Highlights of this issue include the agenda for the Users Group Workshop, saying goodbye to a key IDP USA team member and providing a schedule for the Fall Road Shows.
The six main topics are:
- 75 university reps and 44 Network reps at the Users Group Workshop
- Saying goodbye to Mark Shay
- IDP’s NAFSA participation
- IDP’s offices are going multi-destination
- Important changes to the Fall Road Show schedule
- Meet an IDP counselor
Users Group Workshop – Agenda
IDP’s 2nd Users Group Workshop is poised to be a groundbreaking experience. More than 75 university representatives from 61 institutions will participate along with 44 members of IDP’s overseas Network from 16 countries.
This is an unprecedented event – never before has a single student placement organization brought so many participants from overseas or incorporated so many university representatives into counselor training. We are grateful and excited to have your participation, and look forward to an informative and enjoyable few days.
The workshop will be split between interacting with and learning from IDP’s overseas Network, and using your own knowledge and experience to help train our counselors. There will also be opportunities for you to meet in intimate groups with key members of the Network as well as your university account manager and coordinator.
In regard to counselor training, we are asking some our partners to participate in two ways: to either serve on panels to present on important topics, or to sit in on these sessions and lead roundtable discussions upon their conclusion.
The topics are:
- The basics of North American higher education: An introduction of the U.S. and Canadian higher education systems and the benefits of the liberal arts philosophy.
- Admissions: An overview of the admissions processes for U.S. and Canadian undergraduate, graduate and English language programs.
- Rankings: Identifying the most popular rankings and how they are determined. The purpose will be to put rankings into context and identify why a heavy focus on rankings can be detrimental to the counseling process (but how they can help counselors meet families’ demands on university prestige).
- Standardized tests: A panel session where partners debate the merits, necessities and benefits of students taking standardized tests.
- Immigration and necessary number of I-20’s: An update on visa and immigration policies, plus a discussion on the necessary number of I-20’s for visa purposes and the optimal number of applications IDP students should submit.
In terms of training for you, our partners, we have several events scheduled:
- Key Network representatives outlining specific details and requirements of their region
- Time to interact with senior Network representatives in intimates groups of your school band
- A session on how to use conditional admissions programs to secure international students
- For those who would want to be classified as “beginners” in the international education space: the basics of being an IDP/agent partner (how to participate, how to get the most from an IDP/agent partnership, how to achieve the best results, etc.)
- For those who would want to be classified as “experts” in the international education space: ways to advance IDP (an interactive discussion on best practices and strategies that partners have garnered throughout the years, and how to best incorporate them into your own efforts and IDP’s processes)
Saying Goodbye to Mark Shay
March 20 will be Mark Shay’s last day as the North America director of IDP Education.
After leading IDP’s expansion into the United States and Canada and developing the largest North American portfolio of any international student placement organization, Mark has decided to take on a new opportunity at Drexel University’s e-Learning division.
Mark’s goals at IDP were to establish a presence in the U.S. market, extend the organization’s strong reputation, develop a credible portfolio of institutions, and raise the bar for the agent market overall. He leaves having achieved all of these and more.
He says, “I admit that I love a start-up, and I’m delighted to have gotten IDP over the first few major milestones in its global expansion. IDP now has a very credible portfolio of partner institutions that includes a mix of community colleges, ESL schools and pathway/bridge programs, in addition to a broad sampling of full-degree colleges and universities. There are elite private colleges, renowned land grant research universities, top rated specialty schools, and other public and private institutions from all regions of the country. I feel confident that the team in place will continue to lead IDP and these partner institutions to even greater success.”
A search will begin soon to find the appropriate person to take the expansion through the next series of milestones. In the meantime, daily operations will continue as usual. To ensure this, the North America group will report to Harmeet Pental, IDP’s regional director of South Asia – he and IDP’s chief operating officer, Andrew Thompson, recently spent a week with Mark and the team to discuss all the details.
This is an exciting time for IDP, as we transition into a new phase where we focus more of our energies on securing enrollments for existing partners and implementing the new counselor information system we call OSCAR. As the team realigns its priorities, you can expect some adjustments to which team members support which partner institutions. Look for further news in future newsletters and in calls from your account team.
IDP’s NAFSA Participation
All members of IDP’s North America team will still be present at NAFSA, as will IDP’s CEO Tony Pollock; Arlene Griffiths, the client relations manager of IDP’s UK expansion; Peter Burges, the regional director of Southeast Asia; and Luna Das, IDP India’s national manager for North American trainings and Client Relationships.
