Carmen Neghina

The perks of recruiting international students throughout summer

Facebooktwitterlinkedin

Reaching prospective students worldwide requires choosing the right channels to communicate with them. Another key aspect is timing: when your timing is right, you’ll be able to reach study seekers during the right stage of their online search. We see that many educational institutions have a strong focus on promoting their study programmes via online campaigns during the academic year. Though, with increasing investments in student marketing and recruitment, the competition among universities rises.

Continue promoting during summer

As more than 23 million prospective students use our portals every year to search for a study programme abroad, we’ve had a look at their search patterns. Our data grants insights about students exploring their options online. While most universities focus their promotional activities in the months before application deadlines, that does not necessarily match the students’ own search patterns and study choice journey.

Interestingly, students increasingly start their search far sooner than the new academic year, with their search volume already starting to increase over the summer months, and reaching a peak in the months before the application deadlines towards the end of the year.

Therefore, universities seeking to be on the first list of options should consider intensifying their recruitment efforts even during the summer months, when competition is actually scarcer and try to establish a competitive advantage. The numbers show that 25% of the yearly traffic from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe on Bachelorsportal and Mastersportal is generated in the summer months (June, July and August). Thus, the summer is crucial in recruiting international students and increasing the awareness and interest of your institution and study programmes.


Fig. 1 shows what percentage of page views occurs on Bachelorsportal each month.


Fig. 2 shows what percentage of page views occurs on Mastersportal each month.

After analysing the data, we compiled 4 telling arguments why you should start reaching prospective international students throughout the summer.

1) Students use their free time for research

As many students are having a long break from school or university during summer, they spend their time researching their educational options abroad. These students are often highly motivated to gather as much information as possible about their dream study programme. If students are motivated to search for programme information at different institutions, they will usually also be highly motivated while studying it. That is why recruiting in summer will bring you students who are determined to succeed.

2) Students plan long time ahead

Universities often want to see direct results and enrolments after setting up their recruitment campaigns for the upcoming semester. Though, this is not a realistic expectation. Institutions need to start building long-term rather than short-term relationships with prospective students. Study seekers start studying 6 months to 2 years later after sending their first enquiries to the universities. Choosing their dream study programme at the right university, as well as getting everything ready for their journey abroad, requires thorough organising and planning. Therefore, most students plan a long time ahead to avoid rushing or last-minute preparations.

3) Geographical differences for recruiting international students

As shown in the graphs, the orientation pattern for prospective students searching for a degree program differs per continent. While European study seekers are more active during other than the summer months, students coming from the Americas, Asia, and Africa increasingly start to get active to search for future courses over the summer. In order to reach students worldwide, your marketing and recruitment activities should be spread out throughout the year to cater to regional differences in the study choice patterns of prospective students.

4) Less competition

Most universities don’t perform active campaigns over the summer and thus, have to face high competition from similar universities. Promoting your institution and programmes during the summer makes you more visible to study seekers, compared to your competitors who have paused or decreased their campaigns.

Recruiting international students over the summer proves to have many advantages for your university. Not only will you reach a higher number of interested students, you also will face less competition. Consider starting your international marketing and recruitment activities at least one year before the programme start date to reach the largest pool of prospective students.

For more updates, follow us!

Facebooktwitterlinkedinyoutubeinstagram

More Blog Posts