Institutional and managerialfactors affecting international

student recruitment managementMitchell Ross

Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

Joo-Gim HeaneyUniversity of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, Australia, and

Maxine CooperGriffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate international student recruitment from aninstitutional perspective and to consider institutional factors that may affect recruitment.

Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative study is undertaken in which education marketingpractitioners are interviewed regarding aspects of international student recruitment at theirinstitutions. Interview data are analysed by NVivo and categorized into four institutional factors:marketing department size, employee qualifications, institutional recruiting experience, andinstitutional focus.

Findings – Differences are found to exist between universities and secondary schools in terms oftheir current international education recruitment practices. The percentage of international studentcohort appears to be largely responsible for sectoral differences.

Research limitations/implications – Findings presented are from a sample of secondary schoolsand universities in Australia and New Zealand. Further research is required to determine applicabilityof the findings to other education sectors.

Practical implications – Implications are considered from the viewpoint of the internationaleducation marketing practitioner, education manager and policy makers. The theoretical contributionof the study is also discussed.

Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified research and practitioner gap throughinvestigating international student recruitment from an institutional perspective.

Keywords Students, Recruitment, Education

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionInternational student recruitment is of paramount importance for many educationalinstitutions. Institutions have looked to fee-paying international students both as ameans of generating income and as a means of adding diversity to the student body.Despite the importance of recruiting international students there exists a lack ofresearch and discussion concerning the B2B or business aspects of factors affectinginternational student recruitment. Much international education marketing researchfocuses on globalisation and internationalisation (Crowther et al., 2000; Altbach, 2004;Harman, 2004; Marginson, 2004; Sanderson, 2004), student choice (Lawley, 1998;Joseph and Joseph, 2000; Mazzarol and Soutar, 2002; AEI, 2003; Pimpa, 2003; Shah andLaino, 2006), and student perception (Gatfield et al., 1999; AEI, 2002; Ham and Hayduk,

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International Journal of EducationalManagement

Vol. 21 No. 7, 2007pp. 593-605

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0951-354X

DOI 10.1108/09513540710822193

2003). By investigating current practices and operating environments in educationinstitutions, this study considers some institutional and managerial factors that mayaffect how international students are recruited. Findings are presented from aqualitative study in which international recruitment practitioners from Australian andNew Zealand educational institutions were interviewed.

Education and servicesEducation, and education marketing, is a service industry and this presents aparticular set of challenges for practitioners. Examined through Lovelock’s (1983)classification scheme, international education is principally intangible; focused on thedevelopment of long-term continuous relationships; constrained in terms ofcustomisation and judgement; experiences narrow demand fluctuations over timeand traditionally involves students travelling to attend an educational institution.Education may be further explored through its relationship with the constructs ofintangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity andperishability as proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1985). In particular, intangibilitypresents international education marketers with difficulties in communicating thenature of the educational service to a potential consumer (Rathmell, 1966).

Brown et al. (1994) note an increasing research interest in services marketing from1950 to the present day. Despite this interest the authors find that the investigation ofeducation marketing is largely absent from the genre. Suspicion of marketing by theeducational industry is suggested as a possible reason for this absence of research(Harvey, 1996).

Educational institution marketingThere is a general lack of empirical marketing literature pertaining to B2B ormanagerial institutional aspects of international student recruitment from theeducation producer perspective. There are, therefore, a number of gaps in the literatureon international student recruitment. Firstly, the extant literature displays almostexclusively a university focus. To date we have not identified any empiricalinternational student recruitment studies with a secondary school focus.

Secondly, while concluding that the higher education international student marketis approaching maturity (Mazzarol and Hosie, 1996), Pokarier and Ridings (1998) alsofind that strategic planning regarding international student recruitment is mostly at alow standard. However, investigations regarding competitive advantage andimportant factors in recruiting international students are represented by a smallnumber of studies (Mazzarol, 1998; Mazzarol et al., 1998; Mazzarol and Soutar, 1999;2002). Investigating factors critical for success, Mazzarol (1998) found image andresources, and coalition and forward integration to be most important for educationalinstitutions to successfully recruit international students. Image and resourcescomprised market profile, financial resources, reputation, alumni and range ofprograms while coalition and forward integration comprised international strategicalliances and offshore teaching programs (Mazzarol, 1998).

