to the way it was, not only because there is a high chance that an outbreak like this will happen again, but because the crisis has shown up inefficiencies in university business models and challenged perceptions about online learning.”

Open Classroom’s Mr Dubuc also believes that online learning works best when it doesn’t try to replicate in-class lectures but rather offers “more learning-by-doing, project-based or competencies-based pedagogies, group projects and that kind of thing, which have a greater connection to career prospects.” As we’ve reported on recently, this type of learning was already very much in demand even before COVID-19.

Jeff Maggioncalda, chief executive of , adds that he anticipates a post-COVID-19 learning landscape in which students will once again want to be on campus for the physical experience it provides, but also one in which blended learning will be the norm. “Institutions will see that they are genuinely able to offer this 
 we won’t go back to normal,” he said.

Lowering stress for faculty and students

Different levels of Internet access and comfort with interacting online – to say nothing of teaching across time zones and languages – can all contribute to feelings of confusion and frustration with online teaching and learning. Here are a few tips for instructors and institutions:

1. Show you care: If online instruction is not as good as your institution would like it to be, and there is no quick or easy solution, prioritise authentic, caring communication. Acknowledge that things aren’t ideal but that you’re working on it and standing by to answer any questions and help with issues students may be facing. Faculty can share stories with their students of their challenges and situations (e.g., having young children at home, caring for elderly parents, instructing online for the first time) so that students understand that they aren’t alone in facing up to inconvenience or challenges. Ideally, have faculty and staff check in at least once every 24 hours to respond to students’ questions quickly so that frustrating delays don’t add to students’ list of dissatisfaction with their current circumstances.

2. Be flexible: Just as students are having to be flexible in terms of how they are learning (a major disappointment for many who looked forward to travelling to a foreign campus), be flexible with them, as well. For example, you might offer “live” discussions but make it clear that attendance is optional (and/or record the sessions for later viewing), since some students’ time zones simply won’t permit it. Similarly, since students in some countries will see assignments posted many hours later than those in other countries, offer more flexible deadlines for assignment delivery. Students in countries with significant Internet restrictions, such as China, may have difficulty accessing assigned readings or other resources so making alternative readings and assignments available is a must. On this point, the Study in Australia website provides some helpful guidance for delivering online learning programmes for students in China.

3. Drop credit requirements in cases where students simply can’t – through no fault of their own – complete what would normally be necessary. For example, at the University of Washington, in the department of dance, instructors are grading students only on the work they have already submitted for the dance technique component. Jennifer Salk, the chair of the department, explained to that, “Our students are dispersing all over the world 
. they might have a three-by-three space to move in. Safety and viability and integrity would be lost.”

4. Add additional – optional – content at no additional cost (if possible) to make up for areas in which students won’t get proper instruction. For example, the dance department at the University of Washington added some “small, not-for-credit technique course options specifically designed for small spaces.”

5. Don’t encumber students with too many resources. Simple is best. Students want to quickly understand what they have to do – using which tools – to progress in their courses. Don’t make them wade around in a poorly designed website interface to find what they’re looking for.

6. Provide faculty with as much training and assistance as possible as they navigate these completely unchartered waters, and that can help faculty transform their content into digital courses.

7. Keep the campus connection going. Even if students aren’t “on” your campus, they can still feel a part of it. Run contests for school-themed prizes and dream up fun ideas for students to share their passions and personalities “on campus” even when they’re not there. This Presence.com [link to https://www.presence.io/blog/53-virtual-activity-ideas-to-keep-college-students-engaged-during-COVID-19/ ] article offers myriad ideas for how to stimulate engagement, including sharing music playlists, making room (“dorm” decorations), showcasing funny pets, launching e-scavenger hunts, and many more.

For additional background, please see:

• “COVID-19: Social media engagement is up and so is interest in learning online”
• “On-campus or online: looking ahead to the coming academic year”
• “Language training moves online as COVID-19 forces suspension of face-to-face programmes”

The post With 9 in 10 students affected by COVID-19 closures, how is the shift to online going so far? appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

One early student survey from QS provides some important insights in this respect. was first put in the field in mid-February and has gathered more than 11,000 responses from students in the weeks since.

Two important methodology notes about the QS survey:

• All respondents are prospective international students that are, as QS explains, in the “consideration and research” phase of planning for study abroad
• All respondents are planning for university studies abroad, whether for a first degree or for advanced qualifications

With those important qualifiers in mind, the survey results provide an indication of how student planning for study abroad was impacted throughout the month of March.

As the following chart reflects, at the survey’s inception in mid-February slightly less than 30% of responding students indicated that the pandemic would affect their plans for study abroad. Around that same time, another 10-15% of respondents said they were unsure whether their plans would be affected.

As the survey period continued through mid-March – and as the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak became more clear – the proportion of students saying that their plans would be impacted began to grow, passing the 50% mark in the third week of March. During that period, the proportion of students who said they were unsure about how the coronavirus would affect their plans also grew to roughly 30%. This means that, within this survey sample, just about nine in ten students said their plans had been affected, or at least had become more uncertain.

