International Student Recruiting

Meet IDP's New Vietnam Business Development Manager

2011-08-04T12:12:00.003-04:00

IDP Education's team in Vietnam has hired an American to serve as their business development manager. Located in Ho Chi Minh City, Allison Tursack is already implementing new strategies that will lead IDP forward.

To help you get acquainted with Allison, a brief Q&A is provided below. You can reach her at allison.tursack@idp.com.

What has been your most memorable moment at IDP?
Well, I hadn’t started working for IDP, yet. But it was the first time I walked into the IDP office in February for the U.S. Mini Fair. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Briefly describe your role.
I handle business relations and manage the marketing activities for IDP and our partners within Vietnam.

What’s the best part of your job?
Seeing all my and my team’s hard work reflected in the success of our events, seminars and exhibition.

If you didn’t work in international education, what other field would attract you? Why?
Hotels or Event Planning. When I was still living in the United States, I worked for InterContinental. I really enjoy the quick pace and energy of hotels. There’s always something going on, and you can have guests and clients from all over the world. It never gets boring in that atmosphere.

Do you have an unfilled, burning ambition?
I’m an adrenaline junkie. There’s always an unfilled burning ambition! Right now I’m training for the Vietnam Triathlon in Hoi An this September. Who knows what’ll be next…

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My memories of my childhood family vacations. Every year we would travel to the beach for a week – it was nothing extravagant, but everyone on my mother’s side of the family would come. It was definitely a week I would look forward to all year long.

Have you ever lived (or traveled) abroad? If so, where have you been?
Well, I’m from the United States. I’ve also lived in Germany for a little over a year, and from there it’s been Vietnam. Along the journey I believe I’ve traveled to 17 different countries.

Where is your favorite place on earth – and why?
My bed. Where ever I go and whatever I do, the one place I will always start to long for is my own bed.

What do you feel passionate about?
Education and Travel. I feel the two are very similar, which is why I love this career so much. It may not always be about what you learn in the classroom, but putting yourself into another culture and another person’s way of life, that is real education.

Who or what inspires you?
My mother. She was the most amazing woman I knew. I strive to be like her everyday.

How do you relax?
A good book – and I’ll love recommendations!

With whom would you most like to have a five-minute chat?
Obama. I’m not sure if 5 minutes would really be enough, but with everything that man has done, experienced and seen at such a young age. I would really like to get his take on the world (and the U.S. economy).

What is your motto?
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” I love Ralph Waldo Emerson.

IDP Partner Newsletter - July 2011

2011-07-13T12:42:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the latest IDP North America partner newsletter, designed to keep you informed of the ongoing efforts to bring you qualified students, and of IDP’s continued global expansion.

Highlights of this issue include an update of the Users Group Workshop, marketing intelligence on IDP’s newest source country Turkey, and the introduction of IDP’s new CEO: Andrew Thompson.

The five main topics are:

Tony Pollock retires, Andrew Thompson steps in
Get to know Andrew Thompson
What took place at the Users Group Workshop?
Meet IDP’s first U.S. student placed from Indonesia
Introducing Turkey as an IDP source market

IDP Education Appoints New CEO
A media release issued from Peter Polson, IDP Education Chairman

I wish to advise that IDP Education’s CEO, Tony Pollock, retired at the end of June, after six years with IDP.

Under Tony’s leadership, IDP has achieved a great deal – but most significantly he led the successful transition of IDP from not-for-profit to corporate enterprise. Tony’s leadership, direction and positive approach throughout this transformation has been an enormous asset to IDP.

While we will be sorry to see Tony go, he has put in place a very strong management team to take us forward. The internal appointment of Andrew Thompson, as the new CEO from 1 July will ensure a smooth transition.

Andrew, currently IDP’s Chief Operations Officer, is well positioned to take on the role given his significant work in leading our global operations. Andrew and the team remain committed to driving IDP’s vision for a strong and sustainable student placement, English language testing and English language training business and to the important role IDP
holds in international education for its shareholders, clients and students.

The Board is very confident IDP has the strategy, the management team, and a skilled network team to deliver.

Peter Polson
Chairman
IDP Education Pty Ltd

Introducing Andrew Thompson

IDP Education’s incoming Chief Executive Andrew Thompson has served as Chief Operating Officer of the company since June 2007, managing the operation of IDP’s global businesses in student placement, English language testing and English language training.

In this period, Andrew has overseen the restructuring of the business and led the development of IDP’s successful growth strategy. He consolidated IDP’s business in Australia while establishing student placement operations in new destination countries.

As COO, Andrew has emphasized close cooperation with IDP’s educational institution partners, establishing a new client relations team with the skills and cross business connections to link partners to the IDP network.

Prior to joining IDP, Andrew worked in senior management positions at major Australian retailer Coles Myer. He was a general manager, and member of the senior management team, in Coles Myer’s Officeworks business.

Earlier in his career he worked in senior positions as a lawyer and corporate counsel. Andrew holds a B.Sc. (majoring in immunology) from Monash University, an LL.B. (Honors) from Monash University and an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Recap of the Users Group Workshop

IDP’s second U.S. Users Group Workshop was touted as, “the world’s largest student recruitment training event,” and it lived up to the pre-event excitement.

80 university representatives from more than 60 U.S. and Canadian partner institutions attended the two and a half day workshop in Chicago, Illinois. They were joined by everyone from the IDP North America team and more than 40 Network representatives. Included from overseas were regional directors from South Asia / North America (Harmeet Pental) and North Asia (Allen Jiang), and country directors from Singapore (Daryl Fong), Indonesia (Isla Winarto), Vietnam (Nhi Tuong), and Turkey (Carl Holtman).

By all accounts, the event was a resounding success.

Networking in the clouds and on the sea

The workshop began with an opening reception 95 stories in the air. In a lounge at the top of Chicago’s famed John Hancock Observatory Deck, amidst breathtaking views and a varied enough menu of food and drinks to please nearly 20 countries’ worth of tastes, IDP’s overseas staff and university representatives appreciated the opportunity to meet each other and begin to develop relationships.

On the following evening, the group enjoyed a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan. As the sun set in an explosion of pink over the calm water, the lights of the city blinked on, and the dancing intensified. By the end of the night, we were more than just colleagues – we were friends.

A time to teach

One of the most well received aspects of the Users Group was the way counselor training was handled. We gave our university representatives an opportunity to discuss key higher education topics on panels moderated by Judy Freudenberger. The audience of counselors were all seated at roundtables with other university representatives, and after the panels, these roundtables were able to hold private discussions on each topic. This allowed for varied perspectives and thorough interaction.

We also held a day-long session where partners were segmented into certain bands based on Carnegie categories and allowed the opportunity to discuss their institutions in particular and their type of institutions in general. Though a long day for the counselors, they took furious notes, filmed each band with their phones or cameras, and said afterwards that they learned a great deal about the differentiations of the schools and school types.

A time to learn

University representatives didn’t attend the Users Group Workshop only to train counselors. We also hope that they took some new knowledge with them as they returned to campus.

There was an overview session where leaders from the Network presented three key elements of their respective markets:

Market intelligence and information
Updates on their U.S. counseling launch and any major learning’s
Tips and advice on how institutions can succeed in these regions

University representatives also had the chance to meet in small groups with these same leaders to discuss the markets more intimately, and meet privately with their personal university account manager and coordinator to discuss details of the partnership. In a session at the end of the last day designed specifically for those new to IDP or to working with overseas placement services, participants were able to receive additional advice from IDP’s overseas experts.

Firsthand experiences

Some of IDP’s counselors have visited or studied in North America. Some even lived here. But for many, the Users Group Workshop was their first time on this continent.

On the first day following the workshop, the counselors participated in an all-day North American higher education training with education guru Carl Herrin. Then, they broke into small groups and began their campus tours.

More than 50 campuses were visited in total, from all across the United States and Canada. Counselors met with students and administrators, ate in dining halls, and even slept in dorms. They truly got to experience U.S. and Canadian campus life, and now have firsthand stories they can share with prospective students.

They also now have strong relationships with university representatives that may last well beyond the IDP partnership.

We are so grateful for all who participated. We hope everyone is already looking forward to next year’s Users Group Workshop.

If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint slides from the Network’s market update presentation, contact Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

First Indonesian Students to the United States
By Isla Rogers-Winarto, IDP Country Director Indonesia

In May 2011, Mirza Aditya became the first IDP Indonesia student to be fully processed for studying in the United States. A 17-year-old graduate from the prestigious President High School in Jakarta, Mirza first approached IDP for counseling after having met with senior IDP counselors visiting his school in January 2011.

Mirza, the grandson of a well-known general and head of police, has enrolled in an undergraduate program in biological and chemical sciences. He and his mother are extremely happy with their choice of university and with IDP’s assistance.

Another recent student to be enrolled is Hassan Mohammad Hassan Dawodieh, the son of the current Jordanian Ambassador to Indonesia. Hassan will study at Glendale Community College, and will be accompanied by two other Jordanian friends.

We look forward to providing many more interesting and qualified Indonesian students to IDP’s partner institutions.

Kurniawan Mulyanto (left), a U.S.-educated IDP counselor with IDP Indonesia’s first student to the USA, Mirza Aditya, at the Jakarta airport departing for the United States.

IDP Expands into Turkey

While many of us were attending the NAFSA conference, IDP Education’s first Turkey counseling center officially opened in Istanbul.

In honor of this exciting development, we present below some information from Carl Holtman, IDP Turkey’s new country director, about himself and the student market in Turkey. Please also note that Turkey is one of the stops on the Fall Road Show.

What can you tell us about your background and previous higher education experience?

I’ve been in the industry going on six years now, all of it in Turkey. Started out with one of the many agencies in Turkey, then quickly moved into the educational fair side of the business. It wasn’t long before I realized that the student services industry in Turkey was not very professionalized. I took an opportunity with ELS Language Centers to establish their agent support office here in Turkey in the hopes that I could impact change on the local agents by providing good training and support. Unfortunately, the high turnover at the agencies and the lack of qualified counselors (most agents are simply glorified travel agents) meant that we were constantly starting at square one. So when I heard that IDP was considering the possibility of opening an office in Turkey I actively pursued them, because I knew that the opening of an IDP office in Turkey would be a game change in the industry and I wanted to lead that change.

What are you most excited about regarding your new role at IDP?

Similar to the above, I want to change the industry here for the better (introduce regulation amongst other things) and IDP is the platform from which to do that.

What can you tell us about the new IDP team in Turkey?

My team is not from the “industry” per se…but they have lived the experience. One of my team members is a dual Turkish-Australian citizen who did his year 12, TAFE and university degree study in Australia (graduated from Curtin University of Technology). My other counselor is a dual Turkish-American citizen who did a couple of postgraduate certificate programs in the United States and worked there for six years. So both are great examples of Turks who went abroad for education and then came back home to their country to contribute positively to society.

Can you provide any information or market intelligence on students from Turkey? Is there interest in the United States and Canada?

The United States is by far the number one choice of Turkish students seeking a university education abroad. Canada is also gaining some ground in Turkey, especially amongst those students who would like to settle in Canada after their studies.

What are the most popular subjects? State/province and city destinations?

Turkish students that might typically use student placement services would in general tend to be bi-costal (east coast or west coast; New York, Boston, Florida and California). However, as a product of the American Midwest myself, I know that Turkish students would find themselves at home if they were matched with the right university. There is also a huge population of Turkish students in Toronto, and Vancouver is very popular as well.

The fact that I have a strong team of counselors means that I am certain we’ll be able to speak with confidence about what programs would be the best fit for the student rather than just pandering to the images of America that they know from the movies. Popular subjects include the usual suspects: business, engineering, hard sciences, and architecture.

What is the breakdown of desired degree level? Are community colleges popular?

Turkey is still a graduate heavy market (60 percent graduate, 30 percent undergrad and 10 percent language study). Community colleges have been trying to market themselves as a viable option for studying in the United States; unfortunately there is still some learning to be done from the perspective of Turkish students and families. When Turks hear about two-year schools they end up likening them to the technical schools here in Turkey, which offer almost zero chance of movement beyond a two-year associate’s degree. There is no concept of studying at a two-year school here in Turkey and then transferring to a university to finish. So it will very much be our responsibility to explain this concept to students and parents.

Are most students from Turkey fully funded? By their parents? Scholarships?

Most students that would use a placement agency are fully funded by their parents. Few Turkish students take standardized tests that we might be accustomed to in the United States; therefore they are not typically competing for scholarships. There are some ministries and private companies in Turkey that will sponsor students for graduate study.

What types of marketing materials should institutions have?

An easy to navigate website is essential as Turkish students are heavily connected to the Internet. Facebook is extremely popular here. One-page information sheets about various majors and highlights of the university would also be helpful. Printing course catalogues and such is not necessary anymore.

We hope you found this information useful. You can reach IDP’s newest country director at carl.holtman@idp.com.

Road Show Update

As a reminder, Fall Road Show registration closes on Friday. The schedule is:

INDIA:

September 23-24: New Delhi

September 25-26: Mumbai

September 27-28: Ahmedabad

September 29: Hyderabad

Sept. 30-Oct. 1: Bangalore

October 2: Chennai

MIDDLE EAST:

October 5-6: Istanbul, Turkey

October 8-9: Dubai, UAE

October 10-11: Abu Dhabi, UAE

October 12-13: Kuwait City, Kuwait

October 14-15: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

October 16-17: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

October 18: Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Talk to your personal account representative about event discounts.

Follow IDP’s News

As the level of news about IDP continues, we suggest you link to our Twitter pages: http://twitter.com/IDPUSA and http://twitter.com/IDPCanada. Here, we post announcements, new university partners, media coverage, and other items of interest.

Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of IDP’s North America partner newsletter. If there is anything you would like to see in future newsletters, please contact Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

IDP Education Announces World’s Largest Student Recruitment Training Event

2011-06-07T14:22:00.002-04:00

IDP Education, the world’s largest student placement firm, is hosting the largest ever North America training event for overseas advisors, June 18-22 in Chicago.

Philadelphia, PA – As part of its ongoing efforts to raise the standards expected of a student placement organization, IDP Education is organizing the largest ever North America training event for overseas student advisors.

From June 18 to 22 in Chicago, IL, more than 30 members of IDP’s overseas counseling Network from 16 countries will join more than 75 university representatives from 61 institutions for networking and training. Following this Users Group Workshop, the overseas participants will collectively visit nearly 50 U.S. and Canadian higher education campuses.

“This event is unprecedented in its scale and objectives,” says Andrew Thompson, IDP’s chief operating officer. “It demonstrates IDP’s commitment to being the best possible international student recruitment partner and advisor for U.S. institutions.”

The agenda will consist of activities that benefit both the university representatives and the overseas participants. This includes:

· Panel sessions where university members educate counselors on important topics such as U.S. and Canadian admissions, immigration and ranking systems.

· Market intelligence where overseas regional experts provide useful information on student markets and enrollments tips.

· Focus groups where IDP partners can meet with the organization’s regional leaders to discuss various topics.

“Never before has a single student placement organization brought so many participants from overseas or incorporated so many university representatives into counselor training,” says Harmeet Pental, IDP’s regional director of South Asia and North America. “Following the Users Group Workshop, IDP will staff the world’s largest collective group of international student advisors to have visited the United States and Canada and toured university campuses. They will even have eaten in the dining halls and slept in dorm rooms.”

This is IDP’s second North America Users Group Workshop. Only IDP staff and institutional partners are invited to participate.

About IDP Education

Over the last 41 years, IDP Education has become the world's largest student placement firm, operating more than 70 counseling centers in more than 20 countries and placing more than 300,000 students. It is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities and a leading online recruitment firm, and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency exam with the British Council and the University of Cambridge. For more information, visit http://usa.idp.com.

"Implementing an Agency Based International Student Recruitment Strategy"

2011-05-23T13:13:00.002-04:00

While we believe third-party student recruitment support is an important component of a successful international marketing strategy, we at IDP always urge institutions to be cautious with their agent relationships.

For those institutions considering working with student placement firms for the first time, or for those who want to advance their relationships, we highly recommend the training workshop "Implementing an Agency Based International Student Recruitment Strategy," being conducted by the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC).

The workshop will take place on Friday, July 8, at the SUNY Global Center in New York City. If sufficient interest exists, the workshop may be made available via web Conference. If this interests you, e-mail executive director John Deupree at john.deupree@airc-education.org.

The presenters are AIRC members with significant agent-based recruiting experience, including:

Mitch Leventhal, State University of New York
Pia Wood, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Stephen Foster, Wright State University
Hilka Leicht, IEC
Palle Steen Jensen, EDU Danmark

For more information and registration, go to http://www.airc-education.org/Workshop_070811.htm

IDP Partner Newsletter - May 2011

2011-05-18T11:00:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the latest IDP North America partner newsletter, designed to keep you informed of the ongoing efforts to bring you qualified students, and of IDP’s continued global expansion.

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.

We will also have a representative of every partner institution serve on a panel with similar institutions (based on the Carnegie classification), to educate counselors on the unique aspects of their school types and provide a deeper understanding of the complexities of the U.S. and Canadian higher education systems. Through a spokesperson, each representative will have a one-minute “elevator pitch” to describe what differentiates their institution.

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)

There will also be ample networking opportunities to interact with those from overseas. They are attending in order to learn from you and about you, and we hope you will take advantage of this unique opportunity.

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.

Honoring Tony Adams

2011-05-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

One of the most rewarding aspects of serving the international education community is the relationships we are able to form with people truly passionate about what they do.

Perhaps no one was more passionate than Tony Adams, who passed away today in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia.

Tony epitomized all that is so right in the international education community, with his love for students, embrace of other cultures and the incredible drive and innovation he brought to helping pioneer international education in Australia.

His expertise earned respect on both sides of the Pacific. He was awarded the inaugural IDP award for excellence in international education in 1997, and was most recently working with AIEA on a number of projects. He achieved great success as the director of international programs and then pro vice chancellor international at Macquarie University, was the founding and past president of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) and was an active member of a working group that was bringing all of us together: the Council of International Education Associations (CIEA).

The international education community lost a great figure today, but the passion and enthusiasm that he showed still lives on in so many who have dedicated their careers and their lives to this field.

We at IDP honor Tony and his important contributions to the community. It will be hard to think of a NAFSA Annual Conference without Tony – please keep him in your thoughts as we come together in Vancouver.

IDP Partner Newsletter - April 2011

2011-04-29T11:09:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the latest IDP North America partner newsletter, designed to keep you informed of the ongoing efforts to bring you qualified students, and of IDP’s continued global expansion.

This edition covers the following seven topics:

IDP’s India Leaders Tour Canada
Users Group Workshop Update
Road Show Update
Student Counseling System Update
Meet an IDP “Subject Matter Expert”
Student Marketing Materials
See You at NAFSA

Canada Seminar Recap
In support of our current expansion of counseling services into Canada, we recently conducted a series of seminars in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The events were led by three representatives from IDP’s North America office (Mark Shay, Michael Lucci and Ayanna), as well as Harmeet Pental, our South Asia regional director, and Luna Das, IDP India’s head of North American counseling and training. The goal was to share IDP’s philosophy, provide useful firsthand knowledge of the South Asia market, and allow current and prospective partner institutions to interact.

Mark Shay, IDP’s North America director, started with an overview of the history of IDP, including how we grew from a national co-op of all Australian universities more than 40 years ago into a multi-destination student placement organization now serving institutions in Australia, the United States, Canada, the UK, and soon, New Zealand.

