I was thrilled to see this article in today’s Washington Post and hope you will enjoy reading it as well:

Enrollment of Muslim students is growing at Catholic colleges in U.S.: Washington Post

Catholic Universities who have traveled with us to the region, including DePaul University, Loyola Marymount University, Ohio Wesleyan University, have always seen a great deal of success in recruiting students from the area. The students are attracted to the universities for their education, campus life, diversity, and majors – just like at any other school.  A few times I have been asked whether they will be required to pray at Church, which of course is not the case at these universities. This is a simple misconception that a few of the students may have, but the overwhelming number do not connect the university with religion.

I do still discourage universities with a more overt religious mission from recruiting in the area, having required Chapel or Bible study classes will not be encouraging to potential students in the region and I would doubt the universities would see a good return on their travel budget.

Now I have to go dig up that old photo of the Jesuit priest (Father) from Massachusetts playing baseball at Baghdad College in the late 1950′s to share with you all. Its why my dad still cheers for the Boston Red Sox, to the chagrin of my Cardinals loving husband!

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1. Identify 10-30 students graduating and returning to their home country
   This is as simple as hosting an ice-cream social, a pizza party, or another “bon voyage” party at the International Students Center/Office. Talk for a few minutes about how important Alumni are to your university, and how important international Alumni are to the university name.  By allowing them to have an official title such as “International Student Ambassador” you can create a stronger buy in from the student.
2. Assign more students to countries with a higher prospective base
   If you are physically recruiting students from certain countries (China, India, Middle East, etc) be sure to assign more than one student ambassador to the region. This will reduce the number of emails each student receives, giving y0u a better chance that they will continue responding to questions.
3. Provide them with a well-written Q&A to use in their responses
   To help your alumni answer many of the basic questions, it would be helpful to provide them with a Q&A written in an informal and relaxed tone, allowing them to use bits and pieces as they respond. Again, this ensures timely responses and better interaction between the Alum & Prospective student.
4. Give them a few “outs” to move the inquiry towards admissions
   Have a list of some closing phrases to allow them to move the back & forth emails towards an admissions counselor. This uses their time efficiently and sends the prospective student to the admissions personnel ready to engage and guide them through the personalized application process

   “I loved Kalamazoo, and I know you will too, Karen in admissions is interested in helping you through the admissions process – just like she helped me!”

5. Update your alumni list!
   Be sure to keep in touch with your alumni ambassadors and update your list every 6 months. You want to be sure the ambassadors are responding to emails, and if they are getting too many, you need to address that issue immediately. The on-going connection with the university as well as the growing alumni base from the country should be a great asset to the campus for years to come.

Some great examples of programs implementing a similar idea:

University of Chicago
Iowa State University
Virginia Tech
Clemson University
University of Minnesota

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160 pounds of mail from colleges and universities during this student’s search. Wow. While there is certainly a discussion and post in there about the OVERabundance of information thrown at high schools students in the US, what *I* thought about was how many Universities were sending viewbooks overseas? How much are you spending on mailing tons of paper across the world? Often to countries where the mail system is so poor the chances of the student receiving it in a timely manner is completely out of the question (yeah Saudi Arabia, I’m talking to you).

So are you still doing this? Are you still spending money on random direct mail campaigns? Does it work? What is your ROI? I am curious because I would think on average a University should be sending a hundred or less viewbooks to a country like Saudi Arabia each year. The rest of your budget should be spent on using the hundreds of better and more effective methods of connecting with the student on a personal and emotional level. That’s what will connect most of them to your institution and make them interested in attending.

…of course I say all this as an international student who chose her school based on its brochure and chose NOT to go to another based on theirs. Of course that was more than 10 years ago…the recruitment game has changed, and its time to give the students virtual hugs and handshakes, not just more mail.

Wassan

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With the new Iraq Education Initiative Scholarship ready to launch, the US Educational Group has spoken to many of you about the importance of recruitment methods outside of the traditional and typical.  We still not have received confirmation from the US Embassy in Baghdad if they will be accepting viewbooks and other marketing materials from US Colleges and Universities however, in our last conversation with the personnel at the Embassy on the student visa situation they did indicate they will not be opening an educational office.

Britian enjoys a long history of educational connectivity with Iraqis – thousands having completed higher education degrees in the 50′s, 60′s, and 70′s at some of the top UK institutions in previous decades.  A sizable and tightly knit Iraqi diaspora in London and elsewhere in the UK will make the area more appealing for students beginning their applications.

It will be up to US colleges and universities to step up their online recruitment and micro-target Iraqi students interested in studying on the Iraq scholarship. As the report says: “the United States, in particular, has been “ratcheting up activities in Iraq throughout 2008 and 2009,”- basically giving the UK a run for its money and crown as the education destination for Iraqi students.

If you have no localized website yet in Arabic – specifically aiming at recruiting Iraqi students for this scholarship, it may be time to think about the benefits of putting one together, we’re here to help you!

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A camera topped tricycle contraption was seen on the UPenn campus (see the photo here) snapping photos for the Google Street View service. The use of the tricycle instead of the usual Google car allows for street-level views of pedestrian only areas. Perfect for a college campus!

This is an interesting development for college campuses – allowing students to explore dorms, campus buildings, even bike trails virtually. Virtual campus tours have been used with varying success over the years, but few have reached out to international students specifically.

While it may be a while for some smaller or more rural campuses to find themselves on the Google map service, a virtual tour aimed at international students is an excellent item to add to your website. Just remember that many international students may not have access to very high or fast bandwidth, using shorter videos allow for students to still have a chance to view the video and see a virtual tour of your campus.

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