Gut feeling vs data. What are they telling you about your international student recruitment?

At the British Universities' International Liaison Association (BUILA) conference, Shamim Ghani chaired a panel discussion with Trina Everall from stori, Gareth Topp at EduCo Accelerate and Oliver Quinn-Palmer from IDP Connect on: Adapting to an Evolving Digital International Office: Using Insights and Data to Tell your Story.

Let’s kick off with the skillset of international offices, has it changed?

“Sector media will talk about the extent of change but in my mind, the role is still about recruiting international students. The importance of the role has probably increased. There have been many disruptions over the years but we’re still doing incredible work - overall the role hasn’t changed that dramatically,” said Gareth.

Sham highlighted that historically, data didn’t play a big role but now “every conversation seems to include it”. The panel was asked, “How important do you think data is for us from your perspective?”

“I’ve been thinking about how to answer this question where I don’t just say: yeah, it’s very important! I have a helicopter view of around 100 unis - to be quite reductive, they’re often focused on improving diversity or tied to quality and efficiency. Data can help with those things. Knowing where to go to market and where your type of students are - creating audience segments.” Ollie said he would turn the question around and ask, “How important is your diversity target?”

Trina was asked whether a university should rely on data to tell its story…

“No. Data is one part of the overall picture. A good piece of research relies on qualitative as well as quantitative input. Data is vital but it’s how you use that data to tell your story - that’s how you connect.” 

So what does the data-led future look like - how digital will we need to become? Ollie calmed the uncomfortable shift in everyone’s seats with a helpful observation from a tech-led leader in student recruitment. “I don’t see recruiters being replaced by data-led Boston dynamic robot dogs anytime soon…”

Phew!

How are you using data to tell your student stories? Get in touch for content support: content@stori.works