Have you finalized your 2025 international student recruitment strategy yet?

Ello there, Education Marketer!

If you’ve been following the industry news, you already know about the uncertainty that looms over the higher education sector. Policy changes, elections and budget cuts are just some of the events causing education marketers some serious jitters.

While many wait, hoping for positive news, we recommend using this downtime to craft a future-proof recruitment strategy. In this edition of (Ed)vertise, we’ll cover:

1. Highlights from Keystone’s 2024 State of Student Recruitment Report
2. A look at an African Student’s decision-making process
3. Top 3 factors that influence student decision-making in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia
4. 3 African student personas to boost your local African 2025 recruitment strategy

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• Interest in internships and work placements has grown by 46% from 2023 to 2024, signalling a desire for job security and career advancement
• Students have said that information about accommodation and campus life has a great influence on their study-abroad decision-making process
• Students cited application fees and ‘unclear or missing information’ as top reasons that prevent them from applying abroad
• Affordability, unsurprisingly, is the biggest concern for students – safety and political concerns trail just behind cost in their list of concerns

Read the report here.

What does the data say about African students?

Surprisingly, social media plays an incremental role in university search, with Facebook leading the pack (33%) followed by Instagram (19.34%) and LinkedIn (19.33%).

Often viewed as thorough researchers, most African students start their search at least 6 months in advance (62.77%) and almost half apply to 2 to 3 universities. They love options too! Around 21.22% of African students apply to 4–7 universities.

Financial aid is a top concern for most applications, followed by immigration information.

Here’s a more granular look at their motivations and the information they need to make the right decision:

Agents have found that international students are increasingly basing the life-changing

decision of where to study on a range of factors, many of which are a reaction

to contemporary issues.

Here are the leading factors, as of 2023:

• Cost of studies & living abroad - ranked 1st by 41% of respondents
• The range of employment opportunities
• Immigration opportunities & visa application support

Our team recently analyzed 100+ Student Recruitment reports from 2020 to 2024. Want a cheeky peek?

-Download the Report!

With information on student’s social, economic, and cultural backgrounds, you can understand what drives them, what makes them exceptional, what they fear, and how they can feel at home at the University of Whateverington. Here's an example of how we create Student Personas for the African market.

CTA: Download the ISR deck

Here to help, always

Tired of student recruitment feeling like navigating a minefield of cultural quirks and communication gaps? The Pink Print? is a dynamic marketing research and strategy document loaded with fresh insights and targeted tactics, created by the expert education marketing team at Pink Orange. Forget the guesswork – The Pink Print? is your roadmap to reaching new markets with confidence.

Request yours today and unlock the secrets to attracting a diverse student body.

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Aaaand that’s a wrap!

We hope you enjoyed this edition of our education marketing newsletter, (Ed)vertise.

As always, let us know how we did by leaving us a message on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Until next time,

Your friends in marketing

Jayde Robertson & Ridhima Chatterjee

Follow us on LinkedIn? to keep up with our HE-nanigans.