n0656330_ido_south korea_230716 - final

BUSI48710:

In-Company Project

NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

SOUTH KOREA PROJECT

Student number: N0656330

Words count: 3716

Prepared: 02nd June 2016

IN COMPANY PROJECT | IDO IN SOUTH KOREA

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Table of contentI. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................6

II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES............................................................................61. Research aims................................................................................................62. Research objectives......................................................................................6

III. RESEARCH APPROACH............................................................................71. Secondary research......................................................................................72. Individual interview......................................................................................7

IV. SITUATION ANALYSIS..............................................................................71. Overview.........................................................................................................72. Demographic Forecast..................................................................................93. NTU full cycle statistics..............................................................................10

V. KEY FINDINGS.......................................................................................111. Key influences..............................................................................................112. Online behaviour.........................................................................................12

2.1. Online consideration process................................................................133. Sources of information...............................................................................144. Competitors analysis..................................................................................165. SWOT analysis (brief).................................................................................17

VI. ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES...........................................................181. Admin team..................................................................................................182. Content strategies......................................................................................193. Communication strategies.........................................................................20

2.1. Short-term communicational plan..................................................212.2. Long-term action plan......................................................................22

4. Budget allocation........................................................................................255. Campaign benchmark.................................................................................26

4.1. Short-term monitor (Test period – 6 months).................................264.1. Long-term monitor (1 year)...............................................................26

VII. CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATION.............................................................26

VIII. REFERENCES.........................................................................................27

IX. APPEMDIX............................................................................................291. Appendix 1. SWOT analysis.......................................................................292. Appendix 2. Top 10 UK universities in SK...............................................313. Appendix 3. Interviews results..................................................................324. Appendix 4. Education Web Searches......................................................345. Appendix 5. High school’s websites.........................................................34

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Figure 1: Population aged 20-24, 2011-2020 in SK..........................................8

Figure 2: Population aged 25-29, 2011-2020 in SK..........................................8

Figure 3: Important factors in choosing instructions......................................10

Figure 4: Online behaviour of Korean students..............................................11

Figure 5: The online consideration process of Korean students .....................12

Figure 6: Search engines used, SK, 2015.......................................................13

Figure 7: Social networking sites used, SK, 2015...........................................14

Figure 8: NTU's direct competitors................................................................16

Figure 9: SWOT analysis for NTU in SK..........................................................17

Figure 10: Admin team structure..................................................................18

Figure 11: Communication channels..............................................................19

Figure 12: Demonstration for Keywords ads and Facebook ads......................22

Figure 13: The communication process..........................................................23

Figure 14: Budget considerations..................................................................24

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I. INTRODUCTION

The International Development Office (IDO) focuses on recruiting international students for the

Nottingham Trent University (NTU). The IDO wants to promote NTU to students in South Korea

(SK) to raise awareness of NTU and increase applications from this market. However, as there

are relatively few of business trips and attendant exhibitions in South Korea, this report will focus

on developing NTU’s online presence by using popular online platforms.

II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. Research aims

There are several goals that this project tries to archive. Firstly, this reports efforts to understand

deeply the South Korea market insights due to some aspects including which/who are the key

influences that affect to Korean students when they choose a UK institution and the online

behaviour of target audiences when they consider applying for the UK universities. Secondly, the

competitor’s analysis will be carried out to ensure NTU preparing its defensive strategies. Finally,

this report will focus on developing NTU’s online presence and also proposing some online

strategies to raise awareness of NTU amongst the target audience.

2. Research objectives

This project tries to target the following objectives: -• Increase the total number of visitors South Korea (from SK) in 2017 to the NTU Korea

page: www.ntu.ac.uk/Korea by 15% compared with the total number in 2016.

• Create official channels for NTU on at least 1 of the popular social-network-platforms in SK

including Kakao Story, Ban, Naver Cafe and Facebook. Attract up to 500 potential

students to visit these channels and have conversations with other members towards NTU

by the end of 2017.

• Increase the number of applications to NTU by 10% when comparing numbers received at

the end of December 2016 with numbers received at the end of December 2017.

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III. RESEARCH APPROACH

Secondary research method and personal interview method are utilized in this study to point out

the true insights of South Korea market. Secondary data analysis method is mainly used in the

whole process of this report while interview method is used to understand deeply some complex

behaviours of Korean students which are carried out from the secondary data research.

1. Secondary research

Secondary data is collected from several sources, internal data of NTU - the number of Korean

students enrolled to NTU in the past few years, and the programme they chose and especially is

data from British Council. Some reports related to digital marketing analysis in SK market are

also considered to provide the reliable strategy for this report.