Then, Harmeet and Luna provided interesting specifics on the South Asia Market, including higher education trends in India, international student market analysis, in-country marketing strategies, and how IDP has placed itself above other agents in the space through hiring knowledgeable and talented staff, and through part-ownership in the IELTS English proficiency exam.

Some of the key student demographic details Harmeet and Luna provided include:

Four of the top six reasons why international students choose a program to study is related to jobs
The three main reasons international students select a particular institution are 1) the international ranking, 2) the reputation in the area of study and 3) the location
The three most important factors for why students choose to study in a particular country are 1) affordable costs, 2) the opportunity to work in or migrate to the country and 3) international recognition of the degree and recognition in their home country
Parents are by far the most dominant source of funding for an international education

Other key topics during the seminars included best practices that IDP has successfully employed to place more than 30,000 students a year in Australian higher education, how institutions can engage IDP’s Network of counselors via a number of tools and methods, and what institutions should look for when working with agents in South Asia. From her background working for EducationUSA and the CEC, Luna believes that an agent:

Should go beyond simply providing applications, to become an essential component of your marketing
Helping you brand yourself overseas so that students find you and apply to your institution even without going through the agent at times
Should be able to provide access to and/or have a connection to sources of students such as VACs, high commission, government, top secondary schools, local businesses, and more
Should work with students to provide information and advice on securing study permits and preparing for life on campus

These informal sessions were productive and interesting, and helped serve as a primer for our goal of developing a countrywide consortium for international student recruitment.

Users Group Workshop - Interact with Peers and IDP Counselors
As a partner of IDP Education, you are encouraged to participate in IDP’s second North America Users Group Workshop, held at DePaul University in Chicago, June 19-21.

Designed to allow university representatives and IDP counselors to interact with and learn from each other, this free event will provide opportunities to:

Familiarize IDP counselors on your institution and details of your degree offerings

Help educate IDP counselors on the elements that make your school so special for foreign students

Receive market intelligence and information from IDP’s overseas regional experts
Gain tips and strategies on how to get the most from your IDP partnership
Participate in the training of new IDP counselors on the technical aspects and admissions standards of the U.S. higher education system
Develop personal relationships with the professionals representing you overseas

The Users Group Workshop will begin with an opening reception atop a landmark Chicago skyscraper the evening of Sunday, June 19. Sessions will then run all day June 20 and 21.

The event will take place at the University Center Conference Chicago at the downtown Loop campus of DePaul University (525 South State Street, Chicago, IL 60605). Registration is complimentary and most meals and activities are included. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and accommodation.

Please RSVP to Carolyn Redmond at carolyn.redmond@idp.com or 1.866.443.6211. This is an exciting opportunity to interact with IDP counselors and fellow international educators, and you are sure to return to campus with new knowledge and new international outreach ideas.

We are also pleased that immediately following the close of the Users Group Workshop, more than 45 of IDP’s overseas Network staff will disperse into intimate groups to visit more than 45 of our partner campuses. They will get the chance to interact with university partners and some students, tour the campuses, eat in the dining halls, and even in some cases sleep in the dorms.

This is a wonderful opportunity for many of our counselors and senior managers to experience U.S. higher education firsthand, and we are grateful to the institutions that offered to host. We know the Network is looking forward to seeing your campus and bringing home firsthand accounts of their experience.

Road Show Fall 2011 – New Countries Available
The IDP Road Show remains one of the best ways to spread your name overseas and to support our continued expansion. Not only do participants receive one-on-one face time with prospective students and their families, but the various IDP offices market the events and university attendees for weeks ahead of time, so your name and logo is spread throughout billboards, online ads, newspapers, and fliers on secondary school and college campuses all throughout Asia and the Middle East.

For most stops on the upcoming Fall 2011 Road Show, IDP will for the first time run multi-destination events, meaning the collective drawing power of Australia, the United States, Canada, and the UK is expected to attract all new levels of students.

We will also for the first time be offering events for U.S. and Canadian institutions in such highly sought source countries as Turkey, South Korea and Thailand.

More details will be coming soon. In the meantime, we recommend that you hold some room in your budget for a number of these city stops. They will once again be $1,500 per city, and we recommend at least 10 to optimize your exposure.

OSCAR is Here
IDP’s growth is referred to internally as the Student Placement Expansion Program (SPEP). A key component of SPEP is a new computer system consisting of sophisticated CRM technology, that will greatly advance how IDP’s counselors interact with students, match them to ideal institutions and process their enrollments. IDP has spent the last few years working on this system that will officially be referred to as OSCAR, the Overseas Student Central Advice Resource.

The system is poised to go live in stages starting in May, accompanied by a series of intensive training sessions for counselors. Expect an overview of the system and what it will mean for the quantity and quality of your applications in the next newsletter.

Profile of a Key Participant in IDP’s Student Placement Expansion Program 
In order to help you better connected with the IDP Network, and begin to understand who is out there, overseas, working to find you students, we periodically profile key IDP employees.

In this issue, we spotlight Catherine Lay See Ooi, a key contributor to the development of the new OSCAR student recruitment CRM system. Through her previous work as a counselor, Catherine has been providing critical input into how IDP’s Network will and should use this sophisticated system. Read on to learn more about Catherine.

Who: Catherine Lay See Ooi

Role in SPEP: Subject Matter Expert on the OSCAR computer system, providing input to all streams of the project

Where: Melbourne Corporate office

Contact: cath.ooi@idp.com

Briefly describe your role within the student placement expansion project. I am a Subject Matter Expert for the project team. My objective is to work closely with the team in delivering a user-friendly CRM tool that meets the needs of counselors and supports them to manage their work.  

So far I have been involved in developing the business requirements and solution design for OSCAR. I provided input from the perspective of a counselor on the user interface and usability of the system.  I have been involved in planning solution implementation and training as well as providing high-level feedback on the Knowledge Management (KM) functionality, the KM Administrator role and knowledge sourcing in KM piloting.

I have also provided input in relation to compliance for the new CRM.  

Other role: I am currently on secondment from my role as a counselor in the Melbourne Student Services Office

   How long have you worked for IDP?  I have worked for IDP for eight years. I started my career in the IDP office in Subang Jaya, Malaysia. I then joined the student services team in Sydney, Australia, before moving to Melbourne, where I have been since April 2009.

What has been your most memorable moment working for IDP?

My most memorable moment occurred at an IDP recruitment event, where I got to work with colleagues from the other branches, including country directors, seniors managers, and staff from the corporate office. We shared our work and got to know each other better while helping out in the crowd of over 1,000 attendees.  

What’s the best part of your job at IDP? I have always been able to overcome problems and challenges at work with great help from my peers and managers. Their support, guidance and patience have brought out the best in me.  

If you didn’t work in international education, what other field would attract you? Why?

Oh! I have always been passionate about becoming a pastry chef. You create things that you enjoy the most and you bring happiness to others. I could color everybody’s life at any time with my delicious products.  

Do you have an unfulfilled burning ambition?
I am happy with where I am now. So, there isn’t any unfulfilled burning ambition.  

What is your idea of perfect happiness? I enjoy hearing the laughter of all friends, colleague and family when we are together. The moment of togetherness is the value of living.  

If you could meet any historical figure, who would you meet and why? I wish to see God and Buddha to enlighten me in understanding the real life, forgiveness and acceptance of others. 

It is because of dedicated employees like Catherine that the IDP Network is so powerful, and is only getting better.

Student Marketing
Recently, IDP produced a number of documents for students that educate them about studying in the United States and Canada. These brochures and fliers provide such important and often misunderstood information as:

The benefits of U.S. and Canadian higher education
The difference between public and private institutions (including the myth that one is automatically better than another)
The details of associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees, plus special options like accelerated programs and Canadian university transfer programs
Requirements for admission (standardized tests, the important of essays, etc.)
How to choose the best university for their goals, needs and abilities

These informative pieces are branded IDP, but they also make sure to highlight key aspects of our partner institutions, to further our efforts to help you globally market your school.

These topics are expanded upon in free seminars as well as during the counseling process. The idea is that we don’t just match a student to an institution, we ensure that they fully understand and feel comfortable with the decisions they’re making.

See You at NAFSA
IDP’s entire North America team, in addition to key Network representatives such as Turkey Country Director Carl Holtman, will be at NAFSA, booth #1001.

We would love to meet with you and perhaps even take you to lunch and dinner. Please reach out to your university account manager or coordinator to try to set up a time to get together. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Print Materials
In order to best understand your offerings and describe them during counseling sessions, our counselors appreciate having a healthy supply of your print materials.

The procedure that has been established since the beginning of our partnership is for you to send all print materials to the Philadelphia office. From there, they will be sent to various counseling centers in bulk shipments.

As you begin to establish relationships with some of our Network representatives, you may from time-to-time receive requests directly from them for print materials. We ask that you refrain from fulfilling this request, and maintain the established process of sending all materials through the Philadelphia office. This will ensure maximum efficiency and organization. If at any point this preferred process changes, we will notify you immediately.

In addition, we continually collect PDFs of viewbooks, brochures, photos, and videos to load into a shared network for our counselors. Please send your latest marketing material (ideally in digital form, but in print if you do not have original files) to our manager of communications, Matthew Ulmer, at matthew.ulmer@idp.com.

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Visit IDP Counseling Centers
A message we constantly state is that student recruitment results are amplified by overseas participation. Nothing draws a family to a positive outcome like a face-to-face encounter, and most international students come to our offices instead of being able to visit your campus. As your overseas representatives, IDP will find ways to make your scarce resources (time and money) as effective as possible, but what we ask is that you find a way to send yourself or someone from your institution to our offices overseas. You can observe the counseling process, meet with and train counselors, and perhaps most important of all, interact directly with prospective students. Faculty can also be a great resource, as they often travel to support their research and teaching roles and could visit an IDP office during these travels.

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Follow IDP’s News
As the level of news about IDP continues, we suggest you link to a daily update from Twitter (http://twitter.com/IDPUSA and http://twitter.com/IDPCanada). There, we post announcements, new university partners, media coverage, and other items of interest.

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IDP Education Partner Newsletter - March 2011

2011-03-17T11:17:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the latest IDP Education U.S. partner newsletter,
designed to keep you informed of the ongoing efforts to bring
you qualified students, and of IDPʼs continued
global expansion.

This month's issue covers the following 11 topics:
• Expanding counseling services into Turkey
• Opportunities to enroll Middle East students on scholarship
• Rallying for standards in international student recruitment
• Update on student numbers
• Adding pathway programs and community colleges to the portfolio
• Update on IDPʼs Canada and UK expansions
• Upgrading IDPʼs counseling technology
• IDPʼs April conference schedule
• Spring Road Show report
• Fall 2012 Road Show will be different
• Meet the country director of the Gulf States

Expanding Counseling Services Into Turkey
Turkey is an excellent source of publicly supported and
privately financed students, and demand for higher
education is currently exceeding supply.

Starting May 2011, IDP will serve this valuable marketing
by launching counseling operations in Istanbul. Led by
Carl Holtman as IDP Turkeyʼs country director,
undergraduate, graduate, community college, and ESL
students will be counseled for enrollment into Australia, the
United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It will be the
first country to launch with the full portfolio of IDP partners
and destination countries.

Read more about this exciting expansion in a recent media
announcement:
http://idpusa.blogspot.com/2011/02/idp-education-announces-expansion-of.html

Call for Action: Rallying Higher Education to Bring
Standards and Professionalism to all International
Student Recruitment
IDP Education helped develop the student placement industry
more than 40 years ago, and was in the first group of student
placement organizations to be certified by the AIRC. We now
want to help advance the industry by calling for more
standards and professionalism among all overseas practitioners.

Our university partners recognize the importance of working
with agents and other third-party student recruitment
professionals. Upwards of 85 percent of foreign students consult
an agent before applying to an overseas higher education institution,
and working directly with these agents and counselors is the most
effective way to ensure that they provide accurate information
about your institution.

Still, the vast majority of individuals responsible for counseling
foreign students are working without a centralized system of
regulations or standards, with little or no penalties for
providing incorrect or even intentionally misleading information.

It is for this reason that IDP is rallying the higher education community to band together to call for better quality and certification among all
individuals involved with international recruitment.

We respect and fully support the work of the AIRC to certify
the companies that work with universities. We also believe
there is further need to certify individual practitioners: those who work outside of contracting with institutions. These can include advisors from schools, governmental agencies
and independent consultants professing to have knowledge of U.S.higher education. Perhaps this takes the form of something akin to a "Realtor" license or other American industries that certify individual
professionals in addition to employees.

Visit www.QualityInternationalCounselors.com to learn
more about this initiative and to add your thoughts and comments.

Update on Student Numbers
The IDP model is working. Spring 2011 marked our second
student intake, and ongoing efforts to add new counselors
and provide steady training has resulted in clear progress.
While spring is not typically a major starting point for
international students, IDP saw strong growth
in student placements compared to our first cycle.
Applications came from the following nine countries:

· China
· India
· Indonesia
· Kuwait
· Saudi Arabia
· South Korea
· Taiwan
· United Arab Emirates
· Vietnam

We continue to improve our operations and look
forward to an even stronger fall 2012. Thank you
for your continued support.

Update on the Addition of Pathway
Programs
One of our promises to students is that we deliver
a broad sampling of higher education options,
providing a number of possible programs to
match their needs and capabilities.

Our increased Network capacity and the growing
strength of our university portfolio have
made it possible to take further steps to fulfill this
promise by adding community colleges
and pathway programs to our list of offerings. In
addition to programs on campus, we have recently
added several independent English language training
partners such as Kaplan, StudyGroup, Boston Academy
of English and EC Language Centers, along with the
innovative NAVITAS, which in partnership with various
universities offers foundation programs and academic
bridges in the forms of pre-bachelor's and pre-master's
programs.

We are now looking to add 10 community colleges to our
portfolio to help open markets like Vietnam and
Cambodia, where university admission is often preceded
by an intermediate step.

John Green, who has worked for more than 15 years at
higher education institutions and private corporations,
has joined IDP as an account manager for pathway and
ESL programs, as well as community colleges. If you
would like to talk about the various pathway options
at your institution, you can reach him at
john.green@idp.com or 267.386.5361.

Update on IDP's Multi-Country Expansion
Ayanna Brady, who has spent the majority of her
career developing emerging markets in global
education, is the latest higher education professional
to join IDP for full-time Canada operations. She is
working with Michael Lucci to expand our Canadian
portfolio and support our counselorsʼ informational
needs. Both work from IDPʼs North American
headquarters in Philadelphia.

We now have six partner institutions throughout Canada.
Two participated in the recent India Road Show, and
Ayanna accompanied the Southeast Asia leg of the
Road Show to experience the Network and begin to
educate our counselors on the Canada opportunity.

India is the first IDP country to counsel for Canada,
and several Canada specialists have already been hired.
You can read a media announcement about the Canadian
expansion at http://idpcanada.blogspot.com. That is the
official IDP Canada blog, and there is also an IDP Canada
Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/idpcanada.

Additionally, IDP has been working to develop the
United Kingdom as a destination. With a team based
in the UK, the organization announced its first partners
at the recent British Council conference. You can read the
media announcement here:
http://www.idp.com/system-pages/headlines/idp- announces-first-two-uk-cli.aspx

Update on Technology Upgrades
Progress continues on the advanced CRM and Knowledge
Management system that will serve as a resource tool for
all counselors. Housing all pertinent information about
our university partners, this extensive computer-based
system will allow our counselors to create successful matches
between students and institutions, regardless of the size of
IDPʼs global portfolio.

The Overseas Students Central Advice Resource (OSCAR) will
be demonstrated at the upcoming Users Group Workshop in
Chicago June 20-22. Make sure you save the date to participate
in this annual event, where you will have the opportunity to
meet fellow international educators as well as a number of IDP
counselors and their managers.

As OSCAR launches throughout the Network over the next few
months, our counselors will be busy with training and
infrastructure development. Please keep this in mind if you
have any office visits scheduled during this time period.

This tool has been custom built for IDP and will be extremely
powerful, but itʼs only asgood as the information provided.
We request that you continuously update us on the latest news
about your campus, changes in your course offerings and costs,
and new marketing material for foreign students. Digital and
print materials are requested - if you send us pennants, posters,
T-shirts, hats, and other items, they will be displayed and/or
handed out overseas. Send them to the Philadelphia office and
we will handle the international shipping. Send to:

1818 Market Street, Suite 1105
Philadelphia, PA 19103

IDP's April Conference Schedule
As a leader in international education, IDP supports a
number of higher education conferences and events. We
recently presented a best practices showcase at the AIEA
conference in San Francisco, will participate in an agent
ethics debate at OACAC and we will present an education
session at the national NACAC conference in New Orleans
starting September 22. Our North America director, Mark Shay,
also just attended ACE and AACRAO.

Next up, at least one member of the IDP North America team
will be present at the following April events:

NAGAP (National Association of Graduate Admissions
Professionals): April 6-9 in Washington, D.C.
AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business): April 28-30 in New York, NY

IDP also enjoyed an international presence at the following
overseas conferences:

APAIE (Asia Pacific Association for International
Education) in Taipei, Taiwan
Going Global (a forum for exploring developments
and issues in international education) in Hong Kong

If you are attending any of the April events, please stop by
the IDP exhibit booth to say hello.

Spring Road Show Report
IDPʼs second North America-focused Road Show is currently
underway, and has so far been a success. India was the first
leg of the event, and marked the launch of the Tier 1 Booth concept.

Designed to attract high quality students to the breath of the
IDP portfolio, the Tier 1 Booth is staffed by two independent
U.S. education experts providing information on the 25 IDP
partners that are ranked within the U.S. News & World Report
top category of Tier 1 National Universities. By advertising the
existence of this booth, IDP is able to attract high numbers of
students. Once at the venue, the booth staffers and counselors
then begin their job of educating students on the importance of
fit over rank, and further work to bring the full IDP portfolio into
the studentʼs consideration.

Each city stop saw more than 200 students, and many of the
cities provided time for pre-counseled students to meet
individually with specific, previously selected institutions.
As with all IDP Road Shows, counselors will now follow up with
the student leads, to further the conversations started at the
events and to go into more detail about which IDP partner
institution is the best match for each studentʼs goals, needs and
abilities. Also exciting was that, for the first time, two Canadian
university joined the event: University of Waterloo and Trent
University.

Immediately following the India events, the Road Show moved
into the Middle East, in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia. We once again saw the importance of having a
conditional admittance program in place to address English
language gaps, especially for sponsored students in Saudi
Arabia. These students bring a fascinating culture and
perspective to campus and have guaranteed funds, but the
government must see a letter from the institution that offers
conditional admission before providing the full scholarship.

Also important to note is the opportunities offered by graduate
program conditional admission. More scholarships are being
presented to graduate level students, and the institutions that
incorporate graduate conditional admissions will see great
success in applicant volume.

Feel free to talk with us about some possible ways to promote
conditional admissions, both overseas and on your campus.

The Road Show then went through Southeast Asia, to two
cities in Indonesia and two in Vietnam, and is currently in
the third of four cities in China. It will wrap up in Taipei, Taiwan.

In order to fully flesh out its portfolio, IDP is continuing to
add high quality institutions. From when the Road Show
with its Tier 1 booth concept began in early February, we
have signed three new Tier 1 institutions: DePaul University,
George Mason University and Texas Christian University.

