Week of July 18, 2022

In our day-to-day professional work in international education, we all struggle to manage information flow, identify opportunities, synthesize possible solutions, and act appropriately to better ourselves, our audiences, and our world. To help in this often overwhelming task, Social Media & International Education (SMIE) Consulting offers this free weekly e-news brief to share our perspectives and to provide some wisdom along the way. Happy reading!

Social Media News

• No lie, it warmed my heart to hear this session at IntlACAC last week! As we say in the 6 Ps of SIEM, let your current students’ (Peers’) voices be heard as you recruit on the social media channels (Platforms) where future students live.
• Though this Intead report is a couple years old, the truths and significant data points are worth including on why peer-to-peer recruitment should be leveraged (as well as how, when, and where) to reach intl student audiences.
• Pleased to see a company like Sinorbis expanding into Europe and Canada/US to help equip institutions reach Chinese student audiences in ways traditional social media and web marketing plans simply cannot. Quality.
• We all (should) know about China’s unique social media and web ecosystem. On the web the Chinese Communist Party has been using search engines to tightly control how the party line is represented, squashing dissenting opinions.
• If you think you understand social media, just wait a few months, it will change. To keep up, check out this Wednesday webinar from Hootsuite on what trends from the beginning of 2022 have come true and which have not (yet).
• How do you build strong connections on social media with your institution’s strategy? If you need some guidance, the team at Social Media Examiner has identified 4 ways to use emotional social media content to do so.

International Education News

Big Picture Issues

• As a reconciliation defense bill made its way through the House last week, at least two intl ed amendments learned their fates: Green cards for STEM PhDs failed on a technicality, but protection for H-4 dependents about to age out passed.
• If you ask ten folks who work with agents at different universities: what are agent aggregators , you’ll likely get ten different answers. Do they all have the same services? No. Do any of them really produce? Good question. How do you define success?
• US consulates in India are doing everything they can to meet student visa demand. F-1 visas issued in the first 4.5 months of 2022 were almost 160% more than those issued in the same period in 2019, pre-pandemic. Encouraging!
• In the strange news section, we found this headline on a New England university site where agreements were signed with a boarding school in Maine and an American school in Morocco to allow for “conditional” admissions for intl students enrolled in those English language medium high schools. Que pasa?
• You’ve probably heard of microcredentials , but are you leveraging those your institution offers to recruit intl students or have policies in place that would allow students to transfer in these digital badges and certificates to degree programs?

Solutions Central

• Happy to share this story from University Affairs (in Canada) that profiles Educational Credential Evaluators (on whose board of directors I serve) as an important partner to help institutions manage increased application flows.
• Very interesting ICEF Agent Voice survey results from the first half of 2022. Visa denial rates are seen as a big challenge, despite increased interest from students in certain major destination markets. USA, UK, Canada up, Australia/NZ neutral, China down.
• If your institution needs to diversify its intl student enrollment pipeline beyond China and India, you may want to register for this Wednesday afternoon (2pm ET) webinar from the Chronicle and ETS TOEFL.
• Is the rise of an application-less student college selection process coming closer? Could be as a 2nd company, Sage Scholars (which focuses on domestic students), joins Concourse (intl students) in providing colleges the chance to choose students based on their profiles.

Global Roundup

• Global - This recent Navitas agent survey (700 respondents) paints the picture of the 4 major destination markets’ strengths and weaknesses based on the current visa situation for each country.
• Australia - The intl ed sector Down Under needs a reboot with the new Labour government because “Covid has smashed international education. Being told to go home or being left to rely on the kindness of charity also hasn’t helped.”
• Australia - Current intl student visa holders for Australia are around 415K. Over 25% are still studying outside the country. Of the total number - 25% are Chinese students, 50% of whom are still studying from home.
• China - These are the kinds of stories that really make you realize we often don’t know the half of it when it comes to connections students do or not have with shadowy, nefarious organizations . Trust the process when it comes to student visas.
• China - What is the most popular academic unit at Peking University? It’s likely the liberal arts Yuanpei College would not be at the top of that list, but it has grown into such a powerhouse that it attracts some of the best students in the country every year.
• China - As far as entry into China , the latest news suggests things have gotten “easier” but only just. It’s gone from 21 days to only 10 of mandatory quarantine, and eliminated the PU letter requirement. Still not enough to allow US reps to travel yet.
• India - While this story is more about how pathway providers have had to change tack two or three times over the last decade, the mention of Shorelight’s shift to direct graduate program recruitment in India suggests a further evolution.
• Italy - While one lead gen provider’s changes in student search numbers don’t necessarily reflect a new reality globally, the fact that English language programs taught in Italy are growing significantly is worth keeping an eye on in the years to come.
• New Zealand - Once the darling of the “little engines that could” international student destination countries, New Zealand now faces a long road back due to the slowed reopening, some predicting it will take until the end of the decade to reach pre-Covid levels.
• Nigeria - Last week's article on the challenges the growing Nigerian student market has getting student visas for most all major destination countries is backed up in this piece from ICEF, then there's the added complication of foreign exchange challenges.
• Sweden - How has this Nordic country fared before, during, and after Covid? Sweden , like most all saw dips in both inbound and outbound students during the pandemic, but now seems to be back up beyond pre-pandemic new intl student numbers.
• Turkey - Fascinating to see Turkey’s rise as a major intl student destination market. Over the last ten years overseas student numbers have risen from 45K to over 200K, driven in part by a popular new Turkish govt scholarship program .
• United Kingdom - With UCAS intl app numbers showing modest increases this year, due to slightly larger increases from non-EU students vs. another significant drop in EU apps. China, Nigeria, and India lead the increase.
• United Kingdom - Some people ask me why I focus so much on international ed issues in other countries. This story from the UK represent what most of us in the field inherently know but need reminders regularly on how global events impact what we do.
• United Kingdom - We think we’re rankings obsessed among college leaders in the US. This study shares a bit different take on how damaging this obsession can be in the UK for non-Russell Group institutions financially.

SMIE Consulting Midweek Roundup

If you’d like a more in-depth analysis of the main news stories each week, check out our Midweek Roundup international education live chat on Wednesday at 1pm ET on the SMIE Consulting Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter feed , and LinkedIn . A podcast version is available as well on all major podcast provider platforms.