2. Individual interview

Primary data would be collected from the individual interviews to double-check the key findings

which are withdrawn from the secondary data research. This information would be valuable to

establish the content strategy for this project. Moreover, it would be useful for building the right

NTU’s brand awareness on SK market. Specifically, this report has collected information throw

eight deep interviews and all interviewees are NTU students who are Korean (four

Undergraduate students and four Master students). Finally, this report is supported by two

professors who has many experiences in recruiting students from SK market in recent years.

IV. SITUATION ANALYSIS

1. Overview

Koreans have traditionally placed great importance on education. Compulsory education lasts

nine years and encompasses primary school and junior secondary school (Ministry of Education,

Korea, 2015). The number of Korean students studying abroad rose from approximately 200,000

in 2008 to over 2014,000 in 2015, and it also hit the peak of 260,000 in 2011 (Ministry of

Education, Korea, 2015). Therefore, Korea is a mature and potential market regarding education.

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Table 1: Number Korean students study abroad, sorting by destinations (2014-2015)Year US China UK Australia Japan Canada New

ZealandPhilippin

eOther

s Total

2014 70,627 63,465 7,062 14,139 17,283 9,828 3,556 7,073 26,510 219,543

Rate (%) 32.2 28.9 3.2 6.4 7.9 4.5 1.6 3.2 12.1 100

2015 68,105 62,923 13,002 14,303 16,374 10,964 3,097 1,004 24,924 214,696

Rate (%) 31.7 29.3 6.1 6.7 7.6 5.1 1.4 0.5 11.6 100

Source: Korea’s Ministry of Education (2015)

The data from Korea’s Ministry of Education shows that the United State is the most popular

destination when Koreans choose for study abroad (approximately 30% of Korean students

choose US universities every year) followed by China, Australia, and Japan (Table 1).

The United Kingdom comes up with the fifth position which accounts for 6.1% market share.

Average 2,300 new Korean students enrolled in the UK education system in the past three years

from 2012 to 2015, nearly 40% of them are studying on other undergraduate programmes, 50%

are on postgraduate taught programmes, and approximately 10% are on postgraduate research

programmes (Table 2).

Table 2: Korean students enrol for UK institutions from 2012 to 2015Academic Year 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15Level of study

Postgraduate Research 140 175 175Postgraduate Taught 1030 985 970Undergraduate 910 945 920Total 2310 2315 2245

Source: HESA DATA: Not eligible to pay home fees; First Year; Non-Visiting and Exchange Students; Full-time & Sandwich.

The top 5 most popular subjects for Korean students studying at both undergraduate level and

postgraduate level in the UK in the past three years are creative arts & design (32%), business &

administrative studies (22%), social studies (11%), biological sciences (5%) and engineering &

technology (5%). Koreans are interested in a wider range of subjects than international students

from many other countries (Table 3).

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Table 3: Top 5 popular subjects of Korean students2012/13 2013/14 2014/15

Creative arts & design (605) Creative arts & design (600) Creative arts & design (635)Business & administrative studies (490)

Business & administrative studies (505)

Business & administrative studies (430)

Social studies (315) Social studies (315) Social studies (300)Engineering & technology/Language (130) Languages (135) Engineering & technology

(115)Architecture, building & planning (90) Engineering & technology (110) Architecture, building &

planning (95)


2. Demographic Forecast

The number of people in Korea aged 20-24 is expected to decline by approximately 15% from

2016 to 2020. This group would be potential to enrol for the UG course. Therefore, there would

be a slight decrease in the number students apply for UG from Korea in the next five years

(Figure 1).

Figure 1: Population aged 20-24, 2011-2020 in SK

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit; United Nations; British Council

Figure 2: Population aged 25-29, 2011-2020 in SK

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit; United Nations; British Council

However, 25-29 demographic is projected to increase 15% then the population of this group

would be stable 3.5 million in 2019 and 2020 (Figure 2). Consequently, PG courses would be on

the high demand in the next five years, and NTU should focus to promote its PG courses in SK.

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In brief, South Korea market would be the stable market, to tackle this market NTU should use

penetration strategy (Woodside, 1995). This approach focuses on competing with the directly

competitors to get more prospective students.

3. NTU full cycle statistics

Every year, NTU attracts around 15 to 20 new students from Korea and majority of these study

in undergraduate level (Table4). The number Korean students apply for NTU tend to increase

around 10% - 25% each year, this is the good signal for this market.

Table 4: The number of Korean students enrols to NTU from 2012-2015Academic Year 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15Level of study

Postgraduate Taught 5 3 2Undergraduate 10 11 17Total 15 14 19

Source: NTU data from IDO

Turing to the conversion rate of UG level, NTU has done well when converting average approximately

40% applicants to its students each year. However, the last three years witnessed the alarming

decline of the conversation rate from applications to new enrols of PG students (fall from

26.3% in 2012 to 10.53% in 2015) (Table 5). This issue will be discussed in detail in the next part

of this report.