Fall Road Show 2011 is Coming
The Fall Road Show schedule will be announced soon. For the
first time, IDPʼs Australian, U.S., Canadian, and UK partners
will exhibit together, making it a truly global event indicative
of the scope and reach of IDP Education.

In keeping with the popular format of the Spring Road Show,
city events will be offered a la carte, and this time there will be
even more locations from which to choose. The price
will remain $1,500 per event, so be sure to include some exhibiting
fees in next yearʼs budget.

Further, in addition to the large-scale events, IDP will offer
smaller, U.S.- exclusive events free of charge in many of the cities.
These will be more like seminars than expos, and will provide our
partners additional opportunities to familiarize themselves with
IDP and to meet prospective students in a more intimate setting.

Stay tuned for more details.

Country Director Profile
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.

Today, we spotlight Ayman Yacoub, IDPʼs country director
of the Gulf States. Ayman oversees operations in the United
Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

How long have you worked with IDP?
Almost seven months. I left Egypt and
relocated to Dubai in April 2010.

What is your role with IDP?
I am country director for the Gulf States.
My role's primary objective is to drive growth
and manage student services to achieve the
productivity and service expectations of the
business in the Gulf Countries, which include
United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Where were you educated?
I was educated in Egypt. I hold a Bachelor's degree in civil
engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo.

What are your plans for IDP in the Gulf Region?
My plans for the Gulf Region involve building and developing
the best team that will be capable of providing the best student
experience, and differentiating IDP through operational
excellence. We are driven by the Middle East vision to be the
most favored partner to our customers and clients.

What do you do outside of work?
I am still exploring Dubai and the Gulf in general. I usually
go out with my small family; my wife and my two kids on
the holidays. We also like to have friends over and sit around
and chat and relax. I enjoy watching movies and listening to
Egyptian and Arabic music. I used to be a basketball player
and I wish I could practice my favorite sport once again.

How did you find your recent visit to Australia
for the AIEC?
It was a really great experience! That was my first visit to
Australia. I had the chance to meet the big IDP family, see
how enthusiastic they are towards IDP's future and have
some real fun in beautiful Sydney. It was a very good
opportunity to meet many of our clients and discuss ways
of collaboration and partnership to develop the business
in the Middle East. As well, I visited some universities
which made me more confident about the institutions we
represent and the quality of education we provide to our
students. I also enjoyed attending some seminars from
the conference.

I look forward to attending the next AIEC 2011 in Adelaide.

What is your motto?
Change before you have to... willingness to change is a strength!

For those who have yet to meet Ayman, he is a thoughtful,
organized person with great ideas for how to move the
Gulf States forward. It is because of dedicated employees
like Ayman that the IDP Network is so powerful.

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Print Materials
In order to best understand your offerings and describe

them during counseling sessions, our counselors appreciate

having a full supply of your print materials as well as access

to any digital documents.

The procedure that has been established since the beginning

of our partnership is for you to send all materials to the

Philadelphia office. From there, they will be sent to various

counseling centers when appropriate.

As you begin to establish relationships with some of our

Network representatives, you may from time-to-time

receive requests directly from them for print or digital

materials. We ask that you refrain from fulfilling this

request, and maintain the established process of sending

all materials through the Philadelphia office. This will

ensure maximum efficiency and organization. If at any

point this preferred process changes, we will notify you

immediately.

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Visit IDP Counseling Centers
A message we constantly reiterate is that student

recruitment results are amplified by overseas

participation. Nothing draws a family to a positive

outcome like a face-to-face encounter, and most

international students come to our offices instead

of being able to visit your campus. As your overseas

representatives, IDP will find ways to make your

scarce resources (time and money) as effective as

possible, but what we ask is that you find a way to send

yourself or someone from your institution to our offices

overseas. You can observe the counseling process, meet

with and train counselors, and perhaps most important

of all, interact directly with prospective students.

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Follow IDPʼs News
You can get IDP news and updates in between newsletter

distributions by following us on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/IDPUSA

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Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of IDPʼs

U.S. partner newsletter. If there is anything you would

like to see in future newsletters, please contact

Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

The Importance of English Language Training

2011-03-15T09:48:00.000-04:00

As IDP Education continues to develop a portfolio of education options that provide foreign students with all that the U.S. higher education system has to offer, we’ve started partnering with programs for English language training.

We recognize the important role pathway programs play in helping many foreign students realize their dreams of studying in the United States. That’s why we’re proud to be able to offer so many terrific options for our students.

Through IDP, there is now an ESL option for just about every major U.S. city. English language providers we have partnered with thus far include:

University of Utah Global Pathways
Northeastern University Global Pathways
University of Southern Mississippi Center for International Education
Northern Kentucky University American English Program
James Madison University – StudyGroup
Ashland University ESL
Boston Academy of English
Manhattan Language
Kaplan International in Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Irvine, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
Embassy Language School
Navitas at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; the University of Massachusetts, Lowell; the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; ICM at University of Manitoba, Winnipeg; FIC at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; the University of New Hampshire, Durham; and Western Kentucky University
EC Language Centers in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, and New York
Rennert International Language Schools in New York City and Miami

John Green, who has worked for more than 15 years at higher education institutions and private corporations, is responsible for IDP’s ESL partnerships. Feel free to contact him at john.green@idp.com or 267-386-5361.

IDP Education Announces Expansion of Student Placement Services into Turkey

2011-02-22T11:39:00.002-05:00

Local market expert Carl Holtman will lead the launch of IDP Education’s student placement operations in Turkey, starting in Istanbul, May 2011

Cairo, Egypt - The world’s largest student placement firm, IDP Education, is about to get larger. The organization announced that it will add Turkey to its network of more than 20 source countries with professional counseling services.

Starting in Istanbul in May 2011, professional IDP counselors will work with students to match them to higher education institutions in Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

This is the latest development in IDP’s ongoing efforts to expand its successful student counseling operations. In 2010, the company moved its Middle East headquarters to Cairo, Egypt, and added Libya as a source country, joining Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain.

Leading the Istanbul office as IDP’s Turkey country director will be Carl Holtman, who has a long history in international education, most recently serving as the director of ELS' American Education Center in Istanbul.

"The addition of a market expert like Carl helps put IDP at the forefront of student recruitment in Turkey,” says Maher El Bakry, IDP's Middle East regional director. “IDP will be the first agency certified by the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) to operate in Turkey, and with the strength of the IDP Education brand under Carl’s guidance, we expect to help many undergraduate and graduate students, both publicly supported and privately financed, realize their dream of studying overseas.”

Various sources agree that IDP’s four destination countries are the top four destinations for Turkish students. IDP currently represents more than 125 universities and numerous other higher education options in these four locations.

Reports Holtman, “The Turkish market has a slight bias toward graduate programs, but the number of students interested in undergraduate and transfer options is continuing to rise. There is also a high level of interest in ESL programs and a growing awareness of the 2+2 opportunities afforded by community colleges.”

“This,” Holtman says, “means Turkey provides a wide variety of opportunities for all of IDP’s higher education partners. I am honored and excited to help expand the reach of these prestigious institutions into such a key market.”

About IDP Education

Launching Turkey Counseling

2011-02-14T09:23:00.004-05:00

IDP Education is proud to announce another milestone in the expansion of our overseas counseling Network: the addition of Turkey as one of our source countries.

In order to better serve the international recruitment goals of our university partners, we are commencing counseling operations in Turkey. Coming soon will be an announcement of the new Turkey country director, who will develop the country’s operations in the model of our other successful counseling centers.

With a demand for undergraduate and graduate education that currently outweighs supply, Turkey is an important source of potential students for IDP’s partner institutions in Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. IDP will work to find both publicly supported and privately financed students. The IDP Turkey office is expected to open by May of 2011.

Update from India Road Show (with Photos)

2011-02-09T11:11:00.004-05:00

Mark Shay and a few of our other IDP North America team members are currently participating in the India Road Show. This event marks the inaugural launch of what we're calling our Tier 1 Booth, a special section of the Road Show where two U.S. experts work with students to determine their potential fit at any of our 25 university partners ranked in the U.S. News & World Report category of Tier 1 National Universities.

In addition to this booth, university representatives of several of our other partner institutions are present to meet face-to-face with students and their families, to discuss their institution and to gather firsthand market intelligence about the types of prospective students in India.

A member of the U.S. consulate office also visited, to conduct a presentations for IDP counselors and a presentation for participating students.

Events have already taken place in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. There will be an event on February 10 in Hyderabad, followed by the final India event in Chennai on February 12. Then the Road Show will move to the Middle East. We look forward to further updates from the road.

IDP's Road Show event in Pune

Mark Shay and Carl Herrin at the Tier 1 Booth

Meeting with prospective students

University World News: Professional vs ethical in student recruitment

2011-01-24T10:52:00.002-05:00

As written in University World News:

"The role of recognised international student recruitment companies should be acknowledged, the legality of their compensation affirmed and their practices defined in terms of ‘professional’ rather than ‘ethical’ criteria, argues MATTHEW ULMER of the global student placement provider IDP Education. It is more effective to sanction unprofessional agents and to encourage best practice than it is to banish proven businesspeople working in an accepted and effective field."

Read the full article at http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110122084036535

IDP Education Announces its 25th US News & World Report Tier 1 National University Partner, Further Strengthening its US Portfolio of 80 Institutions

2011-01-17T15:05:00.002-05:00

By partnering with its 80th U.S. institution, the 25th designated as a Tier 1 National University in the latest Best Colleges ranking by U.S. News & World Report, IDP Education further improves the quality and marketability of its international student recruiting platform.

Philadelphia, PA – The University of St. Thomas is the 80th U.S. higher education institution to partner with IDP Education for international recruitment services, and the 25th of those 80 to be ranked in the Tier 1 of U.S. News & World Report’s National Universities category of “Best Colleges.”

This achievement underscores the growing acceptance of third-party recruitment in the United States and highlights the level of respect and trust IDP has earned throughout the higher education community. By providing institutions a network of professional counselors overseas working to find and recruit students, and a dedicated team in the United States offering guidance and support, IDP has helped to demonstrate and define the positive contributions of student recruitment services.

"Having designed and led student counselor training, and visited more than a dozen of their offices overseas, I have witnessed firsthand IDP's dedication to quality,” says Carl A. Herrin, senior partner and principal for Global Education Solutions LLC, a U.S.-based international education consulting firm, with more than 30 years professional experience in international education as an administrator and policy specialist.

“I can attest to their counselors' determination to respond to students' needs; and I know them to be responsive to parents’ concerns. IDP’s extensive global reach, as well as their unique approach to counseling prospective students, defines for me what a high-quality and professionally responsible student placement firm is capable of."

IDP’s 25 Tier 1 partner institutions are:
• Tulane University
• Auburn University Graduate School
• University of San Diego
• University of the Pacific
• Washington State University
• Duquesne University
• Ohio University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• University of Alabama – Birmingham
• Florida Institute of Technology
• University of Alabama – Huntsville
• Kent State University
• University of Hartford
• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• Clark University
• University of Dayton
• University of South Carolina – Columbia
• Loyola University of Chicago
• Colorado State University
• University of St. Thomas
• The University of Mississippi
• Pacific University
• University of North Dakota
• Western Michigan University
• Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

This is in addition to a wide sampling of other institutions highlighted in U.S. News & World Report’s classifications, including top National Liberal Arts Universities such as Hampshire College and Concordia College, and top Regional Universities such as Elon University and Valparaiso University. IDP has also developed relationships with renowned special-focus institutions such as Pratt Institute, Maryland Institute College of Art, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and Keck Graduate Institute.”

“IDP's goal is to create a representative sample of America’s higher education system, in order to be able to provide an ideal institutional match for all types of students,” says Mark Shay, IDP’s North America director.

“With partners of varying sizes and focuses in 33 states and most major metropolitan areas, IDP's portfolio successfully presents students with a wide spectrum of quality options. Add in our professional counselors’ commitment to matching students’ abilities and interests to an institution that is the best fit, not just one that carries the highest rank, and IDP continues to back up its ‘better placed’ philosophy and messaging, emphasizing a commitment to serving the needs of both students and our contracted university partners.”

The 25 Tier 1 institutions, along with a number of IDP’s other respected U.S. university partners, will be represented at IDP-led Road Show events starting in New Delhi, India, on February 4. These events, which provide opportunities for students and their families to meet with university employees and U.S. education experts, will take place throughout 17 cities in India, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and Taiwan. The full schedule is available at http://bit.ly/eHPKg5.

Adds Shay, “By developing a strong representation of the ‘Best Colleges’ as identified by U.S News & World Report, we are able to carry the marquee brand of American higher education to an eager overseas market. There is growing interest in studying in the United States, and IDP’s proven approach to student recruitment should help raise the number of foreign students coming to this country.”

U.S. News & World Report is a publication that produces a ranking of colleges and universities in the United States. Institutions are ranked based on criteria such as assessments by university leaders and educational counselors, selectivity levels, retention and graduation rates, faculty and financial resources, and alumni giving and involvement. The Tier 1 of U.S. News & World Report’s National University rankings is the highest level, encompassing 200 institutions.

About IDP Education
Over the last 41 years, IDP Education has become the world's largest student placement firm, operating more than 70 counseling centers in more than 20 countries and placing more than 300,000 students. It is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities and a leading online recruitment firm, and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency exam with the British Council and the University of Cambridge. For more information, visit http://www.usa.idp.com.

IDP Education - University Partner Newsletter, January 2011

2011-01-13T07:27:00.006-05:00

Welcome back from winter break, and welcome to the first IDP partner newsletter of 2011.

We look forward to working with you this year to advance your international recruitment efforts.

Below please find the following 13 topics:

· International recruitment advice from IDPʼs CEO

· Tips for overseas recruitment activities

· Tips for interacting with international students

· Tips for engaging the IDP Network

· An update on IDP student applications

· Congratulating the University of Bridgeport on an impressive accomplishment

· IDPʼs February conference attendance

· Offer of assistance for conference presentations and proposal submissions

· Call to host IDP counselors on campus

· IDPʼs expansion into the United Kingdom and Canada

· An update to IDPʼs Web platform

· IDP remains committed to Australia

· Introducing an IDP India senior counselor

Research Paper on Mirroring Australiaʼs International Success

During a recent international education symposium held jointly by the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), the Forum on Education Abroad, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, IDPʼs CEO Anthony Pollock led a session focused on advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education. Mr. Pollock has since developed a companion paper that advises U.S. colleges and universities on how to adapt Australia’s successful international recruitment strategies for their own efforts.

Some sample tips include:

· Universities are advised to have a single international office, covering marketing and recruitment of students for all divisions, or faculties. This is the best way to ensure that the universityʼs brand is marketed properly and consistently, and that international students will receive the same quality experience across all units and levels.

· Ideally the international office should be funded by a portion of international student tuition income and not be dependent on the annual budget appropriations process.

· New pockets of international students can become easily isolated if not managed well. Particularly in small communities, sudden changes to the population mix can result in a negative impact, particularly when domestic students are not prepared for a shift. Community leaders are key to the successful integration of new populations into existing environments.

William Lacy, president of the Association of International Education Administrators, Vice

Provost for University Outreach and International Programs at the University of California,

Davis, and a contributor to the international education symposium where this topic was presented, had this to say: "The Australian higher education system is at the forefront of successful international recruitment. Australia's outreach policy is an enviable one that many U.S. institutions should consider adopting, and this paper from IDP Education provides an accurate analysis of several of the most effective strategies."

The paper is available online and as a free download at http://bit.ly/htaaFS.

Tips for Road Show and College Fair Participation

As we approach the February 4 start of our Spring Road Show, we want to provide some strategies that proved successful for participants of the fall event. Most of these will be useful in any college fair or overseas tour environment.

· Have a handout and mini banner stand that lists all your programs.

· Have a handout with a map of your location in the United States.

· Have a handout with quick facts oriented to international students, such as:

o School size (including international student numbers)

o Student demographics (including leading countries of origin of international students)

o Testimonials (preferably from international students)

o Alumni success (preferably including international alum)

o Rankings (if applicable)

o Top programs (in general and/or for international students)

o Top employers of international graduates

· Waive application fees (ideally fees are always waived for IDP students, but itʼs particularly important at events).

· Wherever possible, get alumni, faculty or U.S. students currently studying abroad to join you.

· After any good conversation with a student, make a note of what you discussed and hand the note to an IDP counselor at the end of the event. In this way, we can be sure that conversations with counselors can continue exactly where your conversation ended.

· Scan the local papers and advertising outlets to observe how higher education is marketed in the region. Take note of how countries and specific universities are represented in billboards or display ads to understand the type of branding that works in the area.

· Explore the country as much as possible. Your travels will at times be exhausting, but make sure you get out to wander the markets and take in the sights. Interact with locals and indulge in native foods. This will help give you a better feel for the country and its residents, which will prove invaluable when conversing with students and families.

· Be the brand – wear your school colors and logo wear to feel as connected to your school community as possible.

· Interact with your fellow travelers as much as possible – spend extra time with IDP counselors to better understand their process and better inform them of your offerings, but also try to spend time with your fellow travelers to share tips and advice.

We are excited for our second U.S.-focused Road Show. These events are vital opportunities to explore a market, meet prospective students and their families, and interact with and educate IDP counselors. We strongly encourage your institution to participate in order to help spread your brand overseas and help further develop a relationship with IDPʼs Network. Remember that if you arenʼt able to attend, you can also achieve success by involving colleagues, administrators, faculty, study abroad students, alumni from the area, or others with a strong connection to your school.

Tips for Interacting with International Students

Just as student support services for international students must differ from services for domestic students, so too must recruiting efforts be adjusted for international audiences. Here are some tips for interacting with international students:

· International students are typically more interested in the quantitate details than the qualitative. Consider discussing the data points of your institution – minimum entry qualifications, costs, etc. – before describing the unique personality of the campus. Proximity to large cities is also an item to highlight.

· The first priority for most international students is career advancement – make sure you review how your institution can help them get a job upon graduation (either in the United States or abroad). Career services, alumni networks and internship opportunities are key areas to highlight.

· Many students donʼt have a concept of “feel” and “fit” or “reach schools” and “safety schools.” Ask questions about why they think one school is better than another, or why they think rank equals quality. Your role will be to explain why your specific institution is perfect for them, and why a perfect-fitting institution means a greater opportunity for success (IDP counselors also work to stress this concept).

o Overseas, education is “sold” much more than in the United States. Students and families may be considering schools in other countries where higher education is a product that people sell.

· Whenever you gather leads from overseas, consider handing them over to the local IDP office. Our counselors will have a better chance to follow up and stay in contact, and we will keep you updated on the progress.

Tips for Engaging the IDP Network

The IDP USA team is constantly looking for ways to further connect our university partners

with our overseas offices (the “IDP Network”), to help support your efforts.

A few successful strategies include:

· Recurring newsletters: Many of our partners have developed IDP/agent-specific enewsletters that we distribute to counselors and managers in the Network. Ideally distributed on a quarterly or semester frequency, these newsletters often include brief descriptions of the school, faculty spotlights, student and alumni testimonials, rankings, etc. This format provides our counselors with key information for when they begin discussing institutions with students.

· Email blasts: Every week we distribute an email to the Network on some topic related to U.S. counseling or a spotlight of one of our partners. Feel free to recommend programs or initiatives youʼd like us to highlight, as well as a potential target audience or demographics for the offering.