The survey also explored how student planning was being impacted, and we see this reflected in the additional chart below. Tracking student responses week by week from mid-February through end of March, the survey shows a growing proportion of students planning to defer their programme starts to 2021. As of the last week of March, nearly two-thirds of prospective students (65%) indicated that they were planning to delay their studies.

Also of note, the results show through most of March a declining proportion of students saying that they no longer want to study overseas.  

The overall picture in the survey findings is that demand for study abroad remains steady with most students planning to following through on their intent to study abroad. But the responses also clearly reflect that most will adjust their plans to begin their university programmes in 2021. This reflects in part the great uncertainty in the marketplace currently with respect to travel restrictions, university and school operations, the economic climate, and more.

Those broad patterns are reflected as well in a separate effort from educations.com. Drawing on a smaller sample size of 2,500 students, educations.com found that only a small percentage (4.7%) indicated that they would abandon their study plans.

More than four in ten (43.1%) said they would postpone their studies with another 38.7% saying they did not yet know how their plans would be affected. Keeping in mind that those survey results were mostly gathered around the middle of March, we can imagine that the percentage planning to postpone will have increased in the weeks since in keeping with the QS findings.

But the overall pattern in the survey results is that most students still intend to pursue study abroad, even if they have to delay their studies (in the case of prospective students) or if they have to interrupt their programmes this year to return home earlier than planned (in the case of students already abroad).

The educations.com survey remains open at this time and we will update this post with any further findings that become available.

For additional background, please see:

• “Survey measures the expected impacts of COVID-19 across education sectors and regions”
• “Resetting international recruitment for extraordinary times”
• “Adjusting to the new normal of international travel”

The post New survey data measures student intent for study abroad appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

A growing body of research is showing that Instagram now plays a considerable role in influencing where people decide to go in the world. has found that:

• 70% of “travel enthusiasts” (people using travel-oriented hashtags) share their travel plans on Instagram;
• 67% of them use Instagram to find inspiration for where to go next.

And there’s inspiration aplenty. Check out (40 million+ posts) or , for example, and within a minute you’ll feel a strong need to go somewhere you had never thought of before.

People look for proof of a worthwhile destination

As digital agency notes, many Instagram users are “millennials who consider it vital to be seen as a ‘traveller’ rather than a ‘tourist.’ For [them], it’s important that their trip is an experience worth sharing.”

In fact, one UK-based study found, astonishingly, that over 40% of 1,000 millennials it surveyed prioritised a destination’s “Instagrammability.” This is the top driver, ahead of personal development, sightseeing, and the opportunity to sample local cuisine. However you feel about that, the fact is that many students today are looking to increase their followers, likes, and comments on Instagram and will be hoping that their study abroad experience fuels this goal.

The example of Iceland

Gunnar Frey, a destination marketer whose @icelandic_explorer posts aim to draw visitors to Iceland told Canada’s Global News, “Instagram has ‘been really inspiring people to go and do interesting things. It brings a big world to a small place.’” And Iceland’s official tourism board told the media site that “a lot of people first become aware of the country as a destination through social media, with a big part of that being Instagram.”

The example of Iceland underlines:

1. That education institutions should include Instagram hashtags related to their community, city, or country destination (e.g., if you were a school in Iceland, #exploreiceland is a hashtag on close to half a million posts right now);
2. That students will be looking for places to take optimal selfies to share while studying (so think of some great places and publish them on the website, on social media, etc.);
3. That small schools, like small destinations like Iceland, can have a strong “Insta-game” and draw prospects using well-considered strategies around the platform.

Ideas and strategies

Selfie-starters: Though students will come up with their own ways to take selfies, it certainly won’t hurt to get the ball rolling with some ready-to-go “moments” for them. Nomadic suggests creating “special backdrops, art installations, or photobooth style setups” that can help to brand your institution on Instagram.

Influencers: We’ve long emphasised the key role student ambassadors can play, and this has never been more important than in today’s Instagram culture. Do some research about which students are posting great pictures and stories about your school and engage with them. found that 34% of Instagram users in the US made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation; roughly a quarter of Facebook and Twitter users had as well.

Once you’ve identified some student influencers, find out what niche passions they have. Is it cooking? Hiking? Art? All these interests suggest opportunities for your school to hop on board and provide inspiration for them.

Let’s say one of your influential students shares recipes on their Instagram. Feature one of their recipes on your school’s feed and ask your followers to check out their posts! The example below is a variation on this idea, where Buzzfeed featured one of their staff member’s recipes:

As for the optimal number of followers your influencers should have, it’s not necessarily huge. Hootsuite notes that,

“A smaller follower count can be very powerful if it’s a niche area 
 niche influencers can have very dedicated and engaged followers. The latest development is the emergence of nano-influencers. These influencers can have as few as 1,000 followers, but their word is gold to their dedicated fans.”