Table 5: Conversion ratesLevel UG PG

Academic year

Applications

New enrol

sConversio

n (%)Application

sNew

enrolsConversion

(%)2012/13 24 10 41.67 19 5 26.322013/14 26 11 42.31 23 3 13.042014/15 42 17 40.48 19 2 10.53

Source: NTU data from IDO

Table 6 points out the detail of UG and PG Korean students study in NTU. Art and design school is

chosen the most by Korean students, followed by the school of Art and humanities, social sciences and

Science and Technology. Although Art and design school is the most popular, Nottingham business

school has increased its reputation in Asia market. Moreover, Korean students are projected to prefer

more business courses in the next five years (Sharma, 2011). Therefore, it would benefit for NTU if IDO

pays attention to promoting more business courses for Korean students.

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Table 6: Breakdown by School/Academic Department of Data on Newly Enrolled Students (Sept + Jan combined)Academic year 2012/1

32013/1

42014/1

52012/1

32013/1

42014/1

5 TotalSubject area* PT PT PT UG UG UGArt and design x x x 7 7 14 28Architecture Design & Built Enviro 1 1 2 1 1 2 8Art and humanities 1 1 x 2 2 x 6Social Sciences 1 1 x x x x 2Science and Technology x x x 2 1 x 2Business & administrative studies x x x x x 1 1

Source: NTU data from IDO V. KEY FINDINGS

1. Key influences

The research of British Council (2015) points out that the most important factors in the selection of

institution to study of Korean students are Quality of the course, which influenced 23.9% of prospective

students and followed by career prospects (15.3%) and university reputation (10.2%). Especially,

ranking is not considered as an important aspect affecting their decision (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Important factors in choosing instructions

Source: British Council (2015)

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By conducting the interview with Korean students (Appendix 3 – Question 1), this report has

explored there are the five top aspects that Korean students use to evaluate the quality of the

course (Table 7). Specifically, almost all interviewees emphasize the school facilities, including

computer suites and design studio (the majority of respondents are from art and design school).

Alumni testimonials play a significant role in the decision making of Korean students, six of eight

respondents were recommended NTU by their friends. Furthermore, employability rate and work

placements opportunities are two facets that would be considered when Korean students choose

their institutions (This result is consistent with the British Council report). Finally, students from

Korea are not confident with their English so they would prefer the University offers different

Language-support on offer within faculties.

Table 7: Five aspects are used to evaluate the quality of the courseNo. Factor

1 University Facilities2 Employability rate3 Alumina feedbacks/ Alumni Profiles4 Work placement5 Student support (English tutor)

Source: Author’s primary research

2. Online behaviour

Figure 4: Online behaviour of Korean students


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The report of British Council (2015) reveals more than two-thirds of Korean students claim that

they do the personal research during the application process for the UK universities, 8.8% of

students are affected by their friend, and only 5.5% of these students turn advice from the

agencies (Figure 4). However, the result of the interviews has driven this report to the real

Online consideration process of Korean students when they apply for the institutions in the

UK.

2.1. Online consideration process

Due to the development of the internet, students tend to be more active and “smarter” when

researching for their higher studies. There are three vital stages of the consideration process.

Step 1, prospective students prefer using search engines such as Google or Naver to do some

general research. There are three key issues that people concern in this step including

destination countries famous with their study major, the list of potential universities and the

reputable agencies. Step 2, students would choose the most reliable agency and request for the

university proposal list which fit with their requirements. Then, they would compare their

personal research with the agent suggestion. These students would ask the agent apply for them

from two to three potential university and wait for the confirm letters from the applied

institutions. The final step, almost all Korean students would make the final decision based on

their personal research. At this level, they tend to contact with current students/alumni from the

offered universities and some topics are focused such as living experience, study environment

and part time jobs. Therefore, alumni testimonials play a vital role in the final decision of Korean

students (Appendix 3 – Question 2&5).

Figure 5: The online consideration process of Korean studentsSource: Author’s primary research

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In brief, there are some chances for NTU to target the prospective students during this process

by online marketing. This report highly recommends that NTU could do some Keywords

campaign to tackle perspective students in step 1 and partnership with Korean society in NTU is

the proper solution for NTU to target step 2. These strategies will be discussed in more detail

later.

3. Sources of information

The secondary data research shows that Korean students prefer information from search engines

and social networks while the interviews have explored Korean students also consider high

school websites and Education Web Searches as the reliable resources.

