This week's top #socialmedia and #intled news includes professional development for #intled professionals, markets worth investing in, international student enrollment surveys, day 1 CPT, challenges for Canadian and Australian unis, and a look at what a new UK intl ed strategy looks like.
- Often, in tough budget years, professional development for international educators takes the first hit. The NAFSA IEPC is tailor-made to assist leaders in gaining the needed exposure and experience with the key competencies we need.
- What do the folks at Intead believe are five markets worth investing in student recruitment efforts? The first three may seem obvious, but the final two will catch your attention: China, India, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Guyana.
- When it comes to agent relationships, they can be extremely rewarding but time-consuming. This AIRC webinar this Wednesday will help explain how tech tools can be leveraged to maximize your impact with these important partners.
- China’s social media ecosystem is radically different from the rest of the world. To help get your head around which digital platforms you need a presence on to target your future students there, check out this Webcertain guide.
- Karin Fischer’s Latitudes column last week had a great lead story on how immigrant-origin students are the fastest-growing portion of the US higher education landscape. It is so encouraging to see this growth. Nation of immigrants, indeed!
- While not directly impacting international education, actions in the state of Nevada, the current system of managing and overseeing the state’s higher education institutions is broken and needs an overhaul. Will a state referendum help?
- A deeper look at the quarter million?new visa appointments?made available to Indian applicants from ICEF Monitor reveals an exciting impact of the expected wait times from over 200 days to 42 in New Delhi and 66 in Mumbai. Progress.
- The Fall International Student Snapshot Survey for this fall 2024, coordinated by IIE, indicates how enrollments are growing this new academic year. If you’re a US institution, ensure you get your numbers in now.
- Another new international student enrollment survey being led by NAFSA, Oxford Test of English, and Studyportals hopes to provide very granular access to next-level data for those who complete it. It is worth completing.
- Why will the upcoming US election results not dramatically impact future international student interest? “Regardless of the?election outcome, many international students have lifelong goals of studying in the US – demonstrating the strong brand of US institutions globally.”
- Day 1 CPT: Discuss…. ”Schools compete for students by making attendance policies and other requirements as flexible as possible, raising concerns that standards may be too lax, potentially jeopardizing students' immigration status.”
- Do higher education institutions have a role in promoting?scientific diplomacy?in this increasingly polarized world? According to this QS article, yes, institutions are “a way to exchange information for the benefit of everyone.”
- What destinations seek to take advantage of the restrictions imposed on new internationals by the UK, Canada, and Australia? This QS piece suggests China is rebounding in markets closer to home, with Malaysians rapidly showing interest in studying behind the Great Wall.
- Australia/UK - How institutions respond to prospective students when their governments are increasingly hostile to international students matters. UK and Australian institutions seem to have gotten this message and are acting on it.
- Australia/Canada - Well this is one way to spin it, to focus on genuine students: “Canada is capping permits at 360,000 to balance infrastructure like housing and healthcare, while still offering excellent opportunities for master’s and doctoral programmes. Australia, too, is returning to pre-pandemic levels of 270,000 students, focusing on quality and protecting students from exploitation.”
- Australia - The Senate committee in Australia reviewing the upcoming international student caps gave its consent to move the ESOS Amendment bill forward. “However, the Committee recognises that the international education sector must be managed in a way that allows it to grow sustainably over time, delivers the greatest benefit to Australia, and maintains its social license from the Australian people.”
- Australia - The inevitable decline in Australian student visa applications is hitting hard. Though this article attributes the decrease to the doubling of the application fee, methinks it’s not helped by the continued bad news about coming restrictions.
- Canada - This article suggests that international students should produce a “police certificate” about their criminal history when applying for a student visa to ensure that Canadian visa officials admit only those who will not be a threat.
- Canada - The new approved fields for Canadian PGWP permission seem to be putting institutions there in a restricted box. Some fields like hospitality are excluded. There’s “a lot of work ahead for the institutions to identify programs aligned with these careers.”
- China - In what should surprise no one, China wants to become a leading education power. “International exchanges and high level cooperation, including joint degree programmes, with leading international universities, especially in science and engineering, will be strengthened.”
- Latin America - How have Canadian restrictions affected partnerships in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia? “Canadian Universities with partnerships in Latin America – namely Mexico and Brazil, as well as the emerging market of Colombia – had been adapting their strategies away from student mobility towards collaborative research.”
- UK - The British Labour government has promised a new international education strategy under the continued leadership of Steve Smith (intl ed champion). What will that look like? This redux will certainly want to address one glaring omission from the last plan. “I’ve never really understood how an international education strategy aiming to increase temporary migration of 600k was somehow silent on the issue of where those students might live.”
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 1 pm ET on the SMIE Consulting?Facebook?page,?YouTube?channel,?Twitter feed, and?LinkedIn. An audio-only version is available on all major podcast provider platforms.