· Videos: We are in the process of sending videographers to our partnersʼ campuses to create five-to-six-minute-long videos for use by both counselors and prospective students. The idea is that these videos will serve as a substitute for an in-person campus tour. With specific orientation for prospective international students, these videos feature interviews with students, administrators, faculty, and international student support services, and showcase the campus environment, various classrooms and dining halls, etc. This is an entirely free service for all partners and is an incredibly powerful way to speak directly to international prospects.

· Virtual counselor briefings: We will soon restart our popular audio briefings, which are opportunities to present your institution to the Network via an audio interview that will be recorded and made available in an archive. This should be considered a supplement to the presentations you give during office visits or while participating in Road Shows.

· Marketing materials: Please ensure that we have all digital copies of viewbooks, international brochures, fact sheets, student demographics, and any other marketing materials. We convert all of these documents to A4 format (the standard paper size overseas) and place them in an online database available to the Network. If you donʼt have a digital version, please send a print version to us to scan.

To learn more about any of these opportunities, contact our manager of communications,

Matthew Ulmer, at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

Partner Spotlight

Congratulations to the University of Bridgeport. According to the latest Open Doors report,

Bridgeport has the second highest percentage of international students among all U.S. institutions, with 44.1 percent of their 5,103 students coming from other countries.

Bridgeport has been an ardent supporter of the IDP partnership and has been a very successful partner to date. The Bridgeport team travels overseas, participates fully in our Road Shows and responds quickly to student applications which helps better their strong international brand.

At IDP, we believe very strongly in the importance of a widely diverse student body. We commend the University of Bridgeport on these impressive accomplishments.

February Conference Attendance

IDP participates in as many international education conferences as possible, to support the important work of education organizations and to share with and learn from the community. Please let us know your institutionʼs conference schedule, so that we can be sure to make time to meet with you and any of your colleagues.

IDP will participate in at least two events in February. First, we will present a session on the myths and realities of student placement firms at the Mississippi Association of International Education conference in Meridian, Mississippi, February 3 to 4. We presented a similar topic at six NAFSA Regionals in 2010 and look forward to continuing to further the conversation on agents and helping institutions determine when they should or should not consider enlisting outside representatives. This particular event will also see the launch of StudyMississippi, a consortium of Mississippi institutions looking to highlight the benefits of higher education in Mississippi. With two partners in the state, it is a message we intend to support.

We will then join many senior international officers at the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) conference in San Francisco, February 20 to 23. We will engage in healthy dialogue on effective recruiting strategies at our booth in the exhibit hall and at a display during the conferenceʼs first ever Showcase of Best Practices session.

We hope to have the opportunity to speak with you at one of these events and others.

Presentation Support

If you are presenting at any upcoming conferences or have plans to submit a presentation proposal, the IDP team is available to assist. We have experience and knowledge in international education, research support and developing winning proposal submissions. We look forward to the opportunity to help or provide guidance wherever it is needed.

Bringing IDP Counselors to Campus

Our second Users Group Workshop is scheduled for June 19 to 21 in Chicago. As has been previously announced, IDP counselors and U.S. champions will be in attendance, and the plan is to have them visit various campuses following the event. If you are interested in hosting a group of four to six counselors for a two-day campus immersion, please let us know as soon as possible.

IDPʼs Expansion into the United Kingdom and Canada

At the end of 2010, IDP officially launched UK operations. Intended to follow the development path of the U.S. branch, the UK team is expected to bring on key institutions in 2011. Heading the UK partner expansion is Arlene Griffiths, who previously led the Education UK partnership for the British Council and served as head of Cardiff Universityʼs International Office. She has recently been busy traveling throughout the IDP Network to become better acquainted with our systems and processes. In addition to Arlene, subject matter experts have been hired to serve as regional champions in the Middle East, South East Asia and India.

Back in North America, IDPʼs Michael Lucci has taken on the role of university account manager for a Canadian expansion. He is joined by new hire Ayanna Brady, and as a team they will look to add Canadian institutions to our portfolio. To date, University of Waterloo, University of Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology have joined IDP.

The impact of adding these next two destination countries has been carefully considered, and the investment reflects IDPʼs intent to succeed as a multi-source, multi-destination organization.

The strategic selection of counseling locations is occurring in stages to ensure proper management and control. Look for exciting news as to how this leverage will translate to new opportunities for all IDP partners. In the spirit of the old adage “a rising tide lifts all boats,” we subscribe to the notion that, “a strong global portfolio best serves all university partners!”

Update on IDPʼs Web Infrastructure

The entire IDP Network recently updated its student-facing websites, with a partner/shareholder Web update still to come.

What this means is that all countries will now provide a dynamic, interactive Web experience that helps students better connect to counselors in their search for their ideal institution in any of IDPʼs destinations. Highly demanded student features like videos and counselor live chats are being added along with a focus on Web-based lead generation.

It also means that all the websites will be on a unified platform that allows for quick, consistent updates to content. This will ensure that school descriptions and available programs can always be accurate and up-to-date.

Already moved to this new system are the websites for Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia,

Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Hong Kong and the Middle East should come in the next few weeks, followed closely by India, Taiwan, Korea, and China. Your patience is appreciated as we move forward with this system.

Getting to Know an IDP India Senior 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.

Today, we are spotlighting Lavanya Nair, a senior counselor in the Chennai, India office. This informal Q&A will hopefully begin to show you the personality and dedication of IDPʼs overseas staff.

How long have you worked for IDP?

For four and a half years, including a short break for three months in 2009.

Briefly describe your role.

Although my main responsibility is to counsel students aspiring to study in Australia or the United States, I have also been given the responsibility to take care of the marketing and liaising with all local institutions of Tamilnadu.

Whatʼs the best part of your job?

What else could be better than helping a student realize his or her dream of studying abroad?

If you didnʼt work in international education, what other field would attract you? Why?

If not International education, I would have started my own crèche [daycare], for two reasons.

First, my love for kids, and second, so that I could be a helping hand for employed parents.

Do you have an unfilled, burning ambition?

Yes, to travel around the world with my family.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Being with my family and keeping them happy.

Have you ever lived (or travelled) abroad? If so, where have you been?

Yes, to Australia and Malaysia.

Where is your favorite place on earth – and why?

Home sweet home. Being with my family, which includes my husband, my son and my parents, is what I always look forward to.

What do you feel passionate about?

Dance and music.

Who or what inspires you?

I am always inspired by the trust and confidence shown to me by my employer, my colleagues and my family.

How do you relax?

Sleeping, watching TV or reading a good novel.

With whom would you most like to have a five-minute chat?

Being a chatterbox, I donʼt think a five-minute chat would be enough with anybody. But given a chance, I would like to talk to the promising politician of India, Mr. Rahul Gandhi.

What is your motto?

1. Live, let live

2. Never underestimate the power of a simple tool.

Lavanya is a prime example of the type of motivated, inspired counselor working everyday to better peoplesʼ lives. Her passion and sense of duty is shared by other counselors and representatives, and this is what makes the IDP Network so powerful.

Print Materials

In order to best understand your offerings and describe them during counseling sessions, our counselors appreciate having a full supply of your print materials as well as access to any digital documents.

The procedure that has been established since the beginning of our partnership is for you to send all materials to the Philadelphia office. From there, they will be sent to various counseling centers when appropriate.

As you begin to establish relationships with some of our Network representatives, you may from time-to-time receive requests directly from them for print or digital materials. We ask that you refrain from fulfilling this request, and maintain the established process of sending all materials through the Philadelphia office. This will ensure maximum efficiency and organization. If at any point this preferred process changes, we will notify you immediately.

Visit IDP Counseling Centers

A message we constantly reiterate is that student recruitment results are amplified by overseas participation. Nothing draws a family to a positive outcome like a face-to-face encounter, and most international students come to our offices instead of being able to visit your campus. As your overseas representatives, IDP will find ways to make your scarce resources (time and money) as effective as possible, but what we ask is that you find a way to send yourself or someone from your institution to our offices overseas. You can observe the counseling process, meet with and train counselors, and perhaps most important of all, interact directly with prospective students.

Follow IDPʼs News

You can get IDP news and updates in between newsletter distributions by following us on

Twitter – http://twitter.com/IDPUSA

Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of IDPʼs U.S. partner newsletter. If there is anything you would like to see in future newsletters, please contact Matthew Ulmer at

matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

Statement of Principles of Good Practice, for Agents

2011-01-11T19:10:00.004-05:00

IDP Education is actively working to advance the student recruitment field. We support the efforts of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) to develop professional standards and practices in international student recruitment. Please download their new white paper on this topic by visiting http://www.airc-education.org/_literature_75865/AIRC_White_Paper_-_Toward_Professional_Standards

What follows is an IDP opinion statement on the current state of international recruitment agents and why we believe individual agents should be accepted into the NACAC organization:

IDP's Position Statment on NACAC's SPGP

A goal of the National Association for College Admission Counseling is to ensure principled conduct among professionals in the recruitment of students. In support of this, and as more of their members enlist the services of international student recruiters, NACAC is currently considering a revision and update to their Statement of Principles of Good Practice (SPGP) in regard to agent use. IDP Education supports such a revision. Specifically, we call for the association to acknowledge the role of officially recognized and contracted agencies, to affirm that their form of compensation is legal, and to provide colleges and universities the opportunity to define the practice as “professional” versus “ethical.”

For prospective students, the primary function of an agent is to serve as a guidance counselor. Agents are typically university graduates who have built their reputations in the local markets by delivering good service. They are counselors in every sense and fill a market niche, as the admissions process overseas is often vastly different from the U.S. model, and public high schools overseas provide little or no college counseling. These types of agents should therefore be viewed like independent counselors and fall under NACAC’s SPGP.

Too often, a determinant for the professionalism and quality of overseas student recruitment support centers on the form of payment as opposed to what should truly matter: the service to the student and the institution.

Many agents accept a performance-based compensation model similar to those of other professional services used by universities, such as search firms for executives, real estate agents, endowment/investment/retirement fund managers, and pay-for-performance marketing channels such as online directories and website advertising. Every decision to use a vendor/contractor needs economic justification and comes with an expected outcome and thus a derived cost per student.

While it is common to trust an institution’s brand and reputation to a third-party website or marketing agency, foreign agent use is considered by some as unethical. Yet under a model where university employees are expected to deliver successful results or face possible termination, an overseas marketing representative hired on salary by an institution could be just as likely to resort to many of the same disreputable behaviors of which agents are often accused, in an attempt to meet goals and remain employed.

Therefore, IDP advocates that ethics has little to do with the form of payment and has everything to do with delivering professional services that best serve the students and institutions. Anyone who works with students – university employees, independent counselors, agents – can potentially follow unprofessional business practices. The key for any institution is to hire employees and work with recruitment partners who can be trusted. A good agent is often a foreign businessperson with a storefront location, local business licenses and a long history of representing universities worldwide, whose livelihood depends on continuing business operations. IDP believes it is more effective to sanction unprofessional agents to encourage best practice than it is to try to banish these proven businesspeople working in a widely accepted and effective field.

IDP is an international company that employs hundreds of professional counselors who work with students and their families to find the ideal higher education institution for their needs, goals and qualifications. These counselors are salaried employees (with nominal bonus compensation for satisfied students) and are well trained on the institutions they represent and the markets they serve. More than 40 years of successful student placement, with the majority of prospective students coming to IDP counseling centers through word of mouth, shows that the organization is an entity that can be trusted and respected. Following a business practice of collecting a placement fee for each successfully enrolled student, a practice akin to paying an online directory a lead fee for each successfully delivered hit to a website, should have no bearing on how the quality of the organization is defined. Instead, quality should be judged based on the level of service and satisfaction to students and university partners.

Agencies are now receiving certification from the American International Recruitment Council; a positive step forward. IDP has developed an in-house training program for its counselors and is looking to qualify them based on their knowledge of the U.S. market. Agent use is now firmly entrenched in the international recruitment process – what must come next is a call to develop standardized guidelines for what is considered acceptable practice. Then, if an agent does not provide adequate service and guidance to students and institutions, that should be the basis for what is considered inappropriate. If individual professionals are working in the best interests of students and institutions, and understand the mutual benefit of delivering success to their partners, and happen to be paid based directly on this success, that is simply good business, not unprofessional behavior.

With this in mind, we call on all the associations involved with international education to push professionalism, market knowledge and quality training as the measure of qualification, not how an individual or organization is compensated.

IDP Education Spring Road Show

2010-12-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

IDP Education’s Spring Road Show begins February 4.

This special event presents an opportunity to gather market intelligent, meet prospective students and train IDP counselors in 17 cities:
• New Delhi, India (Feb. 4, 5)
• Mumbai, India (Feb. 6, 7)
• Pune, India (Feb. 8, 9)
• Hyderabad, India (Feb. 10, 11)
• Chennai, India (Feb. 12)
• Kuwait, Kuwait (Feb. 13, 14)
• Abu Dhabi, UAE (Feb. 15, 16)
• Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Feb. 17, 18)
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Feb. 19)
• Jakarta, Indonesia (Feb. 20)
• Bandung, Indonesia (Feb. 21)
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Feb. 25, 26)
• Hanoi, Vietnam (Feb. 27, 28)
• Beijing, China (March 11)
• Shanghai, China (March 12)
• Guangzhou/Shenzhen, China (March 18)
• Taipei, Taiwan (March 20) 

Much more than a typical college fair type event, the IDP Road Show offers university participants time to interact with students who have been pre-counseled and qualified for their institution. There will also be opportunities to meet with IDP’s counselors and local market experts to help develop a better understanding of the region.

Immediately after each city, IDP’s professional counselors will follow up with students to determine the best fitting institution for their goals and abilities.

IDP’s Road Shows are only open to partners of the organization. To sign up for any of the 17 Spring Road Show cities, contact your university account manager or the IDP USA office: 1.866.443.6211
info.usa@idp.com

New Report from IDP Education Advises U.S. Universities to Adapt Australia’s Successful International Recruitment Practices

2010-12-10T09:35:00.003-05:00

Philadelphia, PA – The world’s leading authority on international student recruitment has released a report for U.S. colleges and universities that advises them on how to adapt Australia’s successful international recruitment strategies for their efforts.

The report is published from an international education symposium held jointly by the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), the Forum on Education Abroad, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. “Advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education” outlines the findings of a spotlight session presented by Anthony Pollock, CEO of the world’s largest student placement organization, IDP Education.

Some of the findings presented in the symposium and highlighted in this report include:

Universities are advised to have a single international office, covering marketing and recruitment of students for all divisions, or faculties. This is the best way to ensure that the university’s brand is marketed properly and consistently, and that international students will receive the same quality experience across all units and levels.
Ideally the international office should be funded by a portion of international student tuition income and not be dependent on the annual budget appropriations process.
New pockets of international students can become easily isolated if not managed well. Particularly in small communities, sudden changes to the population mix can result in a negative impact, particularly when domestic students are not prepared for a shift. Community leaders are key to the successful integration of new communities into existing ones.

"The Australian higher education system is at the forefront of successful international recruitment," says William Lacy, president of the Association of International Education Administrators, Vice Provost for University Outreach and International Programs at the University of California, Davis, and contributor to the international education symposium where this topic was presented. "Australia's outreach policy is an enviable one that many U.S. institutions should consider adopting, and this paper from IDP Education provides an accurate analysis of several of the most effective strategies."

Australia has long been considered the gold standard for international student recruitment. IDP Education helped drive much of the country’s growth and success, and has recently expanded operations into the United States, putting the organization in a unique position to author such a report.

“The symposium was intended to lead to the creation of an action agenda for furthering educational cooperation between Australia and the United States,” says Pollock, who has more than 20 years experience in international education and founded the international arm of Australia’s Monash University.

“Having witnessed and contributed to Australia’s international accomplishments, I can see what the United States is capable of achieving, and have great optimism for the future. The hope with this report is that my experience and that of my colleagues at IDP will be valuable to the U.S. higher education community.”

“Advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education” is available online and as a free download at http://usa.idp.com/useful_information/us-australia_cooperation.aspx.

IDP Education’s U.S. expansion is an addition to the existing Australian student placement service, adding all new counselors and support teams for U.S. bound students.

Anthony Pollock’s goal is that Australia’s international enrollments will continue to rise steadily, and that, with IDP Education’s help, 1 million foreign students will be studying in the United States by 2017.

About IDP Education
Over the last 40 years, IDP Education has become the world's largest student placement firm, operating more than 70 counseling centers in more than 20 countries and placing more than 300,000 students. It is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities and a leading online recruitment firm, and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency exam with the British Council and Cambridge University. For more information, visit www.usa.idp.com.

Available Job Position: Account Manager for ESL Programs and Community Colleges

2010-12-08T09:05:00.003-05:00

IDP Education, the world’s largest student placement firm, is seeking an account manager to work with ESL providers and community colleges, assisting them with their international student recruiting needs.

As part of an 11 team that includes four regional account managers, this new position for IDP will entail both the contracting of new clients and guiding their engagement into IDP's student recruiting network.

Experience recruiting students and working for a language training program is highly desired. You must possess excellent selling skills, including prospecting and closing and be effective at overcoming resistance. Being comfortable selling on the phone, face to face, at academic conferences, and at trade shows is required. You must have prior earnings of at least $60,000, at least four years sales experience, be trainable, and have a tremendous desire to earn over $100,000. Face-to-face settings on the road are expected to account for nearly 50 percent of the salesperson’s time, while telephone communication is expected to fill the other half.

This position is based at IDP's USA Headquarters located in downtown Philadelphia, and i spart of a dynamic team that is committed to delivering success to its academic partners.

Base salary of $60K, plus commissions which should lead to total compensation toward $100K. Good benefits package included.

Requirements:
• Associate’s Degree or equivalent from two-year college
• 4 – 6 years sales experience
• Familiarity with Outlook and a CRM system such as SalesForce
• Professional salesmanship (Sandler training)

Company Description:
IDP Education, the world’s largest international student placement service, is jointly-owned by 38 Australian universities and SEEK Limited, Australia’s leading online employment and training company. In addition to the student placement division, IDP is a major sponsor of research into international education and pioneered forecasting of international student trends and growth.

Established by Australian universities in 1969 to channel aid to universities in Asian countries, IDP continues its founding vision by managing scholarship programs on behalf of various governments for developing countries.

IDP also is part-owner of IELTS – the world’s leading English language proficiency test – with the British Council and the University of Cambridge. More than 1.2 million people take the IELTS test each year. The IELTS test is recognized by more than 2,000 U.S. academic faculties, colleges and universities. IDP conducts IELTS tests around the world in 247 locations and 44 countries.

IDP Education is in the process of expanding its portfolio of university clients and entered the U.S. market in 2009. Presently. 80 American universities are under contract and the company's first cohort of students started in fall 2010. In its history, IDP has placed over 300,000 students.

To be considered, send your resume to:
HR@thetrainingcenterinc.com

A computer assessment of your salesmanship would be the next step.

IDP Partner Newsletter - November 2010

2010-11-10T07:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the latest IDP partner newsletter, designed to keep you informed on our efforts to bring you qualified students and to further our mutual global expansion.

Taking place November 15-19 is this year’s International Education Week, a “joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn and exchange experiences in the United States” (http://iew.state.gov).

In support of this event, we call on all our U.S. partners to travel overseas to experience various markets firsthand. Visit our offices, attend our Road Shows, meet with other agents and their student leads. We can’t stress enough how vital it is to your future success to expand your brand by creating a presence in country and meeting face-to-face with students and their families. We consider it a critical component of our partnership to get you overseas in support of our efforts.

