DIGITAL-FIRST STRATEGIES TO SHAPE THE SUCCESS OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RECRUITMENT By Rahul Choudaha, PhD, Studyportals In 2009, 1.8 billion people around the world had access to the Internet. Eight years later, Internet access has grown by over 130% to reach 4.16 billion people in 2018. In my article published in 2009 in NAGAP Perspectives I advocated that to maximize the return on investment, graduate schools must embrace online recruitment as one of the channels for international student recruitment. One of the biggest rationales was the student-decision-making process, which was increasingly moving to a more self-directed search behavior supported by peer-to-peer online communication and social networks. In the last decade, maturing of Internet and communication technologies coupled with the shifting communication and choice patterns of a new generation of prospective international graduate students towards online, mobile, and social media is also changing the way institutions define and achieve their recruitment strategies. Studyportals, which started in 2009, also experienced this shift in student decision-making process. In 2018, over 29 million users informed their study abroad choices, and of this nearly 13.8 million users were searching for master’s programs. We are at an inflexion point where online recruitment is moving from one of the recruitment channels to the first and most important channel for attracting and enrolling international students. This is what I refer to as “digital-first” strategy of international recruitment. To gain a deeper understanding of the rationale and approach of digital-first strategy, let us review the context of international graduate enrollment and consider perspectives of institutions that are adopting digital marketing for international student recruitment to align with student decisionmaking processes and market characteristics.
Context of International Graduate Enrollment Recent history of international student mobility can be viewed from the perspective of three waves defined by key events. Wave I and Wave II were shaped by the terrorist attack and global financial recession, respectively. The Third Wave is shaped by the new political order, which will intensify global competition for attracting international students (Choudaha, 2018). Looking forward, intersection of sociopolitical, demographic, and technological megatrends coupled with the global ambitions of Asian and European universities with English-taught programs are making it increasingly challenging for American universities to gain the attention of prospective students in a politically unsupportive environment (Choudaha, & Van Rest, 2018). The synthesis of historical and future trends indicate that future international recruitment strategies must innovate and adapt to the competitive environment and shifting student behavior. This competitive environment becomes more evident from the recent international graduate enrollment trends and differences by the Carnegie Classification of universities (Table 1). In 2016, 346,745 international graduate students formed 19% of total graduate enrollment of 1,839,104 students (see Table 1). However, there is significant skew by institutional type. Doctoral Research Universities with Very High activity enrolled two-third of all international graduate students in the U.S. These universities also cornered much of the enrollment growth—both domestic and international. Between 2010 and 2016, Doctoral Research Universities with Very High activity experienced a growth of
Table 1. Change in International Graduate Enrollment by Carnegie Classification (2010-2016) International as a % of Total Enrollment (2016)
% of Total International Enrollment (2016)
% Change Enrollment U.S. Citizens* (2010-2016)
% Change International Enrollment (2010-2016)
Total
19%
100%
1%
42%
Carnegie Classification
Research Universities (RU/VH)
29%
65%
19%
55%
Research Universities (RU/H)
19%
16%
-10%
10%
Doctoral/Research Universities
9%
7%
-18%
33%
Master’s Colleges and Universities
8%
10%
-11%
28%
Other
10%
2%
114%
73%
Source: Analysis by Rahul Choudaha based on CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees *Includes U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
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