Thirdly, other studies consider student recruitment in an increasingly competitiveenvironment, and from the consumers’ point of view (e.g. decision-making) rather thanfocusing on a specific student sector such as international students. Naude and Ivy(1999) find differences in marketing approaches between old and new universities. New

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universities are found to take an aggressive marketing position attempting to directlyinfluence prospective student decision-making while older universities are found totake a more passive role relying on reputation (Naude and Ivy, 1999). The use of DVDtechnology to meet the increasingly demanding expectations of prospective students isinvestigated by Furbeck et al. (2003) while Tapp et al. (2004) consider the advantages ofdirect and database marketing to cost effectively generate greater student enrolments.

This brings about the fundamental need to investigate international studentrecruitment from an institutional point of view. This study provides an importantcontribution to fulfilling this gap and deals with investigating the processes andaspects of how recruiters approach international student recruitment at the universityand secondary school levels in Australia and New Zealand.

Methodology and sampleThe aim of this study is to investigate institutional factors that may affect the processand extent of international student recruitment. Ten international student recruitmentpractitioners from Australian and New Zealand educational institutions were invitedto participate in in-depth interviews. As institutional factors affecting internationalstudent recruitment had not been previously identified in the literature, the rationalefor conducting interviews was to explore participants’ knowledge, feelings, and beliefsregarding international student recruitment at their specific institution. Advantages inthe use of in-depth interviews include greater control over respondent selection,potentially resulting in greater context, and flexibility in the process of inquiry (Casselland Symon, 2004). Interviews may lead to greater depth of information obtained(Hedges, 1985) through the building of a close rapport between interviewer andinterviewee (Webb, 1995) and are considered to be appropriate when the informants areprofessional people (Tull and Hawkins, 1990). In addition, we have not identifiedprevious exploratory research into this area to guide further investigation ofeducational providers’ recruitment processes.

The sample was comprised of practitioners from secondary schools and universitiesfrom each country. Whereas the university sector is the largest and fastest growing ofthe international education sectors (Unesco, 2006), the secondary school sector has beendescribed as immature and largely undeveloped (Kenyon and Koshy, 2003). It isanticipated that a comparison of an established sector with an immature sector of themarket will reveal useful insights. Coding of institutions referred to throughout thispaper can be seen in Table I. Each interview lasted approximately 60 minutes, wasdigitally recorded and later transcribed verbatim. A semi-structured interview protocolwas developed to loosely guide interviews while at the same time allowing informantsto speak freely (McCracken, 1988). Stenbacka (2001) considers validity to be achievedwhen the research process allows strategically well-chosen participants to speak freely.Ethics approval was obtained prior to the commencement of data collection andwritten consent was received from each participant prior to interview. Data collected

Australia New Zealand

Secondary schools A B C D EUniversities F G H I J

Table I.Institution coding used in

this study

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from the interviews was analysed by content analysis with NVivo used to code andcategorise emerging themes.

ResultsResults from the interviews are collated and presented in Tables II-IX.

Student population ,3000 .10,000Institution A, B, D, E C, F, G, H, I, J

Table II.Total student populationby institution

Marketing qualifications No YesInstitution B, C, D, E, G, I, J A, F, H

Table IX.Possession of marketingqualifications byinterviewee

Strategy review No review Every 6-12 months Constant reviewInstitution A, F, G B, C, E, H, I, J D

Table VIII.Frequency ofinternational marketingstrategy review

Strategy development Informal FormalInstitution A, D, E, F, G, I B, C, H, J

Table VII.International marketingstrategy developmentprocess

Marketing strategies No Emerging YesInstitution A G B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J

Table VI.Have developedmarketing strategies forrecruiting internationalstudents

Recruiting experience 0-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years 16 þ yearsInstitution D, J, F A, B, E, I C, H G

Table V.Length of institution’sinternational studentrecruiting experience

Department size No employees 1-10 employees 11-20 employeesInstitution A, E B, C, D, G, I, J F. H

