understanding the international student journey, and what you should be doing to influence it
DESCRIPTION
Duncan Findlater, Director of Product and Client Services, HobsonsTRANSCRIPT
Influencing the individual
Duncan FindlaterDirector, Product and Client Services
17th April 2013
2
There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight“ ”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
First of all, remember
4
This is a big decision…69 63 60 58 55 53 51 49 47 45 43 41 39 37 35 33 31 29 27 25 23 21 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 3 1
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Number of months from enquiry to enrolment
En
rolm
en
ts
30% of enrolments take longer than a year
5
...put another way
Sep-07 Sep-08 Sep-09 Sep-10 Sep-11 Sep-120%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12
Intake
Pro
port
ion
of in
take
fro
m r
ecru
itmen
t ye
ar
7
Relevance matters…
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
-1%
0%
1%
2%
3%
Number of core fields
En
qu
iry
Co
nve
rsio
n r
ate
8
…as does communication
Why did you choose your
current University?
I chose the university because they gave me all the support I needed
both during the application and after
and really understood my needsThe staff were amazing
in response to questions email and via phone so I
chose that university. The other university I applied to was slow to
respond to me
The university paid great attention and care in replying to my emails
and their on-going student surveys indicate
that they really care about their students
I picked the university because the website
had all the information I needed and the
admissions officer kept in touch
… I decided after communication with the admissions team who
were kind, swift, helpful and understanding
9
Relationships don’t just happen...
1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 12+-5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Enrolled
Number of communications
Off
er
con
vers
ion
ra
te
10
Visas: international students want two things
Only 22% say that visa changes would be unlikely to make them seriously consider another study destination
Ease of study visa process number one consideration on visa related issues
11
Ps. Students are temporary migrants
12% say that ability to reside in country post study a major factor in their decision process
23% say that working temporarily in study country a major factor in their decision process
73% say post study options in home country “very important”
Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful“
”