In our day-to-day professional work in #intled, 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!
- If you’re looking for a grant with a Latin American partner institution, check out this Partners of the Americas webinar next month that covers the latest competition. This round is for inclusive climate action and student exchange.
- Understanding international students’ habit and preferences requires digging into the data. This upcoming Net Natives and IDP Connect webinar should prove to be a useful exploration of important trends.
- This coming Thursday, I’d recommend registering for this ICEF webinar on the evolving necessity for quality CRM in international student recruitment and proper communication flow messaging.
- Is your institution worrying about the pending domestic demographic cliff? If you’re looking for potential solutions the folks at BridgeU have prepared an analysis of over 250,000 international school applications as a possible answer.
- While you may think AI in admissions might be focused on anti-ChatGPT measures, this Inside Higher Ed piece shares ways offices are using AI to read transcripts and other interesting potential uses.
- For those hoping the ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) furor over providing the Chinese government access to user data, this ex-employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit should give you reason for pause.
- Searching for a useful guide on all the latest industry trends and data for social media marketing? Look no further than this report from the team at Social Media Examiner.
International Education News
- The next EducationUSA Regional Forum will be this October for the South and Central Asia region in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. For me, this is a must attend event on my recruitment and partnership building activities.
- Glad to see Ohio State weighing in on this potentially devastating bill to public universities’ international efforts in China as well as DEI on campus if passed by the Ohio House and signed by Governor DeWine.
- Rather depressing to see this new cottage industry sprouting up to provide wealthy parents another potential tool to add to their children’s resume when applying to the most selective institutions. Is this really necessary?
- International students are considered in diversity numbers by the US Dept of Education. How does your institution rate in terms of overall diversity? Check out this searchable database to find out.
- China’s value to U.S. colleges and universities is significant. If you don’t think the rash of states implementing or considering passing legislation that limits access particularly for public institutions to China is a major concern, time to wake up.
- Vietnam continues to be a top six source of international students to the US with nearly 30,000 in the latest SEVIS by the Numbers report for 2022. As this article points out Vietnamese students are now considering many destination nations.
- Looking for East Asian diversity on campus beyond China? If so, part one of Intead’s When Traditional Markets Weaken series profiles the various strengths of Japan, S. Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Worth a quick read.
- Part two of the Intead series on East and South Asian markets to consider includes a decent analysis of Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Some excellent opportunities in these populous nations.
- Competition is what makes us better. But we have to ensure we can compete with our rivals. Our STEM pipeline of domestic talent can’t keep up, no matter how much money we’ve thrown at our secondary education. Look abroad!
- Australia - This opinion piece on what Australia’s international ed sector needs to do to increase their “social license to operate:” better preparation of students before departure/support after arrival, educate employers, and celebrate their contributions to society.
- Australia - For the country that pioneered utilizing agents back in the 80s to recruit international students, a bit of a shocker to see how “unregulated” the system has become. Even more a concern that govt. officials help facilitate the “loophole” transfers.
- Canada - This Times of India article shares how successful Indian students have been in securing not only post-study work opportunities in Canada, but also how many (likely a majority) are successful in obtaining permanent residency there.
- Canada - Agents who send students to Canada may likely see some new guidelines and restrictions put in place next year as the government looks to redefine its international education strategy due to recent high profile, damaging cases.
- China - Interesting Behind the Great Wall perspective from this Global Times piece that celebrates how a Chinese student waved his country’s flag to applause at his graduation ceremony from a US university.
- Hong Kong - Even Hong Kong universities acknowledge their need to diversify their international student recruitment beyond China. This SAR is looking to spend $10 million to do so, targeting Vietnam and Malaysia first.
- New Zealand - Student visa numbers are up for New Zealand’s unis, but the polytechnics are lagging behind pre-pandemic. Interestingly, Chinese students are the most populous, with Indian students dropping.
- New Zealand - There has been an interesting further shift in interest in New Zealand amongst prospective international students (beyond India and China) with South Africa and the Philippines being 3rd & 4th among new student visa applicants.
- United Kingdom - Those in the higher ed sector in the UK are using every argument possible to fight the pending cuts to student dependents allowed in country including pointing to the 3-year jump in international student revenue from 31.3 to 41.9 billion pounds.
- United Kingdom - With almost a 10:1 positive benefit-to-cost ratio in terms of international students financial impact on the UK, you be forgiven for being gobsmacked at the government’s willingness to limit new arrivals.
- United Kingdom - Twenty-three British universities have been warned by a government watchdog agency that they risk their financial stability by being too reliant on Chinese students. When even the government sees the danger, it’s hard not to respond.
- United Kingdom - What does the pending dependent ban for one-year master’s degree students mean? “This policy would exclude a large pool of people from studying at our universities, to the detriment of the UK and our higher education sector.”
If you’d like a more in-depth analysis of the main news stories each week, check out our #MidweekRoundup #intled #livechat 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.