Table IV.Marketing departmentsize (number ofemployees)

International students ,10% 10%-15% .15%Institution A, B, C, D, E, G I, J F, H

Table III.On-campus internationalstudents as percentage oftotal student population

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Propositions and findingsInstitutional factors emerging from the results include marketing department size,marketing staff qualifications, recruiting experience and institutional focus. Thefindings will be discussed based on propositions made about these factors.Propositions were developed from themes that emerged repeatedly throughout theinterviews and that were categorised with NVivo. The following discussion providesan in-depth response to those themes. Some differences are evident betweeninstitutions from Australia and New Zealand however as the purpose of this study is toinvestigate factors by institution type, country of origin has not been used as amoderating variable, particularly as between country differences were found to beminor. The choice to include more than one country was made in order to achieve agreater depth of results and also to achieve greater reliability of results by measuringresponses from the same sectors across different countries and education systems.

Size of marketing department (employees)

P1a. The size of an institution’s marketing department is related to the proportionof international students that comprise the total institutional studentpopulation.

This proposition is supported for universities but not for secondary schools.International students comprise less than 10 per cent of the total student population forall schools in the sample regardless of the size of the marketing department. Of theuniversities investigated, Institutions F and H have the largest international marketingdepartments (11-20 employees) and also the highest percentage of internationalstudents (.15 per cent of total student population). Institutions G, I and J have smallerinternational marketing departments (1-10 employees) and lower percentages ofinternational students attending their institutions (,10 per cent, 10-15 per cent of totalstudent population). Refer to Tables III and IV.

The direction of this proposition is not determined in this study. There is some logicto the proposition that greater numbers of international marketing employees shouldresult in the recruitment of greater numbers of international students. This, however,raises the notion of efficiency and effectiveness which is not addressed in this study.Also it is unclear whether Institutions F and H have adopted a reactive or proactivestance. For example, do institutions F and H have larger international marketingdepartments to cope with international student demand or have these institutionsincreased their international marketing departments in order to generate demand?

P1b. The size of an institution’s marketing department (number of staff) is relatedto the institution’s years of recruiting experience.

This proposition is not supported for either secondary schools or universities. There is noevidence to indicate that years of recruiting experience affects the size of an institution’smarketing department or vice versa. Institutions B, C and G have 1-10 employees in theirrespective marketing departments yet Institution B has recruited internationally for 6-10years, Institution C for 11-15 years and Institution G for more than 16 years. InstitutionsF and H have the largest marketing departments (11-20 employees) yet Institution F hasrecruited internationally for 0-5 years while Institution H has been recruiting for aconsiderably longer period (11-15 years). Refer to Tables IV and V.

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Length of recruiting experience

P2. The length of institutional recruiting experience (years) is related to thepercentage of international students within the total student population at aninstitution.

This proposition is inversely supported for universities but is not supported forsecondary schools. In other words, for universities, the longer an institution has beenrecruiting, the lower the percentage of international students to the total studentcohort. Institution G has recruited the longest but has the lowest percentage ofinternational university students (,10 per cent). Institution F has recruited the least(0-5 yrs) yet has one of the highest percentages of international university students(.15 per cent). For secondary schools, as international students comprise less than 10per cent of the total student population regardless of institutional recruiting experience,there does not appear to be a relationship between these variables. Refer to Tables IIIand V.

In this study we did not investigate institutions’ desired ratio of international tonational students and this may possibly account for a lower percentage of internationalstudents. There may also be other mitigating factors such as institution location andreputation that contribute to the percentage of international students recruited.Institution G indicated during the interview that the percentage of internationalstudents was lower than desired.

Employee qualifications

P3a. The possession of marketing qualifications by marketing staff is related to thepercentage of international students within the total student population at aninstitution

This proposition is supported for universities but not for secondary schools. Other thanInstitution A, no secondary school had employees with marketing qualifications yet allsecondary schools in the sample had international student populations of less than 10per cent. However, as Institution A had no international marketing department itremains unclear as to the effect of marketing qualifications on the percentage ofinternational students for secondary schools. Of the universities Institutions F and Hhad employees with marketing qualifications. Both of these institutions had thehighest percentages of international students (.15 per cent). Refer to Tables III and IX.