With that thought in mind, the following nine topics will be covered in this edition of the IDP Education partner newsletter:
• Highlights from the 24th Australian International Education Conference
• The Fall Road Show events concluded successfully
• Pathway and ESL programs are becoming more important than ever
• IDP seeks an ESL partner for a new academic opportunity in Cambodia
• Details on how IDP’s counselors possess knowledge of your institution
• Call to host IDP counselors on your campus
• NACAC opens a conversation on agents
• IDP begins expansion into Canada and the UK
• IDP’s free database of international education research

Recap of the Australian International Education Conference
The 24th Australian International Education Conference brought together nearly 1,300 international educators from 34 countries for four days of learning, connecting and growth. While a common thread throughout the event was the current difficulties in Australia, the primary focus of all in attendance was the advancement of international education around the globe. The level of knowledge and passion was evident everywhere, from the questions asked in sessions to the conversations during meals.

Despite the recent setbacks with international education in Australia, the country remains a role model of successful foreign recruitment. A great many sessions and side conversations centered on how other countries and institutions can adopt Australia’s practices to find success in their own efforts.

Australian institutions show true commitment to internationalization. Many Australian universities have staffs of more than 15 people on the international admissions teams, and initiatives are often funded by a percentage of international student tuition. This means that the more money in, the more money that gets invested in program development, student services and international expansion. You can read more about how to incorporate some of Australia’s successes on your own campus in our recent white paper, developed by IDP CEO Anthony Pollock. Get a free copy of Advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education on the IDP USA blog by visiting http://idpusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/white-paper-advancing-us-international.html. You can also receive a PDF of this report by contacting your account representative or calling 1.866.443.6211.

In addition to highlighting Australia’s successful administrative model, another central theme of the conference involved academic engagement and the integration of curriculum: namely, faculty involvement with internationalization efforts. This includes enlisting faculty to promote study abroad and to welcome international students, getting them to build international topics and focuses into the classroom, and incorporating foreign students and their various languages and cultures into orientation and all aspects of student life. A survey presented in one of the sessions showed that the biggest obstacle to internationalization is not financing, but faculty involvement, and many representatives from institutions with successful international recruitment efforts cited faculty involvement as critical to the globalization of a campus.

The last main point of discussion that continued to arise throughout the week was agent use. The proliferation of agents serving Australia is credited with leading to much of that country’s recent international success. (The median international population of each institution in Australia is 27 percent, according to a speaker in one of the sessions). Even when presentations were not scheduled to discuss agents, participants often found ways to raise the topic, with delegates from all over the world curious to discover the latest updates within the United States. The general consensus was that there is increased acceptance of agents within the USA, with multiple references to the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC), a standards development organization that may very well serve as an international model.

This article is continued on the IDP USA blog. Visit http://idpusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/information-and-advice-from-aiec.html#advice to read more insight on the conference and to gain advice on how to further advance your international education efforts.

Fall Road Show Recap
IDP’s first U.S. Road Shows officially ended November 1 with the last Middle East event in Kuwait. The events were a great success, achieving the goals of firmly establishing IDP’s U.S. position in each local market, building brand recognition for our U.S. partners, and delivering applications to the most marketable institutions in each area.

In total, more than 6,000 students attended Road Show events, providing ample opportunities for the 33 participating university partners to meet face-to-face with qualified prospects and their families. What many of these partners acknowledged as being even more important than the student connections they forged were the IDP counselor connections. They were able to truly appreciate the value of Road Show participation when meeting IDP’s counselors and discussing their institutions. Videos, teleconferences and printed materials are only a portion of the school familiarization process for a counselor: face-to-face interaction helps them truly understand the unique aspects of each institution.

Add local market intelligence to the list of benefits and you will begin to see the value of attending these events. In addition to these market briefings that IDP’s local experts provided at every stop, participants were also able to visit local secondary schools and colleges to begin to develop an even stronger appreciation of the areas and the available opportunities. They witnessed firsthand what the education system is like, experienced the type of information sought by international students, and began to truly understand what it takes to recruit students from individual sub-markets that all have unique aspects and requirements.

As with any new endeavor, there are elements that can be improved. We are actively gathering input from students, IDP staff and our partners to develop an even better schedule of events and processes for the Spring Road Shows and beyond. To learn more about the 18-city events that start in New Delhi February 4, contact your account manager now. The deadline for enrollment is December 1.

English Language Programs Can Increase Success
IDP’s Michael Haines and Matthew Ulmer recently had the good fortune of taking a group of our university partners to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, for the final leg of the Fall IDP Road Show – the grand opening of U.S.-focused counseling in the Middle East.

While the need for English language training is not exclusive to the Middle East, this area of the world is particularly eager for pathway and ESL programs, fed through conditional university admission. Saudi Arabian students, for instance, are known to speak beautiful English and possess strong academic ability, but they can struggle with the reading and writing skills necessary to succeed. The presence of an ESL program and corresponding conditional admission is often the single-most important factor for these highly sought-after students.

As we look to introduce your institution to complex markets such as the Middle East, we highlight that successful recruitment plans include further English instruction. Many participants in the Middle East Road Show recognized this and left the event with an urgency to initiate such programs on their campuses. If your institution has an established English language training program and is able to offer condition admission, we want to talk about packaging the two. We are eager to represent both your ESL programs and degree programs, and have a contract addendum that can be easily added to your service agreement.

ESL Partner Sought for Cambodia
For the last 18 years, IDP has operated its own offshore language schools through a ELT (English Language Training) division. Founded as the Australian Center for Education in response to early language training requirements identified by the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia, this important segment of IDP operates three language schools in Southeast Asia (read more at http://www.cambodia.idp.com/ace.aspx).

IDP’s ELT group, which is headquartered in Cambodia, is looking for a U.S. academic partner to help orient their programming toward the United States as a study destination. In this partnership, at least one university-owned ESL center would work in collaboration with IDP’s ELT group in a manner similar to academic partnerships between universities. If you are interested, please contact Mark Shay at mark.shay@idp.com to further explore the opportunity.

Creating a Partner Kit
One of the most important priorities at IDP is to ensure that an effective system is in place to allow counselors to understand the important details of each of our university partners. To help facilitate this, we have developed a partner kit that includes the following items.

Marketing materials:
• Your college viewbook
• At least one international-focused brochure or marketing sheet
• Fast facts
• An overview of programs
• Information about current students and/or alumni successes
• Any online videos and virtual campus tours
• The school survey distributed upon contract signing
• A sheet of features, advantages and benefit that we will create on your behalf
• Any PowerPoint presentations you give to prospective students or agents

Logos, brand guidelines and representative information:
• Your school logo (PDF format ideal)
• Guidelines for logo use and brand standards
• A letter authorizing IDP as your overseas representative
• Any special forms, applications or instructions

Video and audio profiles:
• An IDP video of your institution (more information to come)
• Recorded audio interviews with key staff (audio counselor briefing)

Hard copy marketing materials:
• College viewbook / departmental brochures
• At least one international-focused brochure or marketing sheet
• Any DVDs
• Banners, T-shirts, etc.

A checklist of various differentiators:
• Do you waive application fees for IDP?
• Do you offer conditional admittance?
• Do you authorize IDP to attest original, one-of-a-kind documents?
• Do you accept three-year undergraduate degrees, and from where?

We hope that you will continue to keep this and other information streaming in, so that we can provide the most up-to-date information possible on your unique offerings.

IDP Counselors Coming to the United States
As a partner of IDP, we always encourage you to visit our offices, to further familiarize our counselors with your institution and extend your brand throughout our overseas communities. We also recognize that counselors will be even stronger resources for you if they visit your campus, so we have taken this call to action and will make better counseling the theme of our next Users Group Workshop, to be held in Chicago at the end of June.

At least 30 IDP counselors and U.S. champions will attend the workshop to meet with partners and participate in sessions to help move our relationship forward. Following the two-day gathering, the counselors will break into small groups and visit partner campuses. If you are interested in hosting a group of four to six counselors for a two-day campus immersion at the end of June, please let us know as soon as possible.

Tentative dates for the Users Group Workshop are Sunday, June 19 through Tuesday, June 21, with campus visits lasting until July 4.

Furthering the Conversation on Agents
Technically IDP Education is an agent, as the organization follows the typical agent payment model. That said, we consider ourselves to be much more than a standard agent. Our company-employed counselors are focused on finding the right match between student and school, as opposed to trying to sell a short list of options.

In entering a market with an inherent bias against the “selling” of higher education, IDP has encountered a fair bit of resistance from the community. It is therefore encouraging that our partner list is now 80, and that some of the country’s better-known institutions are increasingly beginning to join our diverse portfolio of U.S. institutions. Our partners place us in the role of an advertising/marketing service and as such, strive to see us perform effectively. We argue that “ethics” in marketing is not defined by a form of payment, but rather by the professionalism and student-centric focus of the work. NAFSA’s updated Statement of Ethical Principles is a perfect example of this – review the new guidelines at http://www.nafsa.org/about.sec/governance_leadership/ethics_standards/ethical_principles

Each form of payment – salary, fixed-cost contract, fixed-cost placement fee, or commission based on tuition – all have risks when it comes to balancing rewards with success. As one extreme side of the discussion, the U.S. Department of Education is currently revisiting policies on merit-based salary increases as a form of “incentive compensation.”

NACAC has served as a primary voice against the agent model. Recently, in light of the growing use of agents among its members, the organization has taken the positive step of opening a discussion on the possibility of revising their Statement of Principles of Good Practice (SPGP). IDP feels that agent counselors are best served by being accepted into NACAC instead of treated as outcasts. Agent counselors are becoming increasingly important to the recruitment efforts of U.S. colleges and universities, and building their competence seems to be a more effective strategy than trying to banish their form of pay. Recall that it wasn’t long ago that NACAC wouldn’t accept independent educational consultants as members, while today they are a key constituent of both the association and the profession.

We hope you will join the debate and support IDP’s goal of having our U.S.-oriented counselors be members of the NACAC organization.

To download NACAC’s brief on the international student placement practice, visit http://bit.ly/bAASAK

IDP Expands Across the Globe…Again
Since announcing IDP’s U.S. expansion a little over a year and a half ago, 80 U.S. institutions have partnered with us to support their international recruitment efforts. Now, IDP is looking to continue its expansion by including Canada and the United Kingdom as destinations for students.

The IDP team in the United States is overseeing the portfolio expansion into Canada, while India will be the first country to source students for this destination. Canadian colleges and universities are also invited to join our Spring Road Show in India, the company’s first multi-destination event. Expect further updates as the North American venture develops.

In terms of the UK expansion, IDP is pleased to announce the appointment of Arlene Griffiths to the role of business development manager for that region. Arlene will be responsible for establishing IDP’s presence in the UK and for developing partner relationships with key UK educational institutions. Arlene joins IDP from the British Council, where she headed the Education UK partnership. As part of this role, she built strong relationships with key contacts including senior executives and international offices of universities, colleges and boarding schools. Prior to this role, Arlene was head of Cardiff University’s international office.

With the goal of growing into a multi-destination organization, IDP’s partner institutions can expect a great deal of international activity and publicity, and further Network expansion. These are exciting times for the firm that is better placed to succeed.

Database of Research
Part of what has led to IDP Education’s stellar reputation throughout the world is its devotion to the higher education community. As evidence of this devotion, the company operates a division dedicated to higher education research and funds the Database of Research in International Education.

Available at www.idp.com/research/database_of_research.aspx, this searchable database contains details of 7,677 books, articles, conference papers, and reports on various aspects of international education from publishers all over the world. The contributors welcome submissions of suitable material for inclusion in the database, and are actively looking for U.S.-focused materials.

Your can submit your own research material or articles you have come across and think would be useful to an international audience that shares your passion for the field. Please contact ndrie@acer.edu.au for further information.

Follow IDP’s News
As the level of news about IDP’s U.S. enterprise continues, we suggest you link to a daily update from Twitter (http://twitter.com/IDPUSA). There, we post announcements, new university partners, media coverage, and other items of interest.

Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of IDP’s U.S. partner newsletter. If there is anything you would like to see in future newsletters, please contact Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

White Paper: Advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education

2010-11-08T15:43:00.005-05:00

The following is an original IDP Education white paper authored by Anthony Pollock, chief executive and managing director IDP, and Tim Dodd, external relations manager at IDP:

INTRODUCTION

International education is now a well-established part of higher education around the world. Its growth and development over the past few decades has occurred as an integral part of economic globalisation which is arguably the most powerful transformative force currently affecting the world’s economic and political relationships.

Within the framework of globalisation, international education has proven to be a practical, effective and large-scale means of spreading the capability to create wealth to citizens of developing countries. It has given higher education institutions a new relevance in the international development field, as agents of economic growth in developing countries.

International education also gives universities the capability to generate new sources of revenue, utilise existing resources more efficiently, and boost the internationalisation of their campuses.

Many universities currently see the potential to increase their international student numbers and this paper is intended to offer useful guidance in achieving this.

CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PROGRAM

Internal structure

• The internal management structure and processes of the university are vital to the success of the international student program.

• The program must be fully supported by university leaders – the President, Deans and senior faculty.

• Drawing on experience in Australia, universities are well-advised to have a single international office, taking care of marketing and recruitment of students for all faculties. This is the best way to ensure that the university’s brand is marketed properly and consistently, and that international students will receive the same quality experience across all faculties. In addition to dealing with all faculties, the international division should deal with all levels – sub-degree (Extension, ESL), undergraduate and graduate.

• The International Director (ideally Vice President or Vice Provost level), who heads the international office, must be influential with Deans and the university President. This position must not be marginalised.

• Ideally the international office should be funded by a portion of international student tuition income and not be dependent on the annual budget appropriations process.

• Internationalisation and the international student program must be embedded in the university’s strategic plan. They are not add-ons which can be considered separately. While internationalisation could, in theory, be implemented in isolation from an international student program, there are huge synergies and economies to be gained from running them in partnership.

• The impact on international students needs to be considered when the university is planning or implementing any project which affects its student body.

Outside partnerships

• Recruiting and enrolling international students is more complex than for domestic students.

• International education is different for the following reasons:
o Marketing in multiple countries, multiple languages instead of one. 
o Developing pricing strategies and discounting based on multiple currencies.  
o Creating a presence (brand) in student source countries. 
o Dealing with many more cultural differences compared to domestic students (eg religion, gender roles, attitudes to alcohol) .
o Dealing with many more ESL students, offering language support to those who pass English proficiency requirements, developing pathways to enrolment for others. 
o Dealing with foreign educational credentials and other documentation. 
o Dealing with visa issues. 
o Understanding various admissions testing systems and developing alternative admissions requirements such as use of national examinations (eg the Chinese gao kao examination, the UK A Levels, etc). 
o Competition with universities across the globe.

• Universities are likely to establish outside partnerships to help deal with these issues. University exchanges are most popular, but these do not generate revenue, are generally costly to create and maintenance is dependent on individual faculty.

Education agents

• Education agents give universities a presence in student source countries. They are eyes and ears on the ground. They also guide and assist a university’s marketing effort, deal with student visa applications, and help interpret local educational credentials.

• There are thousands of education agents offering their services. It is recommended that you seek reputable agents who can provide a reasonable volume of students across a range of countries. U.S. universities should also look for accreditation with the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) in addition to any associations and governing bodies in the agent’s home country.

• An education agent which operates in multiple countries can help universities decide which countries it can best spend marketing budget and can help provide multiple perspectives on market opportunities.

• A university should seek to work with a relatively small number of trusted agents. Using only one agent in a particular market is not advisable because it heightens risk. However using too many agents raises the cost of managing agent relationships and conducting the necessary due diligence.

Pathway programs

• Pathway programs are specifically designed to help students meet the criteria for entry, most commonly in English proficiency. Australian universities were the first to use pathway programs and they have proved very successful as a vehicle for conditional admission to the university.

• Pathway programs have proven to be very effective in preparing international students for course entry, filling gaps in their credentials.

• Some Australian universities develop and deliver pathway programs using internal resources. Others used outside providers who source and deliver these programs. Many different solutions are possible.

• Ideal pathways provide academic credit so that students move through preparatory courses and receive some university credit. An example is a 20-month Intensive English pathway that also provides general education courses, the equivalent of the first year of a bachelor’s degree. Students are brought into the university as second year transfers using the fully articulated pathway program.

International partnerships with universities

• Universities will use the links they have established with other universities internationally, or they will consider developing such links, in order to broaden their international student recruitment channels.

• Transfer and credit arrangements, whereby students can begin a degree at an institution in their country and complete it in another country, are very popular with students and parents who see it as a more economical way of participating in international education.

Utilising existing resources

• U.S. universities are inherently well-suited to international student programs because they have a history of enrolling students who are not living at home with their parents.

• Well-developed infrastructure exists for accommodation, providing social activities, and student support, counselling, career planning and pastoral care.

• These services need to reviewed and adjusted where necessary to give the best outcomes for international students of various economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

• In particular, universities need to ensure that students’ religious needs are identified and met. For Muslim students there should be a suitable room or rooms provided for prayer which are easily accessible to students at prayer times. Dietary requirements should be recognised, especially at holiday and festival times.

Understanding the student, reducing the risk

• It is essential to understand the journey which international students are taking and the motives which they, and their parents, have for embarking on this journey.

• The scale of the undertaking is far more difficult than for a domestic student. They need to make a very significant financial investment, deal with the loneliness and isolation of living in another country, adjust to cultural and religious differences, and work hard in order to succeed academically while studying in what is probably not their native language.

• Students take on this challenge because they believe that it is the best pathway to the career of their choice that will transform the lives of themselves and their families.

• There is an inherent riskiness in what international students have chosen to do. The outcome for them is not as certain as it is for domestic students.

• Universities can serve the interests of their international students best by minimising the uncertainty they face.

• International students are often drawn to a campus with significant numbers of students from their home country. Extra effort is needed to integrate these students as the sub-cultures that naturally evolve can limit students’ language development and integration experiences.

• A university which creates a framework to give international students certainty on their journey is highly valued and sought after.
o Offer students and their parents clear and accurate information about the university and its programs, student visas and living in the country. 
o Make the admissions process as straightforward and as transparent as possible. Special consideration should be made to accommodate language difficulties and lack of familiarity with online applications.  
o Offer appropriate pathway courses and conditional admissions at all levels, develop commercial partnerships where needed. 
o Be able to provide advice and/or assistance with visa applications, travel arrangements, student accommodation, part-time employment, and family support where the student has dependents. 
o Offer appropriate study support, counselling and pastoral care. 
o Provide facilities for religious observances and special considerations for course attendance during religious holidays and festivals. 

• Use your university’s relationships with employers and professional groups to introduce international students to the workplace – ideally through internships and work placements.  

• Integrate programs into the curriculum for international students which boost their job readiness – for example through internships, English language support, cultural acclimatisation. 

• Offer advice and support to international students to find jobs in their chosen career.  

• Provide guidance for work permits and seek internships on behalf of your students. Help interested employers with understanding of visa regulations and necessary permits.

• Most universities do not have the resources to implement all of these measures by themselves. It highlights the importance of developing a wide range of partnerships with other institutions, education providers, education agents, and employers.

Managing resources

• A university should, as part of its strategic planning, focus on managing its international education program as an integral part of the university’s activities.

• Plan for realistic outcomes. While international education has the potential to boost revenue streams substantially, plan conservatively, particularly in the early phases.

• Plan for the increase in expenses which will occur, eg expect the travel budget to increase. A university cannot go international without an internationally mobile administration and faculty. Staying at home and internationalising is not an option.

