Walking helps me think before making a big commitment. I reached out to several universities, and my inbox is flooded with some other universities, as I have attended various education fairs in the past months. Surprisingly, some didn't bother to reply, while others were almost aggressive in convincing me to submit my application. Luckily, there are those universities that take a consultative approach. Though they also want to sell the university, they help you see the value and alignment with your career goals.
With all the information available on the university site, review pages, and rankings, my contact with the university representative ultimately projects my expectations of whether the institution is a fit or not.
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" is often quoted as being related to customer journeys. With an increasing choice of study options, a disappointing experience with one university makes the candidate re-evaluate the options.
For candidate outreach, a university usually has several options to be present in any market. Those options vary in terms of control, investment, dedication, speed to market, and loyalty. Let's look at how they can potentially impact the students' perceptions.
Control
Convening the marketing messages consistently across any market and channel is critical for an institution to build trust. The more you work with third parties, the more you lack full control of those messages. This can lead to misunderstandings to false promises to convince a candidate to join a particular university.
Dedication
If the business operation justifies having one person dedicated to your university full-time, that's a luxury few universities are willing to afford. When the university has identified the market potential of a country or region but is still emerging, a local representation might be an option. It's a company or individual that does not dedicate 100% of its time to your university but will provide stable and continuous support according to set objectives. Should you decide on a shared resource that works purely on success, it might prioritize your university if the incentives are attractive and it's an easy sell. Otherwise, you will be at their mercy. For the candidate experience, there is the potential for different service levels depending on the agreement you close.
Speed to Market
Building your capacity in a particular market obviously takes more time than somebody already installed in the market with an established network. Though presence in the market might be immediate, full operational efficiency will only be achieved in one or two years when trust is built within the new stakeholder ecosystem.
Trusted partners kick off operations immediately and can deliver results in a much shorter timeframe. For this reason, it will help to establish a trusted relationship with candidates faster.
Loyalty
Few people will be more committed than their own employees, driving the growth. For external partners, the attractiveness of the university and the economic offer need to be balanced. Partners on commission will always seek the best option to earn money. This might change their preferences fast, and the candidate might get confused when suddenly getting recommended to other institutions instead.
Investment
Establishing an own set-up or even entity in a foreign country requires a long-term vision and an adequate investment to leverage the growth potential of that market. Working with external partners requires much less capital investment or even none when it's decided to work on a pure success fee basis.
These 5 dimensions need to be aligned with the objective of market expansion. A commission structure is a no-brainer if the aim is to recruit students for short-term gain. Many aspects, such as loyalty or control, would not be a priority.
Eduardo might not perceive the differences in the contractual terms between the stakeholders involved in the recruitment process. However, certain terms might trigger behaviors that can be detrimental to institutions in the long run.
Should you need support in deciding on the right expansion strategy, do not hesitate to contact us for a first consultation or explore our Workshops.
About this blog: EDU, short for Eduardo, is a great guy! He is your lead, candidate, student, and alumni. He helps you see things from his perspective. You will understand why things matter to him. On his blog, he will pose questions to which you hopefully have answers - or we can help you to find them! So, go ahead and explore more stories at Eduardo, or get the latest stories directly delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
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