Conference Day One: Tuesday, 27 November 2018
8:30 am - 9:10 am REGISTRATION AND MORNING COFFEE
9:10 am - 9:15 am Opening Remarks from the Chair
9:15 am - 9:55 am Identifying the Best Strategy Mix to Meet your International Student Targets and Future Proof Recruitment
This session will assess the pros and cons of the 4 main recruitment approaches with a view of choosing the optimal diversified strategy for you. It will uncover direct recruitment,international linkages, agency networks and onshore. Diversity is the key, but when faced with limited resources how do you plan the best mix.
- Evaluating the pros and cons of the 4 approaches –to international student recruitment
- A checklist of your to best allocate your resources
- Identifying KPIs to effectively measure the ROI of your international student recruitment strategies
9:55 am - 10:35 am Investigating Current Trends in International Education to Plan a Sustainable, Diversified International Student Strategy
Alex Frino will provide a research-backed macroeconomic analysis and understanding of onshore international student flows to Australia including:
- Latest trends
- Macroeconomic drivers
- Forecasts of numbers for the next decade
- A review of the economies of major source countries and prospects for the future
10:35 am - 11:05 am Speed Networking
11:05 am - 11:35 am MORNING TEA
11:35 am - 12:15 pm Achieving Consistent and Sustainable Growth and Mitigating Institutional Risk through Diversification, Future Proof Strategy and Great Student Experiences
The University of Otago is the oldest university in New Zealand and has had consistent growth in the number of students coming in through the doors with a 7% increase. This has been largely due to a solid recruitment strategy that is aligned to the overall University outcomes, meaningful engagement with the students throughout their lifecycle, agents and other third parties. It is also focused on the student experience and ensuring that the recruitment managers are involved and accountable to ensure that expectations meet reality.
- Understanding the diversification strategy and the 20% cap in a bid to plan and inform recruitment and reduce institutional risk
- Forming and maintaining meaningful connections from the first point of contact across the whole life cycle: Making use of alumni networks
- Establishing a Code of Practice to ensure student experience is consistent with expectations
12:15 pm - 12:55 pm A Deep Dive into Conversion Focused Digital Marketing: Discussing the ROI and Metrics that are Most Reflective of an Effective Recruitment Campaign
This session will delve into the ROI of digital marketing and ensuring that your metrics reflect conversion over passive activity. Page views and Facebook shares are a good indication of general interest. But they mean nothing if they don’t add up to conversions. Sarah will discuss identify what metrics are useful and aligned with revenue growth.
- Identifying the metrics and parameters that you should be looking at when measuring the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns
- Understanding the best ways to link this back to conversion
- Addressing the agents role in the process
12:55 pm - 1:55 pm LUNCH
1:55 pm - 2:35 pm Interpreting Data Trends to Improve Digital Marketing and Identify Emerging Markets
Vik and the team at Hotcourses Group specialise in digital technology, disrupting digital markets and providing future students with the information and content they need to make informed decisions. With only 20% of Universities tracking data, Hotcourses are uniquely positioned to provide insight into customer behaviour and characteristics. In this session, Vik will describe:
- Data trends and insights into student preference and behaviour
- How to identify the most opportune diversification markets to target for specific programs and understand how recent economic and political events are affecting student mobility in those countries.
- Leverage prospective international student research data to shape online lead generation, engagement, and recruitment strategies.
- Observe how to successfully leverage data and analytics to strengthen your recruitment strategies
2:35 pm - 3:15 pm Exploring new Emerging Communication Channels that Enable Instantaneous Messaging to build Stronger engagement with Prospective Students
GoStudy is a higher education agency that annually recruits over 4000 students from Western Europe and Latam for ELICOS, Higher Education and Vocational study. Prospective students, many of whom are Millenials and Gen-Zers, have come to expect instant communication and their potential colleges and universities are not exempt from this. This session will explore emerging platforms such as chatbots that can be employed to boost engagement and conversion from the first point of contact to enrolment.
- Communicating beyond email and social media marketing – what else is out there
- Case studies on effective uses chatbots
- Using automation and lead scoring to increase your sales capabilities
- Fundamental communication principles to consider in your lead management
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm AFTERNOON TEA
4:15 pm - 4:45 pm Building Stronger Relationship with Agents to Boost Recruitment in Saturated Markets (China) and Emerging Markets (Vietnam)
Although China is the biggest market for Australian Higher Education, it is highly competitive and moving towards saturation. This session will look at the different approach to agent management and engagement to stand out. This will be compared with the approach used to engage with agents in an emerging market – Vietnam. It will also explore leveraging in-housed capabilities such as your teaching staff and online courses to build engagement.
- Understanding the key to strong agent partnerships and the different approaches for new vs. saturated markets
- Leveraging online products and courses to boost early engagement
4:45 pm - 5:15 pm The International Student Perspective
This session is designed to provide you with key insights into the international student experience coming directly from the students themselves. Such insights can provide institutions with information on where they need to drive their strategies moving forward.
- What have been the highlights of your journey so far?
- How do you think institutions can improve on better engaging with students digitally?
- Do you think institutions could be doing more to help you find jobs, accommodation and peer support groups?
- Do you believe there is enough support for integrating international students into Australia society?