Search engines – In general, Korean are familiar with Naver for seeking information than

Google or other search engines. The main reason is Naver would offer more results in Korean

than others. Surprisingly, amongst prospective students, the most popular search engine was

Google, which 52.3% used on a regular basis (Figure 6). Eight interviewees of the primary

research have explained this result due to the Naver system does not work well on the global

scale. Specifically, Naver would take a longer time to search and provide less information to

compare with Google.

Figure 6: Search engines used, SK, 2015Source: British Council (2015)

Social network sites - Although Naver and Kakaotalk are the most popular social platforms in

Korea in recent years, Facebook is used the most by the target audiences which 26.8% used on a

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regular basis (Figure 7). Almost all interviewees of the primary research used Facebook to find

the information about the UK universities. They assume that is the easiest way to connect with

current students in the University that they want to apply. The feedbacks or reviews of the

alumni pay a vital role in the final decision of potential students. Therefore, it is highly

recommended that IDO should pay more attention to the partnership with Korean society and

promote NTU throw this channel to the prospective students.

Figure 7: Social networking sites used, SK, 2015


Education web searches - almost 80% students from SK apply for higher education right after

they finish their high school (British Council, 2015) so if NTU could target some websites which

provide research colleges would be the benefits. Students from interviews recommend that

Korean students use several sites to research colleges/universities. Uway, Jinhak, and Daeseon

Mimac are well-known sites which are used by Korean students (Appendix 4). They are the good

channels for NTU to promote, but there are not enough reliable data to evaluate the effective of

this channel (Appendix 3 – Question 3).

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High school websites – Korean students also claim that their high schools could offer more

reliable study abroad information than agencies or internet searching. In long term partnership

(both offline and online activities) with high schools in Korea also is the right solution for NTU

approaching its prospective students. Therefore, high school websites would be the potential

channel (Appendix 5). This research also carries out top five high schools send Korean students

abroad for higher education follow: -

• Ewha Girls’ Foreign Language High School

• Daewon Foreign Language High School

• Daeil Foreign Language High School

• Myungduk Foreign Language High School

• Seoul Foreign Language High School

Sources: Appendix 3 – Question 4

4. Competitors analysis

Appendix 2 shows top 10 UK universities have recruited the most students from Korea, the

majority of these universities are high ranking and located in London. However, there are also

some universities such as Goldsmiths College and Kingston University, which have nearly the

same ranking (or lower) and educational quality with NTU; they still recruit more students than

NTU in this market (Appendix 3 – Question 6).

The informal interviews with two professors from Korea have figured out several reasons why

these universities are successful than NTU in SK.

Offering a joint-degree course - There is currently limited types of transnational education

(TNE) provision in Korea. Currently, only one UK University, the University of Northumbria, offers

a joint-degree in Korea. Joint-degrees will remain the most prevalent form of TNE in Korea for

the medium term. Plans to attract significant ‘branch campuses’ of foreign institutions are

unlikely to see much success (Higher Education Global, 2016).

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Alumni Activities – these are the strength of Goldsmiths University and Kingston University.

There are a lot of high profile students from these instructions go back SK after they graduate

and they corporate with these universities hold various events to connect with the potential

students.

International Team-led Activities – De Montfort University and Middlesex are doing the really

good job due to this aspects, ever years these institutions have at least three times go to SK to

visit the agents or attend the education fairs. By partnership and cobranding with some

high schools in SK, they also organise their events such as open day, portfolio preparation day

or pre-departure meeting.

Finally, Coventry University has recruited a Korean officer who represents for this university in

this market. This staff would keep the tight contact with not only the agents but also potential

students.

Figure 8: NTU's direct competitors5. SWOT analysis (brief)

The full SWOT analysis could be seen in appendix 1, the follow figure has highlighted some key

important information that NTU should pay attention to apply for the online marketing strategy.

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Figure 9: SWOT analysis for NTU in SK

VI. ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES

The SWOT analysis and the key findings have shown that Korean students have to face with two

main difficulties when contact with NTU throw online channels (Appendix 3 – Question 10).

Firstly, lack of official “friendly” contact points except NTU website. Secondly, being massive by a

huge information which is not tailored for Korean students. Therefore, this report is highly

recommended that NTU should create the NTU Korean Students’ Blog and NTU Korean Students’

Facebook Fanpage which would be the official channels for prospective students to contact with

Korean alumni and current students and it also could provide simple introduction documents

(brochures/online posters/email) in Korean.