P3b. The possession of marketing qualifications by staff involved in internationalstudent recruitment is related to the institution’s years of recruitingexperience.

This proposition is not supported by either secondary schools or universities. Forexample, in relationship to schools, Institution A has employees with marketingqualifications while Institutions C, D and E do not have marketing employees withmarketing qualifications. Institution D has recruited internationally for 0-5 years whileInstitutions A and E have recruited for 6-10 years and Institution C has recruited for11-15 years. Therefore, for secondary schools no relationship appears to exist betweenpossession of marketing qualifications and years of recruiting experience. Foruniversities there is also a similar spread of results. Institutions F and J have both

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recruited for 0-5 years. Institution F has employees with marketing qualifications whileInstitution J does not. Institution H has recruited internationally for 11-15 years andhas employees with marketing qualifications while Institution G has recruited for morethan 16 years and does not have employees with marketing qualifications. Refer toTables III and V.

Institutional focus

P4a. The extent to which an institution is market focussed is related to theinstitution’s years of recruiting experience.

This proposition is not supported by secondary schools but there is some evidence tosupport this proposition for universities. We contend that some institutions placegreater effort, resources and expectations on marketing than other institutions andconsequently these institutions are more market focussed. Drawn from the work byRuekert (1992) and Brown (Brown, 1993) our concept of market focus is based aroundthe degree to which an institution orients to meet the needs of prospective internationalstudents. We measure market focus by observing institutional factors such as size ofmarketing department (employees), having employees with marketing qualificationsand length of recruitment experience. In addition we examine the percentage ofinternational students enrolled at an institution as a potential outcome of market focusalthough we accept that there may be factors other than market focus that contribute tothis. We acknowledge that further investigation is required to develop the construct ofmarketing focus in the secondary school sector. Refer to Tables III, IV, V, and IX.

Only one secondary school (Institution A) had employees with marketingqualifications and that school had no international marketing department. Of theuniversities, we consider Institution F to be quite market focused. It has recruited for ashort period of time (0-5 years), has one of the largest marketing departments (11-20),and has employees with marketing qualifications. Additionally this institution has oneof the largest international student populations (.15 per cent). On the other hand weconsider Institution G to be not particularly market focussed. It has recruited for alonger period of time (16 þ years), has a moderate sized marketing department (1-10),and does not have employees with marketing qualifications. Incidentally thisinstitution has one of the smallest international student populations in the sample(,10 per cent).

In determining extent of market focus other moderating factors such as location,courses offered, institutional reputation, prestige, quality of teaching staff, andword-of-mouth influence should also be considered. Further research is required todetermine the impact of these factors and to also determine other potential factors.

P4b. Frequency of international marketing strategy review is related to thepercentage of international students within the total student population at aninstitution.

This proposition is not supported by secondary schools or universities. Institution Adoes not review its marketing strategy, while Institutions B, C and E all review on a 6or 12 month basis and Institution D reviews constantly. Despite these differences allsecondary schools in the sample had international student populations of less than 10per cent. Of the universities Institutions F and H both have international student

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populations of .15 per cent yet Institution F does not review marketing strategy whileInstitution H reviews marketing strategy every 6-12 months. Refer to Tables IIIand VIII.

P4c. The international marketing strategy development process is related to thepercentage of international students within the total student population at aninstitution.

This proposition is not supported by secondary schools or universities. Institutions A,D and E all have an informal marketing strategy development process whileInstitutions B and C report a formal development process. Despite this, secondaryschools all have student populations comprising less than 10 per cent internationalstudents. Of the universities Institutions F and H both have international studentpopulations greater than 15 per cent. Institution F has an informal marketing strategydevelopment process while institution H has a formal process. Refer to Tables IIIand VI.

P4d. Goals and objectives of recruiting international students differ betweensecondary schools and universities.

