Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of a university or college with students coming from different countries and cultures? Diversity of the student body is always a plus for international students looking to study abroad. In fact, some international students choose their school of choice based on the diversity of the student population. However, ensuring that your institution is racially or culturally diverse can come at an expense.
It, therefore, becomes very important to manage budgets during recruitment and focus on the Return on Investment. If you are planning to recruit international students but feel like your budget is limited, you’ll be glad to know that you can still achieve your goal by leveraging some proven strategies.
In this article, we will discuss some effective ways to recruit international students on a tight budget. Let’s dive in!
4 Ways to Recruit International Students On a Tight Budget
1. Recruit Online
While in-person student recruitment drives can be very effective, they can also be very expensive and take a lot of time. Imagine the hustle of having to print several promotional materials and set up the recruitment venue. In general, the logistics of in-person recruitment drives are tedious and expensive, hence, an online approach is your best bet if you are running a tight budget.
There are several ways to achieve this with the help of different online platforms. The starting point is your website. How do you leverage this platform for recruiting international students? Apart from it being easy to navigate, here are a few other things you can do to make the most of your website;
- Ensure that the content on your website is in a language that most international students can understand, probably English.
- You can advertise programs available for international students and include a sign-up form for prospective students to express their interest in joining your institution.
- Ensure that the website is well-designed and informative, highlighting the programs available for international students and the benefits international students are bound to gain if they attend the university.
- Incorporate chat functions on the website where you can promptly respond to questions from potential international students.
Depending on your budget, you can also partner with third-party online recruitment agencies or online education directories that will be able to reach a wider audience of potential international students. This is a great way to put your university in front of potential international students and get better insights on what’s working or not. Third-party websites will customize a package according to your budget and do all the donkey work, hence saving time and money.
2. Use Social Media
In today’s digital era, social media has emerged as a great resource for anyone including international students searching for information about various institutions. Many young people are on multiple social media platforms, hence it makes sense for your university to be present on these platforms. Additionally, social media is an affordable platform, with as little as $5 daily being able to run ads and reach a large audience.
You can start by creating official accounts on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Social media can help you share information on various aspects like the university’s academic programs for international students, photos of different amenities at the university, student interviews, visa and application procedures, support programs for international students, and securing work after studies.
For effective marketing, you can target your content to the specific demographics or locations that you want to attract international students from. For example, if you are targeting international students from Europe who are film enthusiasts, then you can showcase interviews of alumni who have gone through the film programs and excelled in their careers. This ensures that your message reaches the right students according to the filters applied.
Another way to filter and target your messaging is through the use of appropriate hashtags that international students are likely to engage with. For example, if your content is about study visas, you can have a hashtag like #CanadaStudyVisa or #StudentVisaChallenges. You can add them to your posts, or search for existing hashtags and join the conversation to increase your visibility. Prospective international students looking for such content would deem you to be an authentic institution that they wouldn’t mind being part of.
Lastly, ensure that you respond to comments, questions, or messages sent as soon as you can to build rapport with potential students. This will in turn generate leads that you can leverage to share more information about your university.
3. Optimize Search Engine Visibility
Do you know that there are over 8.5 billion Google searches made every day? The competition to appear at the top of the search results is very tight, hence investing in content optimization will help your university’s content appear in the top results for international students looking for that particular information. High-ranking websites are the ones providing the best possible information on what the students are searching for.
You can achieve this by targeting certain keywords so that when they mention them, your university will be among the top results displayed. You can have specific content on aspects like programs for international students, scholarships for international students, study visa guides for international students, and application processes for international students. And once they find your university, it is key that they find exactly what they are looking for.
For example, if a student is looking for scholarships for international students in Canada and your website is among the search results, then the page should show the various scholarships that international students can apply for. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they will be forced to move to another page that offers value, hence losing a prospective international student.
4. Work with Global Scholarships
Another excellent way to recruit international students to your institution is to partner with us. Global Scholarships offers an excellent platform for universities that wish to boost their online presence and recruit international students. Our Open Courses page allows international students to access courses offered by partner universities. We have helped over 15 universities in different countries get leads and enrollments from around the world. To learn more about the service we provide, visit our “Partner with Us” page for information on our experience, partners, and pricing models.
While there are so many benefits to having a diverse student population, achieving that comes at an expense. It’s even more challenging if working with a tight budget. However, you can still achieve your targets by employing proven strategies like leveraging online platforms and investing in quality content to attract potential international students.