• Understand that there are impacts which arise from increasing international student enrolment which are not always predictable. These can include added stress on faculty, increased competitiveness in the classroom, and uncertainty among domestic students about the impact on them.

• Utilise existing resources where possible, ie accommodation, student counselling etc, and expand them to meet demand, rather than invest in extensive new resources.

• Perform adequate due diligence on other businesses which your university partners with, eg pathway program providers, education agents, etc. Ensure they are capable of meeting your business objectives, seek to insure they will match your academic objectives and beware of the impact contractors may have on debate surrounding the use of tenured faculty vs. adjuncts.

• Share risk with these service providers. Agree to pay them based on student numbers rather than through a substantial upfront payment or negotiate upfront payments on an escrow basis, perform adequate due diligence on the financial health of vendors.

• Spend resources on quality market research. You should prioritise the markets you plan to enter. Focus initially on the key student source countries likely to return early benefits rather than overextending by entering too many markets at once.

• As international student numbers grow you should use the opportunity to do extensive market research using your students and graduates as your survey sample.

OPPORTUNITIES OF AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PROGRAM

• Recruitment of international students has a substantial impact on all aspects of university life and brings unique opportunities for developing diversity and internationalisation.

• The presence of international students also has a broad impact on university stakeholders, including the local community around the campus. 

• More broadly, international student programs create people-to-people relationships between countries at multiple levels which bring long-term benefits to business, trade, diplomac,y and international understanding. 

• International students present a real opportunity to improve the academic performance of your university, raising the level of rigor in the classroom, laboratories and published research.

Internationalisation of the campus

• The presence of international students is an opportunity to deepen the internationalisation of the campus.

• International students bring a new dimension to campus diversity through introducing a different cultural perspective in the classroom and in campus life which is essential for an internationalised campus.

• Both international students and domestic students will find their views are challenged and broadened.

• The most successful institutions actively use the various cultural and ethnic perspectives of international students to enrich their campus. This process works best with some planning, drawing on the experience of other institutions.

• Faculty, international office staff, and campus advisors should consider how to bring about as much engagement as possible between international students of different nationalities – in the classroom, in campus life, in social and sporting activities.

• Cross fertilisation of ideas and experiences between international and domestic students, and between different nationalities among international students, will not necessarily grow and develop without encouragement, often very active encouragement.

Impact on the community

• Higher numbers of international students on campus will have an impact in the broader community.

• In small university towns the change in ethnic mix can be very noticeable. It can bring a major positive economic impact when spending by students and their families boosts local businesses.

• New pockets of international students can become easily isolated and can result in a negative impact if not managed well. Community leaders are key to the successful integration of these new communities into their existing communities.

• In larger cities where substantial numbers of international students are studying, international education has changed the character of the city and revived stagnant neighbourhoods.
o Multi-cultural influence 
o Visits by friends and relatives, including attending graduation ceremonies 
o Purchase of property by student and their families 

• The national economic impact of substantial international student numbers is very large. In Australia, international education is the third largest export behind iron ore and coal. It is the largest services export, ahead of tourism. 

Impact on national affairs

• Strong personal ties developed on campus can last a lifetime. Friendships between international and domestic students help build a dense network of links between countries which are based on personal respect and understanding .

• This impact has been well-recognised at senior level of governments. Karen Hughes, former Under Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy in the Bush Administration and also a senior adviser to President George W. Bush said:

I believe our academic-exchange programs, our student-exchange programs, have been our single most successful public-diplomacy tool over the last 50 years. When you bring people here, and they have an opportunity to see America for themselves and make up their own minds, they have a much more positive and long-lasting appreciation and understanding of our country. We're educating the leaders of the world, and I meet them. They are leaders in their countries; they are leaders in industry; they are leaders in the non-profit sector, and they tell me, ‘Oh, I studied in such-and-such institution 20 or 30 years ago.

• The impact of international education on public diplomacy and international relations is very positive and well worth investing in. 

• It sows a seed for the future and the consequences can be far-reaching. 

• Who could have predicted that a Kenyan international student studying at the University of Hawaii in 1960 would have met and married an American woman, and their son would become President of the United States? Barack Obama went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” – using his unique background to reach out to countries across the world. 

• This is just one of the unpredictable consequences of developing personal ties between nations through international education.

• Barack Obama is of course, the first black President of the United States. This historic event, a breakthrough in the long and sorry history of race relations in the United States, would not have occurred without an international education program that brought black African students to study in America.

CONCLUSION

• International student recruitment is a strategy available to universities which can bring major benefits to the institution and its stakeholders, including domestic students, through deepening internationalisation and increasing diversity and multi-cultural influences. 

• It also brings positive results for the community and the nation at large and gives universities the opportunity to contribute to economic growth in developing countries and greater prosperity for the citizens of these countries.

• Many universities world-wide have been down this path and their experiences can help other universities make the best choices in developing their international education strategy.

• The benefits of increased internationalisation are many, but they do not come without cost and effort. A significant investment is required in business development, recruitment and student services. A dedicated source of funding is required.

Information and Advice from AIEC

2010-11-05T12:37:00.012-04:00

The 24th Australian International Education Conference brought together nearly 1,300 international educators from 34 countries for four days of learning, connecting and growth. While a common thread throughout the event was the current difficulties in Australia, the primary focus of all in attendance was the advancement of international education around the globe. The level of knowledge and passion was evident everywhere, from the questions asked in sessions to the conversations during meals.

Despite the recent setbacks with Australian international education, the country remains a role model of successful foreign recruitment. A great many sessions and side conversations centered on how other countries and institutions can adopt Australia’s practices to find success in their own efforts.

Australian institutions show true commitment to internationalization. Many Australian universities have staffs of more than 15 people on the international admissions teams, and initiatives are often funded by a percentage of international student tuition. This means that the more money in, the more money that gets invested in program development, student services and international expansion. You can read more about how to incorporate some of Australia’s successes on your own campus in our recent white paper, developed by IDP CEO Anthony Pollock. Get a free copy of Advancing U.S.-Australia Cooperation in International Education by contacting your account representative or calling 1.866.443.6211. It will also soon be made available online.

In addition to highlighting Australia’s successful administrative model, another central theme of the conference involved academic engagement and the integration of curriculum: namely, faculty involvement with internationalization efforts. This includes enlisting faculty to promote study abroad and to welcome international students, getting them to build international topics and focuses into the classroom, and incorporating foreign students and their various languages and cultures into orientation and all aspects of student life. A survey presented in one of the sessions showed that the biggest obstacle to internationalization is not financing, but faculty involvement, and many representatives from institutions with successful international recruitment efforts cited faculty involvement as critical to the globalization of a campus.

The last main point of discussion that continued to arise throughout the week was agent use. The proliferation of agents serving Australia is credited with leading to much of that country’s recent international success. (The median international population of each institution in Australia is 27 percent, according to a speaker in one of the sessions). Even when presentations were not scheduled to discuss agents, participants often found ways to raise the topic, with delegates from all over the world curious to discover the latest updates within the United States. The general consensus was that there is increased acceptance of agents within the USA, with multiple references to the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC), a standards development organization that may very well serve as an international model.

The remainder of this article will provide general good practices in international recruitment gleaned from various sessions and conversations, but first it’s worth making note of a leadership forum IDP organized to begin to solve the issue of diminishing international enrollments. Only IDP has the concern and influence to bring together thought leaders and policy makers from Australia’s education sector, government, tourism, etc., to spend six full hours discussing the issues and beginning to develop solutions. Facilitated by AIEC opening plenary speaker Simon Anholt, a world-respected advisor to governments and a leader in independent policy, important decision makers had the opportunity to share opinions and concerns and begin to move toward positive action. It was a fascinating and inspiring day and further proves the dedication and ability of IDP Education.

Below are recruit ideas and advice from AIEC. Feel free to add to this list by e-mailing your suggestions to Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com.

• There are three critical components of a solid recruitment strategy:

Clarity – a clear message, selling who you truly are
Admissions transparency – being open and honest in your admissions requirements and expectations
Efficiency – speed and accuracy of application processing and admissions decisions

• There are three keys to elevating a brand:

Strategy – have a plan in place
Substance – make sure it is substantive and backed by research
Symbolic action – dramatic proof of intentions or expectations is always more successful than “lip-service” through marketing and public relations

• Pathway programs can deliver impressive results: just over 60 percent of Macquarie University’s foreign enrollments come from pathway programs. Your IDP account manager should be contacting you regarding how to build ESL and pathway programs into your IDP contract.

• You are an ambassador – foreign students’ experiences on your campus will impact the future interest of their country’s residents in U.S. education. Make sure they feel happy, safe and challenged to improve your retention rates and referrals. To do this, have them work in teams as much as possible, to provide a sense of security. As referenced above, present opportunities to use their skills, language and knowledge, and to transfer this knowledge to their American peers.

• Foreign students are more concerned with the level of academics and the opportunities for career growth than they are the quality of living or the campus environment. When marketing to students or speaking with them at Road Shows, focus on how your institution can help them secure a strong career that will provide support to their families. The location and student life activities should always be secondary.

Middle East Road Show Update - Kuwait and Event Conclusion

2010-11-02T09:02:00.003-04:00

Final Middle East Road Show Event
The final Middle East stop in Kuwait started with a spectacularly elaborate lunch with officials from the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training. Included among the officials were the dean and assistant of student affairs and the director of scholarships for this prestigious Kuwaiti institution. These special guests were able to provide important insights into a market that nearly all participants seem to think will be an effective one for them following this trip.

Kuwait is considered by many in the Middle East to be the gold standard for scholarship administration within the region. Incredibly well organized, there are three separate government bodies that award 1,500 scholarships a year for students to attend bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. programs in other countries. As the country tries to further educate its educators in an environment with limited master’s programs and zero Ph.D.s, there are also many faculty members sponsored for graduate programs overseas.

What makes the Kuwait market particularly exciting for international recruiters is that, in addition to fully sponsored Kuwaiti nationals, there is a healthy amount (60 percent of the country’s population), who are ex-pats who, when they turn 18, are required to either get a job or leave the country. Many thus choose to study overseas, and have the financial means to do so.

Following the informative lunch was what some university partners called the best event of the trip. No longer within the radius of the mourning period for the deceased Sheik, this event had more students than those in UAE. While not quite meeting the 380 students in Riyadh, one partner said, “Any more students and I might have burned out,” because the quality was high so the conversations were long, detailed and useful.

The head of the IDP Kuwait office, who opened the office 10 years ago, said the country has a nearly even split between undergraduate and graduate students, and the attendees of this event corroborated that. A partner hoping for more undergraduate students throughout the trip said he met with as many undergrads who were as good as if not better than those at UAE. While standing at the Auburn University table, I heard one student say, “At the pre-counseling they told me I should talk to Auburn.” The student was interested in an engineering graduate program for which Auburn excels. I also met a woman with a 3.65 GPA and 7 IELTS score who served as a foreign correspondent for 15 years. She had attended another fair the week before and raved about how much better IDP’s was. Most students, in fact, seemed to know IDP and to commend the organization for its strong reputation in Australia.

Kuwait IDP Office Visit
For the last day in Kuwait, many partners visited the local IDP office and the attached IELTS testing center, where they administer 80-160 IELTS tests a month. Here, we got to have a long and intimate conversation with the U.S. staff, including the newest employee: a woman coming from the United States Education Foundation. There, she worked as an educational advisor for the Fulbright Scholarship, giving one-to-one counseling to students and educating them on the qualitative side of admissions. She has extensive experience in Pakistan, which should be quite useful with the large Pakistani ex-pat community in Kuwait.

IELTS banner at the Road Show event.

The office plans to train students on the visa process, explaining the importance of highlighting job opportunities back in the home country, and also plans to educate faculty members on effective letters of recommendation (as opposed to simply writing the details – “I had this students in my class. He passed the class and took the exam.”). The team has also spent the last decade forming valuable relationships with the Kuwaiti ministries, who trust their work in Australia and are excited about the U.S. expansion.

Following this informative meeting, many of us left to return to the United States. A few that had an extra day in Kuwait got scheduled to have individual time with the counselors.

Middle East Road Show Final Thoughts
It has been a useful, informative, exhilarating, thrilling trip. Most of the participants had an opportunity to experience this part of the world for the first time, and were truly fascinated by the culture and excited for the future. “Definitely worth it,” is how many described the Road Show. “What’s great is that everyone had at least one event seemingly tailored for their school’s specific focus.”

There were some great students, and the local team has already been working on follow-up. But according to many of the partners, more important than actually meeting students was getting time with the IDP staff, as they will be the ones converting the students. And perhaps most important of all were the many opportunities they had to truly learn and understand the market. This, they say, is what made the trip so worth it.

“These students form an incredible bridge to new cultures,” someone told me. “I can’t wait to see the positive impact they bring to campus.”

I think perhaps my favorite moment was in Saudi Arabia. One student came to the event in Riyadh to meet with a particular institution. Following an excellent conversation, the student traveled the hour and a half (in the air) to Jeddah, to meet with the university representative again at the next event.

This to me demonstrates the drive and dedication of these students, and encapsulates the incredible opportunity these events provide to begin to establish strong relationships and to develop an effective brand overseas.

The IDP Fall Road Shows are now complete, but the spring events are just around the corner. The first begins February 4 in New Delhi, India. We have learned some valuable tips we plan to implement to make the events an even greater success.

For those who didn’t participate in the fall and want to, or for those who did and think it would be useful to do so again, contact use by reaching out to your account representative, calling 1.866.443.6211 or emailing info.usa@idp.com.

We look forward to showing you the world, and introducing you to students once you get there.

Middle East Road Show Update - UAE Complete, Kuwait Next

2010-10-30T04:32:00.020-04:00

IDP's Manger of North American Operations, Michael Haines, at the Abu Dhabi Road Show event.

Our morning in Abu Dhabi was spent at an institution called the Higher Colleges of Technology. While the mandatory mourning period for the Sheik prevented a few high schools from attending, two schools did manage to bring their prospective undergraduate students, and those students were of an excellent caliber. There were also students of the college participating in foundation courses, which allows them to graduate with a high school equivalent.

While we learned the day before that many Middle Eastern undergraduate students identify business or engineering as their intended degrees simply as a placeholder, many of the students in Abu Dhabi had already decided exactly what they wanted to do. I spoke with students looking for undergraduate programs in fields like history and photography.

Additionally, whenever I described the U.S. liberal arts education system, eyes lit up. When discussing core classes and electives designed to create fully well rounded students who have learned the art of learning, students and parents seemed to become even more excited. “Ah, that makes perfect sense,” I heard a number of times.

One of our partners told me that he spent the day in his ideal circumstance: spending quality alone time with an interested student and his or her parents. He talks to the student, he says, but he knows the parents are absorbing the important information.

At the Higher Colleges of Technology, there were plenty of qualified prospects ready to absorb our partners’ information. And good news for anyone interested in pursuing Abu Dhabi as a market: there are 25 international higher schools in the area.

Other important pieces of information about the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the IDP team:

At least 40 percent of UAE students are self-funded
For UAE scholarships, as long as an institution is approved, any major at that institution is applicable
Companies and organizations often also sponsor students
The IDP team is actively working to create new markets in the area
The IDP team is also working to partner with sponsoring organizations

Our time in UAE ended with a very productive visit to the Abu Dhabi IDP office. We were taken through the full counseling process and also briefed on the various marketing efforts underway, including mass media, social networking, general knowledge on the U.S. higher education system, and more. The group then had opportunities to ask specific questions about the Middle East market as well as IDP in general.

University of Mississippi's Greet Provoost with two IDP counselors.

A counseling session in progress.

The view from the IDP Abu Dhabi office.

The next and final stop is Kuwait, where we are told various expenses such as water and electricity are free for all residents. We will enjoy a networking lunch with the IDP local staff and various government officials, and then commence the exhibition. Then, the trip to this wonderful part of the world will be complete.

Middle East Road Show Update - Quality in Al Ain

2010-10-29T04:10:00.003-04:00

Three events affected the most recent Road Show event.

First, a government-run education fair in Abu Dhabi required IDP’s event to take place in the quieter emirate of Al Ain.

Second, the death of Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, ruler of the emirate Ras al Khaimah, caused the high schools to shut down and many residents to stay in their homes to mourn.

Finally, important exams for some international schools were scheduled for the following morning, keeping many students inside studying.

Despite all this, Al Ain was successful in terms of quality. One of our university partners who has participated in a few of the Road Shows commented that she preferred the lighter pace, as it gave her more time to spend with the superior students.

Al Ain is a market where the vast majority of students can pay their own way, and while many attend schools working off a British grading system, they are well aware of American admissions requirements, including having extensive knowledge of the IELTS, SAT, GRE, and GMAT exams. Many nodded at the mention of statement of purposes essays, referring to them as “written interviews.”

This event was predominantly undergraduate. An interesting piece of information we learned from the Middle East’s client relations manager, Khaled Halawa, is that most UAE students are what U.S. universities would refer to as undeclared. When speaking with our partners they say they are interested in business or engineering, but they are using these fields as placeholders for, “I’m not sure what I want to study.” They aren’t aware of what degree options are available and are eager to learn.

Financial means, an open mind free of pre-conceptions and a fascinating cultural heritage: this is indeed an important market for international recruiters.

Middle East Road Show Update - First Half of the UAE

2010-10-27T07:43:00.007-04:00

We have learned the key to enrolling undergraduate students from India: recruit in Dubai.

The latest IDP Road Show stop earns the distinction of having two successful events in one day.

First, we participated in a mini-fair at a university in the Emirate of Sharjah. In the United Arab Emirates, many institutions require at least a year of English language training. With many classes at Sharjah University taught in English, a TOEFL score of 500 is required for entry into the institution.

The local IDP team has been visiting nearby high schools with the specific intent of attracting undergraduate students. For their efforts, three high schools were supposed to bring students to the event. When a royal death the day of the event triggered a mandatory three-day mourning period, the schools had to close, and the only students who could participate were students of the university interested in continuing their studies in graduate programs.

These students were of an extremely high quality. The first student I met scored a 6.0 on the IELTS, and the next scored a 7.5. I routinely spoke to students with GPAs ranging from 3.5 to 3.9. To put these students’ financial situations into perspective, the American University of Sharjah costs upwards of $50,000 for undergraduate programs and $60-70,000 for graduate programs.

Sharjah University

The elaborate Sharjah event (with lush flowers on the tables and a respectful wait staff serving refreshments) about to begin.

After this two-hour min-fair, we traveled to an area called the Knowledge Village in Dubai. This four-hour exhibition was perhaps the best yet. Though it took place on a weekday, the traffic was consistent, and the students of extremely high quality. Early into the event, when one participant had met with six students, he said, “everyone I’ve met so far is a viable candidate.” Upon completion of the activities, another called the event “perfectly placed,” and said, “almost everyone I’ve seen could be accepted.” Still another said, “The majority were serious contenders.”

This is a testament to the Dubai market and to the quality IDP staff in the area. Many expats live in the country, and there are a high number of quality international secondary schools and universities. Additionally, a conversation with the Middle East marketing manager revealed that, in addition to a full marketing blast for IDP itself, they are actively promoting the concept of U.S. higher education. As an example of this, higher education expert Carl Herrin has presented various sessions on the U.S. system at each stop of the Road Show. He has been delivering general knowledge that the students then consider as they meet with the various university representatives.