1. Admin team

This project would be run mainly by the Korea Recruitment Officer, but it is highly recommended

the active collaboration with current Korean-students, Alumni and NTU Korean society would

ensure the success of this project (Figure 10). Firstly, he/she would be responsible for recruiting

and Admin team which is including current NTU Korean-students (one Undergraduate & one

Postgraduate – Art and Design School, one Postgraduate Nottingham Business School). These

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students would be paid for management and assistance with Korean blog/ Fan page. All the

content of the Korea Blog/ Fan page would be suggested and monitored by Korea Recruitment

Officer based on the Content strategies (will be discussed later).

Figure 10: Admin team structure

Furthermore, Korea Recruitment Officer would collaborate with NTU Korean Society and Korean

Alumni to support and aid their events. These activities would empower the NTU’s reputation and

help NTU to earn the positive testimonials.

2. Content strategies

This blog would be managed and written by the group of Korean students who currently study at

NTU. IDO would pay them for the whole year working to keep the commitment. This blog would

be the place where they could share their real experience. Based on the primary research

(Appendix 3 – Question 9), there are several topics that Korean blog should focus on as follow:

Blogs/Vlogs – Student-life experiences of Korean students in NTU including studying,

working/part-time jobs, food/travel and living skills in diverse cultures.

NTU school’s facilities – this topic would focus on how NTU support students with great

facilities such as UK's largest Mac Suites, Upgrade Update art design studio, glass and ceramic

kilns, studio photography, digital textile Machines, images and sound clips studio galleries,

exhibition halls and art and so on. In addition, the School of Art and Design of two other school

buildings -Waverly Maudslay has all kinds of large-scale equipment and studios (home

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improvement products for the furniture design courses), wardrobe printing equipment, as well as

audio and video studio Editing equipment, furniture shop, wood, synthetic materials and

processing technology facilities.

Virtual Tour (Video conference lectures/live video) – using this technology would help

potential students have the specific views of the courses and motivate them to apply for this

course.

Alumni network – this function allows visitors sign in their information (email/ telephone

number). This support is including choosing courses, scholarships advice or accommodation

recommendations. The Korean Society will be offered financial sponsor by NTU if they commit to

allocating society members to provide personal support for potential students during the

application process for NTU.

3. Communication strategies

Figure 11: Communication channels

This report is highly recommended to use various advertising tools to promote the Korean-

students’ Blog to the target audiences (Figure 11). Regarding, free advertising channels such as

agencies websites, social media networks, and NTU websites or social networks. Regarding paid

channels including online PR news releases (advertorials), Facebook advertising and keywords

advertising (both Google and Naver) (Figure 10).

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2.1. Short-term communicational plan

In short-term (6 months), this campaign would focus on promoting this students blog and its

related social network channels to current students from Korea. This step would pay attention to

recruit admin team (2-3 students) and support this team to develop the contents to the blog.

After that, all of the current Korean students in NTU would be invited to visit this students blog

and engage with an official Facebook fan page by promoting throw NTU channels (IDO Facebook

page, email marketing, and NTU website/Students Union website). Table 9 shows in details the

action plan in short-term for this project.

Table 8: Short-term action plan

Key Deliverables Next steps Support required

Support NTU Korean Society to aid their events & create official FB Fan page

Meeting with members of Korean Society to discuss their yearly activities.

The offer of financial aid for use in events.

Recruits admin team to manage this Fan page

Alumni assistance / International Recruitment Officer

NTU KOREAN STUDENTS BLOG

Work with design team to design the Blog

Recruit current Korean students to write blog about their study experiences in NTU (1UG & 1PG– Art and Design, 1 PG NBS)

NTU Design Team / Alumni assistance

Produce Korean specific materials

Specific images and Korean text

Highlight these topics: Prospective programs courses/ Scholarships for Korean students’/ Alumni Testimonial/ English supports

NTU Design Team/ Marketing team

Modify Ntu.ac.uk/Koreapage

Link with NTU KOREAN STUDENTS BLOG

The scholarships list

Simple brochures of perspective courses in Korean

Sign up for meetings with current Korean students in NTU

Web Design Team

2.2. Long-term action plan

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For the long-term strategy, IDO should focus on partnership with NTU Korean society (financial

sponsor). Korean community in NTU would be strengthened by holding various culture events/

activities. Therefore IDO could earn the positive testimonials from current students. Additionally,

various contents including pictures or videos would be produced naturally, and these valuable

content could be used to update for the Student Blog.

External marketing activities to engage with the potential students should be emphasized at this

stage. Firstly, all free marketing channels including websites and social network of both NTU and

partner agencies should be used. All promotional materials are recommended to include the

student blog website and an official Facebook fan page for Korean student in NTU.

Attract the target audiences - paid channels could be considered to target the new

prospective students. The first step in of Korean student’s consideration process is personal

research by using search engines, so Keywords advertising tool is highly recommended to be

used. IDO should use this tool in booth Google and Naver search engines, and the list of

keywords are proposed in the table below.

