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!
- Virtual tours became a must during the pandemic to reach students who couldn’t physically tour campus. But can you be doing more? Yes. Check out what the University of Montana did to help future students picture themselves on campus.
- Are you curious how other institutions are staffing their international offices these days? If so, check out IDP Connect’s webinar this Thursday (May 12) for insights on various configurations.
- Once again the team at Intead knock it out of the park with this piece on how to build an international audience for your institution online: find your voice (and be consistent), leverage social media, and search (and they will come).
- Need to know the lay of the land for graduate student recruitment these days? Net Natives teams up with The PIE Webinar for an online event this Thursday to share data and the most current trends.
- Asking the question “has the ed tech boom disrupted international student recruitment?” may sound rhetorical but this recording of a PIE event recently is worth a watch if you need to see how wide, high, and deep the impact has been.
- Having a video strategy for different platforms is a must. The folks at Social Media Examiner present a reasonable way to manage and repurpose your video content across social media.
International Education News
- Encouraged to see the Presidents’ Alliance recommendations for the Biden administration to support intl education efforts, including “re-invest in funding international students in ‘strategic areas of the world.’”
- Interesting move by the administration to make it easier to attract Russian scientists eager to leave Putin’s Russia by removing the requirement they have a sponsoring employer.
- I don’t think this article’s premise about a boom being over for offshore campuses is on point. From a US perspective there’s never really been a “boom” compared to TNE efforts by our British counterparts.
- This issue of Bangladeshi student no-shows and/or transfer outs is not a new one, but hearing that all Washington state’s directors of intl offices were called to a meeting shows the seriousness of the issue for DHS.
- The few bad educational agents do get the lion’s share of the attention, but the good ones represent for most major destination countries the life blood of their international student pipelines according to this PIE Review article.
- Are the SDG goals set by the UN driving institutions to become even more slavishly focused on rankings glory? The evidence is certainly there to back that up, particularly when it comes to the recent swath of “impact ranking” stories.
- Happy to see the US Consul General in India highlighting the important of Indian students coming to the US in the bilateral relationship between the world’s two largest democracies with record student visa issuance expected over this summer.
- This article from a Yale-NUS professor represents an interesting perspective on some of the changes in motivation of international student flows to the US and UK, yet still extols the value of intercultural exchange.
- This recent GMAC survey shares how the demand for STEM-majors in the US has grown significantly since before the pandemic. Now with an ever-expanding range of STEM-certified academic programs eligible for up to 3 years of OPT, it’s no wonder why.
- “If students are ending their connection to college once they graduate, universities run the risk of missing out on invaluable support, financial donations, and even future enrollments.” Don’t ignore your international alumni!
- Happy to see the NCAA addressing a long-ignored facet of their work. With over 21,000 intl student-athletes competing in inter-collegiate sports through the NCAA, recognition of their importance to institutions and the issues they face is overdue.
- China - Things are getting quite farcical as China slowly plans to reopen to intl students. 200 seems to be the maximum number from any one country that China will consider admitting. But work has only begun, no confirmed dates for this drip, drip reentry.
- China - Pakistan has over 7000 students hoping to return for studies in China. Though statements have been made that visas are being considered for 200 of these students, many of which study medicine, no specific dates have been offered yet.
- China - I wonder if all the intl students clamoring to get back into China to complete their studies realize what overseas students currently there are going through with extreme lockdowns and punishments?
- China - Beyond the restrictions imposed by lockdowns in China, testing centers, particularly for AP exams, have been shut down posing challenges for students behind the Great Wall from taking these important tests shortly.
- European Union - Where have all the EU students gone that had previously made the intra-continental trip to the UK for higher education? Those with English language programs seem most likely - Germany, Netherlands, and Canada.
- Germany - Not to be left out of the expanding list of western nations agreeing student mobility partnerships with India, Germany will facilitate bi-lateral exchanges with India in the years to come.
- India - The UGC in India now seems to be making the rules easier for foreign institutions to partner with Indian unis. As long as the institutions are in the top 1000 THE or QS rankings, the light is green for twinning programs.
- Ukraine - Couldn’t agree more with this piece from WES that higher ed institutions have a duty to step up and support Ukrainian students and scholars impacted by Russia’s naked aggression in Ukraine.
- United Kingdom - The British government is putting its money where its mouth is with regards to financial support for Ukrainian students currently studying in the UK. Will the US government step up?
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.
