Within one day of each other Australian and Canadian newspapers have run stories on the drop in international student numbers caused by the global financial crisis.
On 19 January The Australian reported that most Australian institutions are seeing an increase in student deferrals and are anticipating a drop off in international students numbers. The national peak body for English language colleges, English Australia, confirmed a decline in enrollments from Asian markets, with Japanese and Korean markets leading the fall.
On 20 January the Vancouver Sun reported a 5-7% drop in international student enrollments in B.C schools, with Korea leading the decline.
Like most industries, international education is in uncharted waters when it comes to the impact of the financial crisis. The prospect for long term market growth remain strong, but the short term effects of the current crisis will probably only become apparent over the course of 2009.
Showing posts with label higher ed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label higher ed. Show all posts
Monday, 19 January 2009
Friday, 16 January 2009
The Economist: UK international education market
Just came across this interesting article in the Economist which provides a snap shot of the UK international education market.
It picks up the theme of increasing global competition in the international education market which I've looked at in earlier posts. The article discusses how universities in the UK are increasingly turning to the private sector to help them recruit international students.
Increasing global competition is a challenge for all institutions, but it is not all doom and gloom. As competition increases so will demand. IDP predicts that global demand for international higher education will grow from 2.173 million in 2005 to 3.720 million in 2025. This is growth of 71% over 20 years, or compound growth of 2.7% per year.
So the pie will get bigger, but there are more competitors who want a slice.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Social networking - the dangers
Last week I blogged about using Twitter as a marketing tool for educational institutions. Having talked up the positives I thought I should complete the picture by discussing the risks involved in using social networking tools as part of your marketing strategy.
As discussed briefly last week, Twitter is just one of a fairly new batch of social networking web sites. Put simply these are web sites that enable people to join and connect easily with others. Unless you have been living on another planet you will have heard of some of the big players in this area, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
Many businesses, including educational institutions, are now using these social networking tools as part of their marketing strategy. It can work very well if done properly.
One of the emerging risks in this area is a form of web based identity theft. There are increasing instances of educational institutions having their brand used on social networking sites without permission. Corporate branding is used to establish official looking user groups and sub communities, often with a commercial gain in mind.
A recent post on squaredpeg.com provides alarming details of highly organised misuse of college/univeristy intellectual property (i.e logos) to establish "Class of 2013" groups on Facebook. It makes for interesting reading and tracks the unfolding discovery of the extent of the scheme. Many of the groups alrady had hundreds of unsuspecting students as members. Presumably many of them thought that they had joined an "official group" started and/ir moderated by the institution in question. At last count over 200 colleges in the US had been affected.
This type of behvaiour is akin to identiy theft. And the real concern for institutions is the loss of control of their corporate identity and the very high reputational risk that comes from having that identity hijacked by an outsider.
I guess the moral of this story is that institutions need to be aware of how their brand is being used in cyberspace. Even if you don't use social networking tools as part of your marketing strategy it is very important to have a sense of the presence your school has on the web. The cost of doing nothing could be very high.
As discussed briefly last week, Twitter is just one of a fairly new batch of social networking web sites. Put simply these are web sites that enable people to join and connect easily with others. Unless you have been living on another planet you will have heard of some of the big players in this area, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
Many businesses, including educational institutions, are now using these social networking tools as part of their marketing strategy. It can work very well if done properly.
One of the emerging risks in this area is a form of web based identity theft. There are increasing instances of educational institutions having their brand used on social networking sites without permission. Corporate branding is used to establish official looking user groups and sub communities, often with a commercial gain in mind.
A recent post on squaredpeg.com provides alarming details of highly organised misuse of college/univeristy intellectual property (i.e logos) to establish "Class of 2013" groups on Facebook. It makes for interesting reading and tracks the unfolding discovery of the extent of the scheme. Many of the groups alrady had hundreds of unsuspecting students as members. Presumably many of them thought that they had joined an "official group" started and/ir moderated by the institution in question. At last count over 200 colleges in the US had been affected.
This type of behvaiour is akin to identiy theft. And the real concern for institutions is the loss of control of their corporate identity and the very high reputational risk that comes from having that identity hijacked by an outsider.
I guess the moral of this story is that institutions need to be aware of how their brand is being used in cyberspace. Even if you don't use social networking tools as part of your marketing strategy it is very important to have a sense of the presence your school has on the web. The cost of doing nothing could be very high.
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