A strong reason for the event’s success can be attributed to the quality pre-counseling that took place before and during the event. Some students arrived prepared to speak to representatives from certain institutions. Others received advice on the spot, and as a result, institutions focused primarily on graduate programs saw mostly graduate students, institutions primarily promoting their undergraduate offerings saw mostly undergraduate students, and those pursuing a balance saw a health mix of both.

Finally, institutions encountered a surprising number of students with Indian passports interested in undergraduate programs. Thus the message in the first line of this article: if you are interested in India undergraduates, perhaps the market you need to be in is Dubai.

We’ll be in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, conducting an exhibit in the city of Al Ain, tomorrow.

One of the registration desks about to be staffed by cheerful and knowledgeable IDP counselors.

Middle East Road Show Update - Saudi Arabia Complete

2010-10-25T14:55:00.001-04:00

Jeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located along the Red Sea, famous for its seafood. Unlike the Middle East Road Show event in Riyadh, which took place on a weekend, the IDP event in Jeddah fell on a weekday.

Nonetheless, nearly 250 prospective students attended, many currently attending international high schools. The partners all seemed pleased with the quality of these students.

While the majority were still interested in graduate programs, thanks to the King Abdullah Scholarship Program’s new focus on master’s and Ph.D.s, there was a large variety in degree interest. In addition to the typical sciences and engineering, there were students searching for marketing, architecture, public health, even English literature. Many of them were already very familiar with the GMAT and GRE.

In between the two events, the participants met with the Saudi Arabia senior counselors for a “debrief” session, where everyone worked collaboratively to develop best practices and discuss next steps. The counseling team has a well-defined follow-up plan to convert the strongest leads to enrollments, and they are confident in their counseling process when new students visit a counseling center. This is because most Saudi students come with no pre-conceived expectations. Eschewing rank or reputation (many students I spoke with had never even head of U.S. News & World Report), they are completely open to IDP’s advice on which institutions will be the best fit.

In fact, much more important to them than rank is lifestyle: do you offer prayer rooms, halal food, services for their children, etc. Because of this, IDP’s counselors are able to do what they do best: help match students to the best institution for their needs.

Some other interesting aspects of Saudi students are:

They tend not to review materials, and would much rather hear the information then read it. Therefore, more important than making sure materials are in their hands are giving them opportunities to have conversations with IDP counselors.
They tend to ask the same question multiple times (perhaps hoping eventually they’ll receive the answer they want). The common phrase among locals is, “Saudis must ask a question three times.”
Unlike some countries, Saudi Arabia is not a place to worry about fraudulent documents. If a transcript has a blue government stamp, you can be ensured it’s legitimate.
Many Saudi students speak excellent English and have superb social skills. It is with reading and writing English that they struggle. The vast majority of them will require some form of English language training before beginning a degree program.

Now complete, the stop to Saudi Arabia can be labeled a success, with one participant who has been on all but the first Road Show describing it as a great turnout with perhaps the widest variety of degree interests. Three applications have even been singled out as ready for acceptance at a particular institution.

We have now taken an international flight to the United Arab Emirates, where we will first tour a local institution and meet with students in Dubai, then travel to Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. With the KASP scholarship no longer applicable, the students are expected to be a balanced mix of graduate and undergraduate.

Middle East Road Show Update - The First Exhibit

2010-10-23T07:25:00.007-04:00

The second day of the Middle East Road Show started with individual counselor briefings, where each university representative had time to discuss his or her institution with the Riyadh counseling team.

Then the exhibition began. Nearly 400 students attended. To support the education of the population, Saudi scholarships focus on different programs and degree levels at different times. Of the 10,000 scholarships currently available, 85 percent focus on master’s and Ph.D.s in engineering and the sciences, and that was evident in the types of inquiries the institutions received.

Most of the students spoke very good English, and many had clearly done their research before attending. Unlike a number of other countries, school rank and reputation are not huge factors in Saudi Arabia. Very few of the students I met with had even heard of U.S. News & World Report.

Before leaving Riyadh, a few of us visited a local marketplace, which provided interesting insight into the culture. We saw auctions, jewelry sales and tailoring for topes, the long white formal wear of Saudi nationals. The country is truly fascinating and it’s clear that Saudi students have much to add to college campuses.

We are now in Jeddah, where we’re told the students are at an even higher education level. The expo takes place tomorrow, and the group looks forward to a similar turnout as Riyadh.

Middle East Road Show Update - The First Day

2010-10-21T16:01:00.006-04:00

The following passage comes from IDP USA's manager of communication, Matthew Ulmer, who is traveling on the Middle East Road Show with the manager of North American operations, Michael Haines:

The Middle East Road Show began today with a meeting in the IDP office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Introductions were made between the university representatives and IDP’s Saudi Arabian senior counseling team.

A healthy discussion about the Saudi student market, best practices in recruitment and effective application processes was proceeded by an epic Lebanese meal at Saudi Arabia Country Director Sabry Shehata’s favorite restaurant.

Some important information gleaned from this session includes:

Riyadh is the richest city in Saudi Arabia
10,000 students are receiving full higher education scholarships from the government
Sabry believes that 70 percent of these students want to study in the United States
While in the past the scholarships have been focused on undergraduate students, the latest set of scholarships are focused on master's and Ph.D. programs, mainly in engineering and the sciences; this graduate focus will not be permanent, and Saudi Arabia is not a predominantly graduate market in the same vain as India
The scholarships apply to additional English language training, which most Saudi students require before beginning their undergraduate education

Additionally, the four most frequently asked questions from student prospects are in regard to:

Course of study
Location
Duration of study
If there are conditional admissions (due to the English language difficulties)

Tomorrow will begin with private counselor briefing sessions followed by the exhibit, which is serving as the grand opening for U.S. counseling in the Middle East.

China Road Show Conclusion

2010-10-19T09:04:00.000-04:00

On the eve of the last day in China, IDP USA team member Carolyn Redmond offers a recap of the second half of the Road Show events:

The Guangzhou tour started on Saturday with counselor briefings in the IDP office followed by an expo in the same building. The turnout was about 250-300 students, and there were one-on-one sessions with students and group presentations to students and parents.

We were invited to a dinner boat cruise that evening. We had perfect weather and beautiful views of the city and it was nice to have fun non-work conversations with our partners.

On Sunday, we boarded a bus for the two and a half hour drive to the IELTS testing center in Guangzhou. At the next expo, the university representatives reported that the students were high quality and good fits, and I was asked to be interviewed by the #1 education website in China.

Shanghai started with a much-deserved day off before visiting the IDP office. Some institutions were interviewed in depth by three reporters from the Shanghai Morning Post, Shanghai Evening Post and China Daily. The reporters then gave everyone a chance to give a five-minute blurb on their school.

Now its time for the Shanghai expo. The China Road Show should hopefully come to an end on a high note, and then events in the Middle East will begin.

China Road Show Update

2010-10-18T09:59:00.001-04:00

China is an important source country for colleges and universities. It has an extremely high population of talented and motivated graduate students looking to add to an institution’s programs, and it has an increasing undergraduate market of prospects with the desires and the means to earn a bachelor’s degree in the United States.

IDP USA’s China Road Show is officially underway, and team member Michael Lucci provides an introductory overview below:

After an exceptional day at the Great Wall of China and a tour of the Summer Palace, complete with a boat ride through the largest manmade park in the world, the participants prepared for important work ahead.

We started at the IDP Beijing office with a briefing from the country director, Arthur Lin, and a market overview from Beijing team member Li Tao. There were some great presentations that sparked useful conversations between our participating partners and the IDP Staff. Everyone seemed to take a lot from these briefings.

After lunch, some schools had hour-long sessions for briefing with counselors while the rest toured around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The briefings with the counselors seemed to be very productive: counselors took lots of notes on each partner and asked good questions that students would be looking to know. That night, we all went to a fantastic dinner featuring Beijing Duck.

Friday started with the first exhibition event, which lasted from 10:00 to 4:00. The traffic started right away and was steady throughout the whole day. The partners seemed to be quite happy with the quality of the students and how prepared the students were with appropriate questions. Carolyn, Ashley and I mainly helped out at the IDP super booth where there was students getting pre-counseled on studying in the United States before meeting with specific schools. During the fair our partners got the opportunity to present their institutions to typically 15 to 25 students per session. Overall they went very well.

The agent market in China is extremely competitive, and there were three other large expos put on by major Chinese agents at the time of ours. The IDP Beijing team worked hard on marketing these events and were really successful.

More updates to come. Thank you to all who have been involved thus far.

India Road Show Recap (with photos)

2010-10-13T06:28:00.013-04:00

IDP U.S. University Representative Patricia Sheffer just returned from the India Road Trip. Below, she shares her experiences.

We began the IDP India Road Show on September 24, with a total of 22 representatives and two IDP Philadelphia staff members, Carolyn Redmond and me, Patti Sheffer. We visited IDP offices in each of five Indian cities, and our university partners presented their institutions to and answered questions from the excellent IDP counselors. We also visited local education institutions and conducted global fair events either at a hotel or at the local schools we visited.

All events were very well attended by nearly 3,000 students, along with parents and IDP counselors.

New Delhi:
 When we arrived in Delhi, we visited the Delhi College of Engineering, where we received a very warm welcome (complete with beautiful flower necklaces) from Dr. Sharma. After a question and answer period, Dr. Sharma presented plaques to each of the attending partnering institutions. Next, students got to meet with the IDP schools.

 
The next day we were graciously welcomed by Mr. Harmeet Pental, IDP’s regional director of South Asia. He gave a thorough and informative presentation to our partners that overviewed the India market and its economic and education systems. After Harmeet’s presentation and question and answer period, we started the first exhibition, which received an overwhelming response from students and parents very much interested in attending U.S. universities.
U.S. Education Specialist Carl Herrin also gave a presentation and talked about classroom and campus life in the United States.

Mumbai: 
All partner institutions attended the fair in the JW Marriott hotel, Mumbai. We first met with pre-registered students, and then the fair was opened to all students. Three presentations were ongoing, so students could learn more about attending college in the United States, investigate how to pursue an engineering and management education in the United States, and also learn about classroom and campus life.

Harmeet then invited us to dinner at a local seafood restaurant.

On September 27, we visited the IDP Mumbai office to meet with our Mumbai team. We then visited Wilson College, a 175-year old engineering school where a mini-fair was held in a huge two-story room complete with beautiful stained-glass windows. The fair was heavily attended by students interested in physics and chemistry.

Bangalore: We started Bangalore with a visit to the IDP office, followed by a school visit to the CRM Institute of Technology. A full tour, include their brand-new state-of-the-art auditorium complete with music, was enjoyed by all.

September 29 started with a question and answer session between partners and counselors, followed by events with pre-registered students in the Taj Residency Hotel.
Evening activities included shopping or a tour of a local temple.

Hyderabad:
 Our trip to the beautiful city of Hyderabad included a school tour of GRIET, Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology. Here we met many students that were extremely interested in coming to the United States to study the many areas of engineering and computer sciences. The first picture below includes me with many of the female students, along with a photo of the school grounds and their mission statement.

On October 1, we split our partnering schools into two groups, each of which visited the IDP office in Hyderabad to present to the counselors. The photo below includes Rob Horgan from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, presenting in the afternoon group:

On October 2, all partnering institutions attended the fair in the beautiful Taj Krishna hotel. Once again, we met with pre-registered students and families. The large rooms adjoining the ballrooms housed presentations to students interested in knowing more about education in the United States.

Chennai:
 In our final city, Chennai, we received a very warm welcome from our IDP Chennai branch manager, and then participated in a throughout question and answer period with the visa officer, who shared important information on the visa process.

Next we all attended the fair in the large ballroom of the hotel Taj Connemera. Students and families once again had the opportunity to learn about pursuing a U.S. education, with particular
interest in degrees in engineering and management.

A few of us then enjoyed a wonderful Indian meal in the Rain Tree Restaurant within the Taj Connemera. We were welcomed by jasmine flower bracelets when we arrived at our table.

 Our final college visit included a trip to Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, SVC,E with presentations from five partnering institutions and a fair for students to visit tables and ask questions about each institution.

The photo below includes Carl Herrin discussing five important requirements needed to attend a university in the United States.

Below is a photo of Rebecca Solomon from Western Michigan University talking with students from SVCE.

I want to sincerely thank all the schools that participated in the IDP India Road Show. It was truly wonderful getting to experience India with representatives from the list below:

Auburn University
Clark University
Colorado State University
Duquesne University
Auburn University
Clark University
Colorado State University
Duquesne University
Guilford College
John Carroll University
Kent State University
La Roche College
Long Island University
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Ohio University
Pratt Institute
Rutgers University
Thomas College
University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Bridgeport
University of Indianapolis
University of Mississippi
University of South Carolina
Western Michigan University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Bridgeport
University of Indianapolis
University of Mississippi
University of South Carolina
Western Michigan University
Western New England College

Carolyn and me:

India Road Show Report

2010-10-06T11:40:00.000-04:00

IDP’s India Road Show is complete, and was quite a success.

In total, nearly 3,000 prospective students participated in recruitment events. More than 1,700 attended the IDP exhibitions, and another 1,200 plus met with IDP’s partners during various “mini fairs” at local colleges and secondary schools. These numbers make the India Road Show the most attended segment so far.

Feedback from our partners has been very positive. IDP’s team of local India experts developed an aggressive schedule of events designed to deliver the best results possible from this active and booming market. Even with nine full days of activities, the biggest request we’ve received is for even more time.

Fortunately, our Spring Road Show starts in New Delhi on February 4, and passes through three additional Indian cities in its 18-stop tour of IDP territory. Events can be purchased on a per-city basis and brochures and order forms are available now.

More Time with Students
According to participants, there were so many quality students, our partners would like to have been able to have even more one-on-one time with them.

This being India, most of the students were interested in graduate programs. Six popular courses were computer technology, electrical engineering, telecommunications, biology, chemistry, and physics. Students conducted research prior to the events and were prepared to ask specifics such as test score requirements and start dates.

IDP’s India team utilized their decades of connections and experiences to open potentially high-performing sources of quality students. They secured private events at prestigious institutions that in many cases would otherwise be unavailable to visiting colleges and universities. These opportunities included presentations and mini fairs at the Delhi Technological Institute, which graduated the inventor of the Pentium chip, as well as the 150-year-old Wilson College and state-of-the-art CRM Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

More Time with Counselors
According to the participating U.S. recruiters, briefing sessions with IDP staff counselors were highly desired, and our partners would have liked to have extended these opportunities even further.

Each university representative enjoyed an opportunity to present his or her institution to our counselors, to familiarize them with the school highlights and to better inform them on the various programs. Counselors took to heart their role of student advocates and followed up the presentations with very detailed questions. As IDP USA team member Carolyn Redmond said, “After the first school visit, the university reps understood that they should expect these high-level detailed questions from potential students and appreciated the fact that the counselors were asking them. It showed how well the counselors know their own markets.”

Follow Up
Now that the first India Road Show is complete, the next steps are to follow up with students and help to convert interest and leads into applications and enrollments.

After a little over a week of events, IDP’s U.S. partners got to experience the counseling process firsthand, got to meet directly with students and their families, and got to advance their institutional brands in an important market.

As one of the recruiters wrote before boarding a plane: “I am absolutely delighted that I can leave India knowing that the hundreds of students with whom I have met in the last weeks are in very capable hands with the local IDP staff as they refine their understanding and selection of U.S.-academic programs. Seeing the staff's work in action here only reconfirms both my enthusiasm and commitment for building and nurturing this partnership.”

Partner Newsletter - October 2010

2010-09-29T12:29:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the latest IDP partner newsletter, designed to keep you informed of the ongoing efforts to bring you qualified students, and of IDP’s continued global expansion.

This edition covers the following 11 topics:
• Requesting your input on the next Users Group Workshop
• Road Show update
• Get your stakeholders involved
• Update on pathway programs
• How to get the most out of your partnership
• Online applications
• Meet us at upcoming conferences
• The Australian International Education Conference
• CamTESOL call for papers
• Washington State University is our 77th partner
• Meet an IDP South Korea counselor

Call for Proposals for the Second IDP Users Group Workshop
Last June, IDP hosted a Users Group Workshop – the first of its kind for the industry – that connected IDP Network leaders with 41 of our partners. This summer we will again look to bring university representatives and Network leaders together, to further develop our partnerships and to provide deeper understanding of the international education marketplace.

We would very much appreciate your input as we begin to prepare for our second Users Group Workshop. This time, we would like to provide more interactive workshops and offer more practical advice in addition to important updates on maximizing your partnership with IDP. Suggestions have also been made to provide expert and introductory tracks, to best serve everyone’s experience level.

Several of IDP’s country directors have indicated a desire to host the event overseas and make it a multi-function experience. In this way, you could meet with counselors and maybe even have time with students who have traveled to an international hub.

Another recommendation was to tie the conference with China’s successful Summer Series of events. Perhaps the Users Group Workshop becomes a combination of a corporate update, focused workshops, counselor training, and a regional student expo.

We look forward to your creative suggestions on format, topics, locations, dates, and more. Please provide any feedback by Friday, October 8, so that we can then build your ideas into a series of strategic meetings, scheduled to be held in Australia the following week.

Fall Road Shows a Success, Spring Road Shows Starting Soon
Reports from the Vietnam, Indonesia and India Road Shows are that the events, which give university representatives opportunities to meet with pre-counseled students, are a success on all accounts. You can read updates and see photos of the experiences on the IDP USA blog: http://idpusa.blogspot.com.

Thus far, partners have been able to meet quality students and their families, visit local high schools, and even talk to local media. Schools are spreading their brand to new markets, and in many cases, receiving student applications.

Road Shows are an important part of supporting IDP, as your presence demonstrates to the local market that you back the organization and its efforts. We therefore ask that you do all you can to participate in the Spring Road Show events.

You can choose from any of 18 different events, starting in India on February 4. Talk to your personal account manager for more details or call IDP’s Philadelphia office at 1.866.443.6211.

Printed brochures and order forms are available now.

Bring a Stakeholder to IDP
We recognize that resources are tight and hear your call for support in demonstrating the complexities of international recruiting. To help you develop recognition and buy-in for your international efforts, we suggest you bring your academic deans, VP’s, presidents, and key stakeholders to IDP events and offices.

That's what the vice president of enrollment for one of our partners did. The school’s business school dean was eager to draw more international students and curious to understand the overseas market, so the VP brought him on one of our Road Shows to introduce him to some international markets and see international recruitment efforts firsthand. Similarly, a prospective partner from a Pac-10 school brought a division dean to an IDP office to meet with counselors and one of our country directors.

Deep immersion is often the best way to understand the importance of international outreach, and may convince some decision makers to free up budget dollars to support your efforts. We want to help you, so in addition to the powerful value of our Road Shows, please always feel welcome to visit any of our counseling centers in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, China, and, starting in November (after the grand opening October Road Show), the Middle East.

You will be able to meet with and learn from trained counselors working in their local markets, and you will have real opportunities to serve integral roles in our overseas efforts and successes for your institution. Stay tuned for additional office openings and more worldwide opportunities to connect to local markets.

If you’d appreciate some assistance on campus, don’t hesitate to bring us in, either. Our U.S. regional manager and account managers welcome the opportunity to present overseas possibilities in a candid fashion, not just as a company sales pitch, but as part of an integrated marketing and outreach strategy.

