Who to choose?

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 attended various education fairs in the past months. Surprisingly, some didn't bother to reply. Surprisingly as well, but with a negative connotation, some others were almost aggressive in convincing me to put in my application. Luckily, there are those universities that take a consultative approach. Though they want to sell the university as well, 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, for me, it's ultimately my contact with the university representative that projects my expectations of whether the institution is a fit or not.  

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" is quoted often 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 has usually several options to be present in any market. Those options vary in terms of control, investment, dedication, speed to market, and loyalty. Let's have a 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 up to false promises to convince a candidate to join a particular university. 

Dedication

If the business operation justifies having one person full-time dedicated to your university, 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% 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 own capacity in a particular market takes obviously more time than somebody who is 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 bring in results in a much shorter timeframe. For this reason, this will ready 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 in balance. Partners on commission will always look out for 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. If the aim is to just recruit students for short-term gain, a commission structure is a no-brainer. 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 reach out to eduALTO for a first consultation.