Korean Keywords English Keywords

영국 유학 Studying in the UK

미술 유학 Studying art

해외 디자인 대학 Design universities abroad

아트 미술 유학 Studying art

Facebook advertising, this campaign is highly recommended to used Facebook news feeds post

tool. This tool allows the advertiser to include both text and image. Especially, based on the

findings of the interviews, these posts should highlight the real stories of some

successful students from Korea which make the strong impress to potential students. Figure

12 proposes the content which should be used for this project, and this demonstration also

points out how these paid channels (Google, Naver and Facebook ads) draw the traffic for Korean

students blog.

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Figure 12: Demonstration for Keywords ads and Facebook ads

Improve the prospective students’ engagement - the online consideration process of

Korean students has shown that in finally step these students prefer to contact with alumni or

current students of their applied universities to turn for advice. Therefore, IDO could help this

step to be easier for the potential students by offering them some following supports. Students

contact NTU by Students Blogs/NTU Korea websites, and NTU Korean Students Fan page would

be asking for register their information. NTU would allocate International officers or Alumni

members to keep in touch and support the potential students during their application process

(Figure 13). Finally, table 10 has outlined the step-by-step action plan for this project in long-

term.

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Figure 13: The communication process

Table 9: Long-term action plan

Key Deliverables Next steps Support required

Korean Society/ Alumni activities

Attend all events to build relationships to result in effective & engaged alumni assistance, record footage & take photographs to be used in future marketing campaigns.

Do students’ profiles/ stories

Alumni assistance / International Recruitment Officer

Promote new channels of Korean students internally/externally

Introduce these channels through NTU website, social media networks

Email marketing for agencies and related partners, current students and alumni.

Agent assistance / NTU marketing team

Advertising and

Public Relations

Keywords campaign (Google/ Naver)

Advertorials campaign to promote alumni stories

Facebook advertising SK market (military service – male >24)

NTU marketing team/ International Recruitment Officer

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Facebook advertising UK market to recruits perspective Korean students

Interactive marketing activities

Consider video conference lectures/live video (Partnership with High School)

Virtual tour (Partnership with High School)

Online assistance forms Korean student

Korean students/ International Recruitment Officer/ Marketing team

4. Budget allocation

Figure 14: Budget considerations

All proposed budgets are based on current research; the cost detail needs to be confirmed in the

real situations (Figure 14). Regarding the short-term strategy, the majority of the budget would

be spent on the partnership activities with NTU Korean Society the remaining money should be

used for recruiting the admin team for Korean-students’ Blog and official Facebook Fan Page. In

case of long-term strategy, it is highly recommended to invest in online advertising activities

which could attract directly new applicants for NTU from SK.

5. Campaign benchmark

4.1. Short-term monitor (Test period – 6 months)

This stage would focus on creating the student blog and develop content, so concept testing and

focus group are proposed to monitor the quality of the creative execution. Due to the scale of the

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project, it could be the informal focus group among the admin team and some Korean students

to figure out the pros and cons of web design and web content.

4.1. Long-term monitor (1 year)

In the case of Students blog, this channel would be mainly monitored by Google analytic tool.

The results from this tools would focus on following types data:

• Traffic channels: Direct (enter URL right into browser), Organic Search, Paid Search,

Referral (such as clicked a link on agency site to land on Student Blog), Social Network

and Email (The number of visitors that came to website from an email marketing

campaign)

• Content Drilldown: the overview of which pages on the website are visited the most.

• Audience Demographics: age, location, and gender to make sure that this page could

target the right audiences.

• Victors’ behaviour: Average time spends on the site, Bounce Rate, and visitors’ journey.

Regarding the Facebook fan page, Facebook's Ads Manager is highly recommended to examine

the result of the advertising campaign; there are several data.

• The increase in followers on social media platforms.

• A number of followers who are reading/sharing social media content.

VII. CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATION

In conclusions, SK is the stable and long establishing market. However, the situational analysis

NTU in SK market have shown this is still a potential market for NTU. Art and Design course and

Business courses should be promoted to recruit more students from this market. The findings

highlight that alumni testimonials play an important in the online consideration process of

Korean student so building a Korean Student Blog (Microsite) and official Facebook Fan page for

Korean students could be a practical suggestion for NTU target its perspective students. Based

on the online behaviour of students from Korea, the combination of keywords search advertising

and Facebook advertising has been proposed to empower the Microsite. This site would enhance

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prospective student to communicate with NTU Korean society and improve the application

volume.