This proposition is supported through an analysis of all the interviews. Other than thepercentage of international students recruited there are not particularly clear divisionsbetween secondary schools (,10 per cent international students) and universities(.10 per cent international students). Even between secondary schools there aremarked differences on many themes yet the percentage of international studentsremains less than 10 per cent for all secondary schools. Similarly, between universitiesdifferences are apparent in most themes yet the percentage of international students isgreater than 10 per cent. Within Australia the international student market is smallerfor secondary schools than universities (AEI, 2006) and this may be one reason whydifferences are evident. Another possibility is that secondary schools recruitinternational students to ensure diversity within the student body whereas universitiesmay have greater financial imperatives in recruiting international students. Furtherresearch is required in order to clarify this situation.

Summary of findingsDifferences are evident between the secondary school and university sectors for therelationship between marketing department size and proportion of internationalstudents (P1a), the relationship between institutional recruiting experience andpercentage of international students (P2), the relationship between employeemarketing qualifications and percentage of international students (P3a), and therelationship between market focus and institutional recruiting experience (P4a). Foreach of these propositions a relationship is found to exist for universities but not forsecondary schools. No propositions are supported by secondary schools only. Sectoraldifferences appear to be largely based around the percentage of international studentsenrolled. Secondary schools generally have a lower percentage of internationalstudents than universities and variables investigated appear to have little impact onthe percentage of international students enrolled in the school sector. We canhypothesise reasons for the difference in international student enrolments such asmarket size, sectoral financial need, or attributes of the prospective student markets

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such as age, but in reality further research is required to conclusively investigate whythese differences occur.

Similarities are found between the secondary school and university sectors for therelationship between marketing department size and institutional recruitingexperience (P1b), the relationship between employee marketing qualifications andinstitutional recruiting experience (P3b), the relationship between frequency ofinternational marketing strategy review and percentage of international students (P4b)and the relationship between marketing strategy development process andinternational student population (P4c). In each case, for these propositions, norelationship is found for either sector. For both sectors, years of recruiting experiencedoes not appear to be an influential variable. Similarly the way in which aninternational marketing strategy is developed or how frequently it is reviewed does notappear to be an influential variable for either sector. Interestingly, the only propositionsupported by both universities and secondary schools is regarding the existence ofdifferences between the two sectors (P4d ).

Managerial implications and theoretical contributionsManagerial implications are considered from the aspect of international marketingpractitioners, education managers and educational policy makers. Additionally,contributions to marketing theory are discussed. Firstly, we found a relationshipbetween institutions with greater market focus and institutions with greaterpercentages of international students. For the practitioner this means that efforts spentincreasing the market focus of an institution are valuable. Secondly, educationmarketers need to have an understanding of the marketing concept. This doesn’tnecessarily mean that marketers need to have formal marketing qualificationsalthough this may be beneficial in developing an understanding of, and implementing,the marketing concept within an educational institution. Thirdly, it is important tohave an international marketing strategy. We found no relationship between the typeof strategy development process, the review frequency and the percentage ofinternational students enrolled. However, our findings agree with Doyle and Wong(1998) who found that a well designed and implemented international marketingstrategy may lead to achieving competitive advantage and long-term institutionalperformance.

Education managers must consider the resourcing implications of the findings.Secondary schools, for example may question the need for dedicated marketingemployees given that we found little variance in secondary school international studentnumbers. However, we caution against making hasty resourcing decisions. At thisstage further research is needed into the secondary school sector in order to betterunderstand the institutional factors influencing international student recruitment. Thefindings also present resourcing implications for university managers. Does a largerinternational marketing department generate more student enrolments and if so thenhow many, or have marketing departments increased because of student demand? Aswe have stated previously the direction of this relationship requires furtherinvestigation.

Education policy makers should consider the differences in the university andsecondary school sectors when developing policy. The university market is a maturemarket (Unesco, 2006) whereas the secondary school market is an immature market

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(Kenyon and Koshy, 2003). As such it is not appropriate for secondary schools to adoptwholeheartedly the strategies and tactics employed by universities nor is it appropriatefor policy makers to assume that international education policy for these sectors can bethe same.