Pathway Programs
Pathways programs have received coverage in the news lately. This is well warranted, as many countries have an abundance of academically qualified, financially able students whose English skills simply aren't quite to the level of your admissions standards. Traditional ESL programs help, but they lack the drawing power of coordinated conditional admissions.

Pathways programs may be the most elegant solution to bridge the language gap, and we at IDP will do everything we can to help you build and market such programs.

Pathways are in very high demand in countries like Korea, Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia, and the opportunity is as good for graduate students as it is for undergrad. If you do this in-house, we can add such a payment provision to your existing contract, and if you work with a commercial partner, we can build a relationship with them to facilitate greater success moving forward.

Partner Success Story - University of South Carolina
We like to think that partnering with IDP Education is one of the best steps you can take toward advancing your international enrollment. That said, signing an agreement is far from the end; if anything, it’s only the beginning.

IDP is not a complete recruiting and branding development solution in itself. Instead, we are an extension of your office; we look to work with you to complement your existing efforts and help you add new ones. This is why we have assigned an IDP account manager to assist you and work toward becoming a trusted advisor in your recruitment efforts.

Our relationship with the University of South Carolina - Columbia demonstrates some effective ways universities and IDP can work together for a common cause. We’ve made several visits to campus to meet with the admissions team and senior managers to start the relationship, and we continue to travel to campus to meet with various academic leaders, all in an attempt to build growing support for their internationalization efforts. One tangible result is that the university’s renowned Moore School of Business pledged to become active in overseas visits to IDP and to participate in future Road Show events along with the international admissions department. Since program specialists draw students to apply, this will help spread the business school’s brand and the entire university’s brand. It will also help IDP to further establish itself as a representative of premier U.S. programs.

Another positive outcome involves USC’s university-owned ESL center, where we have started marketing the option of conditional admissions to their undergraduate programs following the successful completion of their ESL program. We are helping their English Programs for Internationals gain recognition with other academic units and recently helped them propose conditional admissions for several graduate programs.

Further, as a demonstration of how opportunities can come from anywhere, a student visited an IDP office inquiring about a special tuition incentive program that offers in-state tuition at USC to students from Taiwan. We confirmed this incentive program and, after a few days, started developing a pipeline of students. We were also able to work quickly with USC on a hybrid application solution, utilizing a paper application instead of their typical online system to accommodate some student needs. As a result, three Taiwanese prospects are giving serious thought to becoming Gamecocks, and we expect many more to follow as the word of this incentive spreads.

These are just a few examples of what is in the works at USC. We look forward to having similar conversations with you and your colleagues, to improve the partnership by focusing on details and to advance your international enrollment efforts in general.

Online Applications
Many international students are used to seeing application fee waivers, and are therefore coming to us in the hopes of having various fees for applying waved.

Some of them prefer to fill out paper applications, in order to be able to more effectively review the information with our counselors, and they don’t understand why they would have to pay to use this method while others could apply for free online.

If you accept the free common application or waive the student application fee for your own online applications, we hope that you will grant us fee waivers for any students applying on paper. Someday it will all be online, but until then, please assist us with this competitive advantage.

While on the topic of the future of applications, IDP is now in the “build phase” of our important Student Placement Expansion Program, called SPEP. This system is an extremely sophisticated CRM platform that will facilitate students to, in essence, create an application with us that we would then download to you. While project completion remains in the distance, we should all remember that this is a driving force to deliver even better student service that will in turn bring significant lift to all our enrollment numbers.

Academic Conferences – See You in the Fall
As we focus our efforts on bringing students to our current partner institutions, you won’t see us exhibiting at as many conferences as last year. But we’re still making the rounds! Look for IDP exhibits at the following events:
• NACAC in St. Louis, MI, September 30 to October 2
• CBIE in Calgary, Alberta, October 20 to 23
• CGS in Washington, D.C., December 1 to 4
• AIRC in Miami, December 2 to 5

We have also been invited to lead a session titled “Wrong, Necessary or Both: The Myths and Realities of International Student Placement Services” at six regional NAFSA conferences throughout October and November.

 AIEC – Australia International Education Conference
Let us know if you’re making the trip to Sydney, Australia for the AIEC conference October 12 to 15. As a member of a partner institution, hopefully you took advantage of the IDP discount: learn more at www.aiec.idp.com.

Those partners or prospective partners attending the event are invited to the IDP Client Briefing Breakfast on Wednesday, October 13, from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. You will have an opportunity to meet key IDP employees and receive an overview of the activities and achievements of the organization as well as a market outlook for the next 12 months.

Our manager of communication, Matthew Ulmer, will be attending, so please RSVP and provide any dietary considerations to him by Thursday, September 30. It would also be his pleasure to serve as your liaison and help with any conference orientation. You can reach him at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

CamTESOL Call for Papers
IDP Education acknowledges the important value of English language education. That is one of the reasons the company sponsors the CamTESOL conference in Cambodia.

The 2011 event is being held February 26-27 in Phnom Penh. You can learn more about it at www.camtesol.org.

If you are interested in attending the conference and presenting at it, the call for papers is open until Thursday, September 30. Abstracts can be for a paper, workshop or poster session and must not exceed 150 words.

For more information and to download the call for papers template, click here.

To submit your abstract, please email it to tola.voeung@idp.com.

For information about the CamTESOL publication, click here.

Washington State University is IDP’s 77th partner
IDP continues to add new institutions to its portfolio that we believe will add to our credibility and marketability overseas.

The latest few institutions, including Washington State University, Loyola University of Chicago and Tulane University, are highlighted in our recent press release: http://idpusa.blogspot.com/2010/09/idp-education-adds-washington-state.html

Q&A with South Korea Counselor Summer Park
In order to help you better connect with the IDP Network, and to begin to understand who is out there, overseas, working to find you students, we periodically profile key IDP employees.

Today, we are spotlighting Summer Park, a counselor in our Seoul, South Korea office. Summer is a prime example of what makes the IDP Network so strong: she is experienced, has been working as a counselor with IDP for many years, and is truly focused on serving the best interests of her students.

Who: Summer Park 
What: Counselor 
Where: Seoul, South Korea
 Contact: summer.park@idp.com

How long have you worked for IDP?
 7 years and 10 months

What has been your most memorable moment at IDP?
 On my first day at IDP, my instinct told me that I would spend many years here.

Briefly describe your role.
 From an initial counseling to identify a student’s study plan, to the lodging of his/her visa application, I am in charge of the whole process. I also participate in the interview programs and conduct seminars upon request by institutions as marketing activity.

What’s the best part of your job?
 When I know my advice actually contributed to a student’s better future.

If you didn’t work in international education, what other field would attract you? Why?
 Fashion has always been my interest. If I did not join IDP, I would be working in the fashion industry.

Have you ever lived (or traveled) abroad? If so, where have you been? 
Yes, I have lived on the Gold Coast (Australia) for six months, and Melbourne for two years. I have traveled to Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, UK, and Spain.

Where is your favorite place on earth – and why? 
My parent’s house – and you can guess why… (get free meals and free cleaning...)

What do you feel passionate about? 
I like to share and learn different ideas and values from people I meet.

Who or what inspires you? 
My mother – a perfect inspiration for ‘being a good girl.’
 Madam Gabriel Chanel – keeping my eyes to ‘innovation & revolution’ / should earn more money to buy Chanel!!! 
Francisco (my Spanish friend) – though his mother tongue is not English he can still write a perfect English letter.

How do you relax?
 Sleeping in on the weekend, dinning out with friends.

With whom would you most like to have a five-minute chat? 
Madam Coco Chanel. I'd like to ask her advice to sort out my closet.

What is your motto? 
Be generous to people around you and strict to yourself.

Summer’s passion, expertise and good humor is mirrored throughout our entire Network, and is exactly what we are looking for as we continue to add U.S. focused counselors to our offices. It is this dedication to the student that has helped IDP become the world’s premier student placement organization.

Print Materials
In order to best understand your institution’s programs and describe them during counseling sessions, our counselors appreciate having a healthy supply of print materials. At present, we use materials that you, our university partners, provide.

The procedure currently in place is for you to send all print materials to the Philadelphia office. From there, they will be sent to various counseling centers as needed.

As you begin to establish relationships with some of our Network representatives, you may from time-to-time receive requests directly from them for print materials. We ask that you refrain from fulfilling this request, and maintain the established process of sending all materials through the Philadelphia office. This will ensure maximum efficiency and organization. If at any point this preferred process changes, we will notify you immediately.

In addition, we continually collect PDFs of viewbooks, brochures, photos, and videos to load into a shared digital library for our counselors. Please send your latest marketing material (ideally in digital form, but in print if you do not have original files) to our manager of communications, Matthew Ulmer, at matthew.ulmer@idp.com.

Visit IDP Counseling Centers
The number one message from June’s IDP Users Group Workshop was that student recruitment results are amplified by overseas participation. Nothing draws a family to a positive outcome like a face-to-face encounter, and most international students come to our offices instead of being able to visit your campus. As your overseas representatives, IDP will find ways to make your scarce resources (time and money) as effective as possible.

Follow IDP’s News
As the level of news about IDP’s U.S. enterprise continues, we suggest you link to a daily update from Twitter (http://twitter.com/IDPUSA). There, we post announcements, new university partners, media coverage, and other items of interest.

Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of IDP’s U.S. partner newsletter. If there is anything you would like to see in future newsletters, please contact Matthew Ulmer at matthew.ulmer@idp.com or 215.282.1885.

Indonesia Road Show Recap (with photos)

2010-09-28T08:53:00.001-04:00

Indonesia has the largest economy in Southeast Asia, and is doing well despite the global economy. In the first quarter of 2010, the country saw a 5.7% economic growth, 7.9% increase in investments and 19.6% growth in exports.

The literacy rate for those 15-years-old and older is above 90%, and the country has aggressive goals to further improve teaching, analysis and research.

Just over 28% of the estimated 240 million inhabitants are less than the age of 14, and 66% are aged 15-64.

With the added emphasis of President Obama’s background and interest in the country, Indonesia is growing into an important source country for many U.S. institutions. The students are there, the money is there, and the interest in the United States is there.

IDP just completed its first U.S. Road Show in Indonesia, and U.S. representative David Bushey provides a recap of the experience:

Jakarta, Indonesia
The group traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia anticipating success in line with the recent events in Vietnam. We were not disappointed.

The events began first thing on September 16, with school visits to the Jakarta International School and Gandhi Memorial International School. We spoke with students at both high schools and passed out materials at a “mini university fair.” We spoke with several very qualified students that study U.S./Australian curriculum and speak English extremely well. We came away impressed with the caliber of Indonesian students and excited about the prospects of what they can contribute to U.S. campuses.

The afternoon was then left open for university reps to present their programs to IDP counselors, and ended with a very nice traditional Indonesian dinner at Dapur Babah Restaurant. The next morning we all boarded a bus for a two-hour trip to Bandung.

Bandung, Indonesia
Our bus ride to Bandung gave us all an opportunity to enjoy the more rural areas of Indonesia and the beautiful green rice paddies the highways cut through. After check-in and a nice lunch, IDP’s university representatives had opportunities to brief our counselors on their programs.

The next day then started with a school visit at a local international school in Bandung, before set up for the exhibition later that afternoon.

The exhibition had a very nice turn out of more than 250 students. We also had breakout sessions in an adjacent room where IDP counselors gave talks on IELTS and visa regulations, and our university reps gave 15-minute presentations on their schools.

Then the next morning we were up early to catch the bus back to Jakarta and beat the 11 million Indonesians traveling home from the Ramadan holiday.

Jakarta
The Jakarta exhibition, as all the exhibitions have been, was an overwhelming success, with more than 250 qualified students in just over four hours. They are intelligent, qualified students, and the conversations held were fantastic.

We also enjoyed a visit from Aqueelah Torrance, Vice Counsel at the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia. Aqueelah gave a presentation on student visas and introduced herself to each of our school reps. She even offered a tour of the embassy and meetings with visa counselors to see interviews first hand!!

That evening, many of us headed over to the Hard Rock Café and filled up on cheeseburgers and French fries – we missed American food! The final day started in the morning with an overview and debrief of both exhibitions, followed by more counselor briefings by our university representatives. We completed our final afternoon with a school visit to IPEKA and conducted a small U.S. fair for their students.

Then many of us went to a local Indonesian park before finally heading off to the airport for a long travel day back to the United States. My general impression of the Indonesia market is that it is ripe with opportunities now, and is only growing as the economy improves and as more students develop an interest in studying in the United States.

Full Vietnam Road Show Report (with photos)

2010-09-16T08:13:00.000-04:00

The following is an account of IDP's Vietnam Road Show, as told by IDP USA's David Bushey.

Ho Chi Minh City:
We started out our trip in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. All our partners arrived safely, and our first day started with a bus trip to two local and prestigious high schools. Both high school visits were very informative and our partners gained an understanding of the student profiles from each school.

The tour was followed up by a visit to the local IDP office, where our partners were able to brief the counselors on their unique offerings.

Finally, we completed our first day with a very long traditional Vietnamese dinner (delicious, though we were all falling asleep into our bowls!).

The exhibition started the next day and was an overwhelming success. More than 450 students (650 total visitors with parents) came through the ballroom in just over six hours. Many of our schools ran out of materials and had lines of students and parents at their tables asking great questions. One of our partners told me how impressed she was and that just at her table alone she talked with more than 60 qualified students and got their information for IDP to follow up.

Once it was all finished, we left for Hanoi.

Hanoi:
Everyone arrived in Hanoi exhausted after more than six hours of talking about their school to so many students and parents. We checked into another top-notch hotel and prepared for the next day’s exhibit, which thankfully wasn’t scheduled to start until 2:00 p.m.

Set up went smoothly and then the event itself was another smash success, with more than 250 students plus parents in just three hours.

There was also a news team that took footage of the event and conducted a brief interview with Greet Provost from the University of Mississippi and me.

That night we had another long traditional Vietnamese dinner and then a couple of us did Karaoke (not what you would expect) while others went back to the hotel for some much deserved rest.

The next morning our partners presented their institutions to the Hanoi counselors before we visited two Hanoi high schools (and also got to do some sightseeing between the schools).

Overall, everything has gone extremely well and our partners seem very happy with their experiences. Next up, Indonesia…

IDP Education Adds Washington State University to Its Portfolio, Now Has 77 U.S. Partner Institutions

2010-09-14T09:13:00.001-04:00

World’s Pre-eminent Student Placement Firm Continues to Set Milestones in Its Expansion and Mobilize University Recruiting Worldwide

Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2010 -- With the addition of Washington State University as IDP Education’s 77th partner institution, IDP Education has established itself as the pre-eminent student placement service for the United States.

Tulane University, Loyola University of Chicago and Western Michigan University are other examples of institutions that are turning to IDP’s expansive counseling system as they intensify their international recruiting efforts.

This system includes professional counselors working with students and their families in such countries as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, with the goal of helping them find their ideal higher education situation.

“The competition for international students is growing, and an increasing number of well-recognized institutions are realizing the benefit of adding IDP to their mix of options,” says Mark Shay, IDP’s North America director. “Our differentiator is in how our in-house overseas resources act in partnership with the universities to extend their reach, build their brand and improve their recruitment effectiveness.”

As part of this effort to help promote IDP’s partners abroad, the organization organized what it called “Road Show” events, to provide university representatives the opportunity to meet with pre-counseled students and IDP counselors in 18 cities in seven countries throughout Asia and the Middle East. The fall events begin September 10 in Vietnam and end October 30 in Kuwait, with 32 of IDP’s partners participating in at least one segment of the tour.

Demand from families overseas to meet these universities was so strong that IDP has announced a second series of events for spring 2011, and now plans to conduct these tours twice a year moving forward.

“Having achieved such a strong portfolio of U.S. institutions allows us to become even more effective overseas,” says Anthony Pollock, IDP’s CEO. “Our strategy of serving students by presenting a broad range of options is defined by our ‘better placed’ message to families. With our U.S. partners ranging from large to small, from selective to open admissions and from all regions of the country, we have the important ability of being able to find the right fit to best place any students interested in study in the United States or Australia.”

Pollock believes Washington State University, part of the Pac-10 conference, will be one such fit for many of the organization’s students. The institution’s international enrollment director, Paul A. Svaren, seems to agree.

“Washington State University is dedicated to serving the needs of our global society, and we continually look to internationalize in new and exciting ways,” says Svaren. “IDP struck us as a devoted organization with a broad scope of capabilities that shares our goals for quality and diversity. We are pleased to work with IDP as a trusted partner and advisor in international recruitment.”

IDP’s “better placed” philosophy helped lead Western Michigan University, a large public institution that had never previously used agents, to choose IDP as their sole international recruitment partner.

Says Juan Tavares, general manager of international enrollment at Western Michigan, "We have great expectations for our agreement with IDP and feel optimistic that we picked a great company that will serve as a true partner. Our selection process involved several overseas trips, consultation with recruiting experts and a thorough referral process. In the end, IDP presented the best structure and scope of services.”

Other recent partners include Clark University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Ohio University. About Washington State University, Svaren, says, “Washington State University has been educating students since it was founded in 1890, and has been welcoming international students since 1897. I would personally like to welcome international students to come and see how a world-renowned university, located in a safe and beautiful community, can make a difference in their lives.”

As IDP’s first U.S. Road Show officially begins, Shay adds, “We are honored to work with such a large variety of prestigious institutions and look forward to contributing to the increased international student participation in U.S. higher education. We plan to significantly contribute to our vision of having 1 million international students in the United States by 2015.”

About IDP Education
IDP Education is the world's largest student placement firm, with more than 70 counseling centers in more than 20 countries. It is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency exam with the British Council and University of Cambridge. The recent U.S. venture is an expansion of the already successful Australian student placement service, adding all new counselors and support teams for U.S. bound students. For more information, visit www.usa.idp.com.

Vietnam Road Show Concludes

2010-09-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

More than 650 visitors attended IDP's Road Show event in Ho Chi Minh City, and another 340 attended the one in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Early reports are that our participating institutions are pleased with the results – “the exhibit in Hanoi was a smashing success,” gushed one of the university representatives. Several students brought completed university applications to hand deliver to recruiters and to participate in mini-interviews, and our counselors have received additional applications as well.

The university representatives were able to present their institution to both families and our counselors, and they also had the opportunity to attend an international school and a local secondary school in both Vietnamese cities.

“I’m happy to say that so far things have gone well and partners are pretty happy,” said Tran Tuong Nhi, IDP’s Vietnam country director. “They are very well prepared and very professional in talking with students.”

Thirteen institutions participated in these events: University of Mississippi, University of Bridgeport, Kent State University, Rutgers University, University of South Carolina – Columbia, University of Alabama – Birmingham, Long Island University, Ohio University, Western Michigan University, Saint Francis University, Western New England College, Pacific University, and La Roche College. Many of them will continue on to Indonesia, and be joined by Clark University, where they will participate in similar events in Jakarta and Bandung. We hope they'll find just as much success.

Vietnam Road Show Begins (Via Photos)

2010-09-09T09:35:00.008-04:00

For the next two months, members of IDP's U.S. team will be accompanying representatives of the organization's partner institutions on Road Show recruiting events through Vietnam, Indonesia, India, China, and the Middle East.

David Bushey and Racquel McCall arrived this morning in Vietnam, and are spending the day meeting with counselors in preparation for the start of the first exhibition, tomorrow.

Some preliminary photos are included below, with more to follow.

The IDP office in Ho Chi Minh City

A warm Vietnamese welcome

Quality counseling taking place

David and Racquel with members of the Vietnam team