Although this report tries to achieve all objectives, there are still some limitations. Firstly, the

action plans are still in the general, and they need to be detailed when to execute in the real

situation. Furthermore, due to the time limitation and summer time, there is the limit of

interviews with Korean students (majority from Art and design school) so some of the students’

insights could be affected be the perspective of art and design students. Therefore, some more

interviews with Korean students from various majors (Business or social science) would be highly

recommended for future research.

VIII. REFERENCES

British Council, (2016a) Higher Education Student Data: South Korea. Available at:

https://hesadata.britishcouncil.org/report (Accessed: 12 July 2016).

British Council, (2016b) Countries profile: South Korea. Available at:

http://eiia.siem.britishcouncil.org/countries/profile/south-korea (Accessed: 12 July 2016).

Higher Education Global (2016) Available at: http://heglobal.international.ac.uk/join-the-

debate/comments/the-scale-and-scope-of-uk-he-tne.aspx (Accessed: 16 July 2016).

Korea’s Ministry of Education (2015) Available at: http://english.moe.go.kr/enMain.do

(Accessed: 26 July 2016).

Naumann, B. (2016) UK immigration: Winter 2014-15 update. Available at:

http://www.inhouselawyer.co.uk/index.php/legal-briefing/uk-immigration-winter-2014-15-

update/ (Accessed: 13 July 2016).

NTU, (2016) We’re the best UK university for international students. Available at:

https://www.ntu.ac.uk/study-and-courses/international/why-choose-ntu/were-the-best-

university-for-international-students (Accessed: 13 July 2016).

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https://hesadata.britishcouncil.org/report


Sharma, Y. (2011) GLOBAL: What international students want to study. Available at:

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110318130504251 (Accessed:

14 July 2016).

The Guardian (2016) University league tables 2017. Available at:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2016/may/23/university-league-

tables-2017 (Accessed: 13 July 2016).

Tier 5 (temporary worker - government Authorised exchange) visa (2016) Available at:

https://www.gov.uk/tier-5-government-authorised-exchange/overview (Accessed: 13 July

2016).

Whatuni (2016) Results of the 2016 Whatuni student choice awards for student support.

Available at: https://www.whatuni.com/student-awards-winners/student-support/

(Accessed: 13 July 2016).

Woodside, A.G., 1995. Pricing an industrial technological innovation: A case study: What

decision do you recommend: Skim?, penetration?, or price parity with an older

technology?. Industrial Marketing Management, 24(3), pp.145-150.

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IX. APPEMDIX

1. Appendix 1. SWOT analysis

Strength

There are various good points of NTU, but this report just emphasizes some of them which could

cause the attention of Korean students. Firstly, NTU has voted as UK’s Top 5 Universities for

Fashion & Textile (School of Art and Design) in The Guardian (The Guardian, 2016). Secondly,

School of Art and Design and Nottingham Business School are part of recently renovated, a

vibrant campus that have benefitted from £350 million of investment across the University in the

last ten years (NTU, 2016). Furthermore, NTU has an outstanding reputation for employability,

specifically 90% of its graduate students are employed within six months (NTU, 2016). NTU is

also recognised as Number One University for International Student Experience at the Whatuni

awards 2016 (Whatuni, 2016). Moreover, NTU is one of the largest Universities in the U.K. and is

home to 27,000 students from over 150 countries. Nottingham is a safe, peaceful and low living

cost city. Finally, Work placements guarantees – NTU students would be offered one-year work

placements for both UG and PG courses (NTU, 2016).

Weaknesses

These followed weaknesses are mainly carried out from eight interviews with NTU Korean

students. The NTU’s brand is slowly growing and mainly popular with art and design school;

Korean students did not know that NTU has a variety of high-quality courses such as Business

and Law. Korean students assume that big universities which locate in the big city such as

London would provide better educational quality than the NTU (which locates in Nottingham, not

a major city). Almost all interviewees point out the same difficulty that is Korean perspective

students do not have various choices to contact with NTU (both staff and alumni), the only way is

using NTU website. Additionally, the enrollment data has shown that NTU mainly relies on mainly

two or three agencies including Dong Shu and UKart this would limit the number applicants

each year from this market. Finally, when NTU’s reputation is not strong enough to guarantee

the educational quality in SK, Korean students tend to evaluate NTU based on the University

ranking. Therefore, NTU is recognised as a middle-ranking university in the UK could seem like a

weakness.

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Opportunities

A large number of students applying to NTU are currently in the UK studying on English language

courses, or foundation courses and this trend is increasing (British Council, 2016). Therefore,

NTU should target UK International Schools and Foundation Colleges.

Furthermore, Alumni play an important role in recruitment and partnerships and therefore it is

essential to engage with Alumni. Build this relationship from pre-enrolment & focus on

supporting the Korean student society at Nottingham, maintain a relationship after graduation.