In terms of a theoretical contribution, this study establishes international educationmarketing within the services context. In particular the construct of intangibility isshown to present specific problems for practitioners. Fundamentally differentobjectives and factors are found to exist between and within education sectors thusproviding justification for the inclusion of education marketing as a separate streamwithin marketing strategy research.

If secondary schools and universities do have different goals and objectives inrecruiting international students then secondary schools need not embracewholeheartedly what is done in universities and vice versa. Different objectives maycall for different recruitment methods and tactics. Also tactics that are found to work inone education sector may not be transferable to a different sector. Similarly, because arecruitment tactic is effective for one institution there is no guarantee that the sametactic will be effective for a different institution within the same educational sector.Other factors including, but not limited to, location, cost, reputation and lifestyle arealso important.

As secondary schools tend to operate a much smaller international student programthan universities they may need to consider the viability of employees with marketingqualifications and separate international marketing departments. However, apparentfrom our interviews was that institutions that had a well developed, implemented andcommunicated marketing plan appeared to be in a better position than institutionswithout a plan. Universities tend to have a larger percentage of international students anda much greater financial reliance on international students. Under these circumstances itis not unusual that there is a greater expectation regarding marketing qualifications anddepartment size as was evident in the most market focussed universities.

Time, and presumably experience gained over time, appears to have little impact onthe percentage of international students recruited. Despite having different lengths ofrecruiting experience secondary schools had all recruited less than 10 per centinternational students and universities mostly more than 10 per cent internationalstudents. The ability to recruit international students does not appear to necessarilyimprove with time or experience. Indeed even for institutions with particularly effectiverecruitment operations, factors beyond their control such as security changes or healthepidemics (McCormack, 2005) may have a significant impact on international studentrecruitment. In order to cope with the expected, let alone the unexpected, it behoves aninstitution to have a well-designed, implemented and communicated marketing plan.The plan needs to be suited to the education sector and to the individual institutionwithin that sector and to the environment in which the institution operates.

Limitations and further researchThe findings in this study are based on a qualitative study in which ten educationinstitutions from Australia and New Zealand were investigated. As such the findingsmay not be generalisable to other education sectors or to education systems incountries other than those of the study. A larger empirical study is required in order todevelop generalised results.

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Success of the international marketing programs developed and implemented bythe institutions in the sample is not investigated. Previous research has founddifficulties in developing measures of success for international student recruitmentthat are applicable to more than one education sector (see for example: Mazzarol, 1998).The purpose of the current study was to investigate institutional factors. Investigationinto strategy and recruitment success and the variables that comprise these constructswill be of considerable importance in developing a better understanding of the role ofmarketing strategy in the recruitment of international students. This should provide aninteresting future research focus.

The current study did not consider aspects such as international marketing budget,expenditure and costs. Similarly the study did not consider aspects such as return onexpenditure. We consider that developing an understanding of what this constructmeans to educational institutions to be a study in itself. Consideration of such aspectsparticularly in relation to the construct of success may be worthy of furtherinvestigation.

ConclusionThis study considered institutional and managerial factors that may affectinternational student recruitment. Institutional aspects of international studentrecruitment were investigated in a sample of universities and secondary schools fromAustralia and New Zealand. Universities were found to recruit a higher percentage ofinternational students than secondary schools although considerable variation wasfound within each education sector. Based on the findings it was suggested that thegoals and objectives for recruiting international students are different for secondaryschools and universities. The reasons for these different objectives require furtherinvestigation however it may be that university recruitment may be more financiallydriven than secondary schools.

Similarities between universities and secondary schools were found in severalthemes. In both sectors the size of the international marketing department was found tonot be dependent on the degree of institutional recruiting experience. Also whether theinternational marketing strategy was developed through a formal or informal processand the frequency of strategy review were not found to affect the percentage ofinternational students enrolled. Given the importance many educational institutionsplace on recruiting international students, being aware of institutional factors that mayaffect student recruitment and developing recruitment strategies that incorporate andacknowledge these factors is vital.

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Corresponding authorMitchell Ross can be contacted at: m.ross@griffith.edu.au

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