Peter will deliver a presentation with a representative from a leading research company named Forethought Research on Wednesday, June 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in room 220. The presentation What Do Students Value in Recruitment Agents? will provide participants with an understanding of the reasons foreign students enlist agent support, and will show universities how to relate the provided research to general student needs in the recruitment process, to assist with their own efforts.
Please consider making an appointment to meet with your university account manager and coordinator at NAFSA. Otherwise, we hope you will stop by booth #1001 to speak with us.
IDP’s Offices Are Going Multi-Destination
For the last few decades, IDP’s offices have been focused on one destination: Australia.
Now, an initiative is underway to ensure that our counseling centers represent the full breath of IDP’s offerings. That means IDP’s officers are going multi-destination.
India is at the forefront of this, upgrading their offices and promotional materials to reflect what are now our four main locations: Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
You can see samples of some multi-destination creative and promotional items below:
We also have photos of the multi-destination theme in the India offices:
Fall Road Shows
Our goal is always to serve as advisors for your international recruitment efforts, providing guidance as to which markets we think will bring you the most success.
To that end, and in light of possible reductions in our university partner’s travel budgets, we have elected to focus the Road Shows on IDP’s two most active multi-destination markets: South Asia and the Middle East. We’ve heard the call for solid return on investment for event dollars and are working to ensure that these activities provide more opportunities than ever.
By only running events in South Asia and the Middle East, we will be able to focus more energy on ensuring they are consistent and effective. There will be a greater focus on securing a higher echelon of student prospects, as well as all new systems in place to identify student interest in specific institutions and follow through on those leads. There will also be sophisticated reporting that will let you know how many students were interested in your institution, and the results of that interest (if they don’t enroll in your school, where do they go?).
The schedule for both Road Show events and other activities is as follows:
South Asia (6 cities in India): September 22 to October 2
Middle East (Turkey, Kuwait, 2 cities in UAE, 3 cities in Saudi Arabia); October 5 to October 18.
We are really excited for you to experience the new Fall 2011 Road Shows, and look forward to bringing you back to North Asia and Southeast Asia in the future. Contact you university account manager for more details.
Meet an IDP Counselor
In order to help you better connect with the IDP Network, and begin to understand who is out there, overseas, working to find you students, we periodically profile key IDP employees.
If you have visited Chennai lately, you may have met Jaikala. If not, you can learn more about this delightful senior India counselor in the information Q&A below.
Who: Jaikala Rani .M
What: Senior Counselor
Where: IDP Chennai
Contact: jaikalarani.manickam@idp.com
How long have you worked for IDP?
I have just completed six months at IDP!
What has been your most memorable moment at IDP?
We were anxious about the numbers attending the U.S. Road Show, but after continuous follow-up and counseling, we were very excited when Chennai exceeded the expected number. I definitely consider that moment unforgettable.
Briefly describe your role.
I am a counselor guiding students in choosing the right course and an admission counselor helping them through the entire admission process to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
I am a friend when sending off the students to make the dream of their career come true.
When I meet students of different colleges and universities I am a marketing and sales person convincing them to take up our services.
And as an employee of IDP my role is to live up to my KRA, work as part of a team and aim towards excellence – by which means success will happen automatically.
What’s the best part of your job?
Interacting with students, providing the appropriate information for them and convincing them the right way to take up the services we offer. I have learnt a lot about the short-listing of universities and every day has been a learning experience and a rewarding challenge for me.
If you didn’t work in international education, what other field would attract you? Why?
Any field related to sales and service. I have always been in the field of sales and service and I would always prefer to work in the education industry because it is always challenging and you are dealing with real life situations.
Do you have an unfilled, burning ambition?
The medical field was my childhood ambition. But time made me to choose the field of education, and I am much happier with this field.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Happiness is how we take things in life, adjusting with people of different kinds and learning to live with them in harmony.
If you could meet any historical figure, who would you meet – and why?
U.S. President Obama, because of his excellent leadership.
Have you ever lived (or traveled) abroad?
If so, where have you been? Malaysia and Singapore.
Where is your favorite place on earth – and why?
My country. My hometown. My home. IT cannot be expressed in words.
What do you feel passionate about?
Education and my son.
Who or what inspires you?
Outspoken people.
How do you relax?
Spending time with my family, most specifically my son.
With whom would you most like to have a five-minute chat?
My old friends.
What is your motto?
Life begins with our cry. Life ends with others' cry. Fill this gap with as much laughter as possible.
Jaikala is a prime example of the type of motivated, inspired counselor working everyday to better peoples’ lives. Her passion and sense of duty is shared by other counselors and representatives, and this is what makes the IDP Network so powerful.
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