Additionally, South Korea is one of 7 countries participating in the Youth Mobility Scheme by the

UK government (alongside Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand and Taiwan)

(GOV.UK, 2016). This scheme is for young people from participating countries and territories who

want to come and experience life in the UK over a period of 2 years. One thousand places were

allocated to South Korea for 2015 (Naumann, 2016) which should encourage Korean youth to

choose the UK as a place to work and study and give opportunities for part-time/full time + work

experience courses’ recruitment.

Finally, The Ministry of Education’s reforms include allowing Korean universities to run

programmes jointly with foreign institutions, and therefore there is a potential market NTU to run

the join-degree which allows Korean students could study both in Korea and UK.

Threats

The dominant of direct competitors such as Golfsmith and Kingston, these universities have

nearly the same ranking and teaching quality with NTU. However, they pay more effort than NTU

in SK, so if NTU does not have any defensive strategies, it will go over by these competitors.

Furthermore, the US is popular among Korean students because of the high status attached to its

institutions, the historical and cultural connections between the US and Korea, dedicated

scholarships and active recruitment drives. A large number of American academics taking part in

faculty exchanges with Korea has also helped to develop an interest in US institutions.

Finally, if the low birth rate continues, there will be a drop of three million in the school age

population by 2020.

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2. Appendix 2. Top 10 UK universities in SK

2012/13 2013/14 2014/15

University of the Arts, London

(295)


(265)


(285)

University College London

(110)


(115)


(125)

The University of Manchester

(110)Goldsmiths College (100) Goldsmiths College (100)

Goldsmiths College (95)The University of Manchester

(95)

London School of Economics

and Political Science (80)

The University of Sheffield (80)London School of Economics

and Political Science (75)Kingston University (75)

London School of Economics &

Political Science (70)

The School of Oriental & African

Studies (75)

The University of Manchester

(75)

King's College London (65) Kingston University (70) King's College London (60)

The School of Oriental and

African Studies (65)The City University (65) Royal College of Art (55)

Kingston University (60) King's College London (65) The City University (55)

The University of Birmingham

(55)Royal College of Art (60) The University of Oxford (55)


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3. Appendix 3. Interviews results

Question 1: What are the important factors that you consider for the good quality course?

Top 4 answers University Facilities

Employability rate Course

Alumina feedbacks/ Alumni Profiles

Work placement

Student support (English tutor)

Participants number

8 8 7 6 5

Question 2: How do you gain the related information?

Top 4 answers From agency

Alumna Google search

High School Educational website

Participants number

8 7 5 4 4

Question 3: Which websites you use?

Top 4 answers Uway Uhak.com YESuhak EBSi High school website

Participants number

7 6 5 4 4

Question 4: Famous high school in South Korea?

Top 4 answersEwha Girls’ Foreign Language High School

Daewon Foreign Language High School

Daeil Foreign Language High School

Myungduk Foreign Language High School

Seoul Foreign Language High School

Participants number

8 6 5 4 4

Question 5: Why you choose NTU?

Top 4 answers

Recommendation from agency

Alumni review

School facilities

Course ranking

Placement

Participants number

8 7 7 6 6

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http://www.sfl.hs.kr/index/index.do



http://mdfh.or.kr/

http://mdfh.or.kr/

http://mdfh.or.kr/

http://daeil.or.kr/

http://daeil.or.kr/

http://daeil.or.kr/

http://www.dwfl.hs.kr/



http://www.ewha-gfh.hs.kr/index/index.do




Question 6: Could you name top 5 universities in UK?

Top 5 answers

University of the Arts London

Coventry University

Birmingham City University

Kingston University

Gold smith University

Participants number

8 7 6 5 5

NTU not in the top of mind of the students

Question 7: If you want to contact with NTU what channel you refer?

Top 5 answers

Social network/ personal Chat

Offline event Agency Email

Participants number

8 7 7 3

Question 8: Who you refer to talk?

Top 4 answers

Korean alumni

Same major

Agency NTU ambassador NTU officer

Participants number

8 7 6 4

Question 9: If NTU have a Korean website, what information you want?

Top 5 answers

Alumni contact

School Facilities

Alumni blog/ experience

Scholarships Course information/ requirements

Participants number

8 7 7 5 5

Question 10: What are difficulties Korean students face when apply for NTU?

1. Difficult to find “friendly” contact points except NTU website

2. Be massive by a huge information which are not customised for Korean students

What do you need NTU to improve?

1. Official channels for Korean students to contact with Korean alumni and current students2. Simple introduction documents (brochures/online posters/email) in Korean

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4. Appendix 4. Education Web Searches

5. Appendix 5. High school’s websites

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n0656330_ido_south korea_230716 - final

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