Just as important as follower count is whether the influencer is liked and trusted by the specific people you’re trying to reach: prospects in target markets. As Hootsuite says, “You want to see plenty of views, likes, comments, and shares from the precise follower segments you’re trying to reach.”

Geo-tagging: reports that “posts tagged with a location get 79% more engagement than those without.” And of course geo-tagging also links your school to a destination. Enough said!

Better performance for educators

On a final note, another from Trackmaven found that higher education institutions got more than 10x the interactions on Instagram than on any other major platform, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

For additional background, please see:

• “3 smart ways to give recruitment marketing a boost”
• “The opportunity of student comments on Instagram”
• “Let them talk: the power of student reviews”
• “Are you paying enough attention to Instagram?”

The post Instagram’s profound effect on travel destination choice appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The whitepaper, How prospective students use Instagram comments, discusses TAP’s research that looked at “a random selection of comments on posts on the Instagram accounts of 18 UK universities.” The research explores what kinds of questions students are asking in their comments and whether universities are answering these enquiries as well as they could be.

In short, the research found that many universities are not leveraging the comments sections of their Instagram posts, which means there’s a lot of opportunity being left on the table – opportunity to engage students and convert their interest into enrolments.

The potential of engaging with comments

TAP notes that Instagram comments – specifically questions asked in comments – present “a huge amount of potential value” for universities:

“They are indicative of strong engagement on the part of the prospective student, and offer the opportunity to strike up a two-way, conversational interaction.”

A significant number of questions

TAP found that international students’ comments made up 34% of total comments observed, compared with 66% of domestic students. Given that international students make up only 19% of higher education students in the UK, their questions make up a disproportionate share of total enquiries. The takeaway here is that international students are definitely using Instagram as a way of finding out information that will influence their decision-making regarding study abroad.

The whitepaper considers that the reasons underlying international students’ relatively heavy use of Instagram comments may be “the immediacy the interaction offers, despite the restriction of geographical distance, and the fact that a lower command of written English is necessary to compose a short question.”

Top topics

More than 70% of all enquiries filed by prospective students – both domestic and international – fell into the following general areas:

• Admissions processes;
• Specific subject and course information;
• Social life and environment of the university.

Another 21% were questions concerning accommodation, scholarships, and facilities, while 9% consisted of requests for further content, conversations, and assistance.

Looking for community, accommodation, and scholarships

International students commenting on Instagram posts were particularly interested in knowing how many students from their home country or ethnic group were already enrolled at the university. Other topics raised in comments were about cultural/international student societies and the availability of pastoral support. A general line of questioning had to do with wondering about social life on campus as well as what local attractions were popular for students.

Not surprisingly, students from emerging markets often require some financial aid to be able to study abroad, international students often asked about the availability of scholarships as well as individual eligibility requirements. Cost came up as well in their queries about accommodation; they are naturally motivated to find out if they will be able to afford living in a country/city while studying there.

Opportunity lost

TAP found that only 55% of questions submitted through comments on Instagram posts were responded to by university staff, with 45% going unanswered. TAP’s Head of Community and Content, Dave Musson, commented on the significance of this finding:

“Not only is it best practice to answer genuine questions on social media – and to do so within 24 hours if possible – but it’s even more important when it comes to Instagram comments. Why so? Well, those comments are publicly available – they’re ideal for those prospective students who might not feel confident enough asking a question themselves but are keen to find out as much information as possible. Not only that, it just doesn’t look very good if questions are being left unanswered; social media is a space for engagement and conversation, not just broadcasting messages.”

The TAP research did find, however, that when university staff took the time to answer students’ questions, they generally did a good job at it. Mr Musson adds that,

“Our research also highlighted how good universities are at that engagement piece when they do answer questions; they give out information about courses, accommodation, campus facilities, admissions and plenty more and these answers are almost always helpful and really add value – not only to the person who asked it, but to anyone else who might come across it too.”

Barriers to best practices

Regarding the lower-than-ideal response rate on the part of UK universities to Instagram comments, the TAP report points to the significant amount of “noise” – chatter and comments that hold no significance masking those that demand a response – surrounding popular university posts. TAP suggests that,

“Questions asked by prospective students in a post’s comment section could be augmented and capitalised on more effectively by universities if ‘triaged’ in a more strategic manner. This may require greater coordination between marketing/social media and recruitment functions within the institution.”

Further, in comments to șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor, Mr Musson notes that,

“It’s fine for an initial answer to a question on social media to be something along the lines of ‘thanks for your question, we’ll check with the relevant team and come back to you as soon as possible.’ Not only does it buy you time to get your answer, but it’s a great way to acknowledge the questions and make a commitment to answering it, which is excellent for building trust with your audience.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Are you paying enough attention to Instagram?”
• “Internet trends report highlights online learning and visual marketing”
• “Five ways to freshen up your online marketing”
• “The new rules of digital marketing”
• “Where the students are: mobile, messaging, and apps”

The post The opportunity of student comments on Instagram appeared first on șÚÁÏčÙÍű Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.