Social Media Newsa

India must be on your intl student recruitment radar, but are you connecting on the right platforms? The latest Webcertain report on this vital country shares important social and search data.
Peer recruitment ed tech company, Unibuddy, is making waves again with another round of VC funding. UK is the largest market at present for Unibuddy.
India is clearly wanting to turn the screws on social media companies hoping to gain ground in this enormously social-savvy country. This latest move on Twitter should be a cause for concern.
Are you new to PPC advertising on social media? The team at Webcertain has put together a useful guide to understanding your results on social ads from an education perspective.
Can you enhance your Twitter presence with using the platforms new audio feature, Spaces? It’s worth considering using these Social Media Examiner’s recommendations.

International Education News

Big Picture Issues

The recently release USCIS Ombudsman Report revealed what many in ISSS offices across the country have known for the last few years: SEVP and CIS offices are woefully unconnected and have outrageous delays in processing.
Little surprise that the Biden administration withdrew formally the Trump era proposal to end D/S and impose fixed limits on student visa durations. And all DSOs breathed a big sigh of relief.
The pandemic has impacted all parts of intl education including English language assessment. This article by Cambridge Assessment English shares some of the challenges for English language learners studying virtually.
Interestingly, new guidance regarding the NIE extension to F-1 students now extends this to allow reentry to the US for up to one year, as this Economic Times of India article emphasizes.
Despite Brazil’s rough go of it with Covid-19, student interest in studying abroad, including in the US, is rebounding well. The team at Intead provide some useful evidence to support this claim. Don’t forget Brazil!
A state newspaper in China is making a stink about 500 STEM students who were recently denied US visas since consulates began resuming student visa interviews, and calls for those Trump restrictions to be reversed.
However, the US Embassy in Beijing recently countered saying that many of these denials were due to students being connected to China’s “military-civil fusion strategy.”
Yet, there are still voices calling these moves Cold War spy tactics, that the US is shooting itself in the foot with these Chinese student and scholar visa restrictions on militarily-connected STEM visa applicants.
For MBA applicants, how the country handles Covid-19 recovery impacts their study destination: “much now depends on the rollout of the vaccines. Those countries that are perceived to be doing this effectively will be in a strong position for students looking for places in September 2021.”
Both students and staff on campus are calling for greater services to help them with their wellbeing as the pandemic’s toll is counted. Trust issues abound where moves by the administration threaten ongoing mental health recovery.

Solutions Central

In the end, colleges that leverage current international students to recruit future ones are putting themselves in the driver’s seat of success. Read how and why you can be doing this as well. Peer recruitment matters.
As a country of immigrants, the US can and should celebrate those that come here for study and work, who end up staying and become exceptional, even model citizens committed to improving the lot of those less fortunate here.
Solutions abound for smaller, less well known institutions that are willing to collaborate. Strength in numbers, stronger together, whatever phrase you choose, a new state consortium forming in South Carolina is welcome evidence.
While many colleges have credit courses available for high school students to take, this Accelerate ASU program specifically for international students has some great potential to grab students’ interests early on.
The impact of peer to peer connections for incoming students should extend far beyond the recruitment process. These UK folks are leveraging current students in the all important transition to campus living and housing. Well done.
If your college is expanding recruitment into countries where it’s not well-known, you’ll need something to get traction with students/parents. Scholarships may well be an important tool to target your recruitment efforts.
The EducationUSA Forum is coming up at the end of July. If you haven’t yet registered for this free virtual conference with access to all 14 REACs and 50 advisers, get going. Always a productive event.

On-Campus Happenings

How will your campus be handling vaccine requirements for intl students? Whatever you’re doing, make sure your over-communicating that policy to incoming overseas students. Be clear, be concise, be compassionate.

Global Roundup

In Australia and New Zealand, the prize for the perfect alliteration award goes to IEAA which recommends structured “post-pandemic peer-to-peer support for international students.” Absolutely!
International students who are study at Australian universities, especially those study remotely, need a lot of support these days as they’re not being helped at all by the Australian government on returning to campus.
In the wake of the IDP-British Council deal to have all IELTS testing in India done by IDP moving forward, agents there are raising concerns that this move is anti-competitive.
Interestingly, in Korea, the ministry of education is encouraging aspiring college students to take mock entrance exams to become eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
In the UK, top unis are seeing the 11-day quarantine and PCR test costs as too much of a burden for intl students coming from UK Red List countries. Some are willing to refund those expense up to 1750 British pounds.
In a welcome bit of news, for intl students unable to get into the UK this fall to begin in-person courses, they will have until April 2022 to enter and still be eligible for the new graduate work route.

SMIE Consulting Midweek Roundup

July 12, 2021 edition

On-Campus Happenings

SMIE Consulting Midweek Roundup