Category: Education

The Australian government’s proposed ESOS amendment bill, complete with its caps on foreign enrolment, fell off the order papers in the most recent parliamentary session, and it has now effectively been withdrawn.

In the wake of that surprising development, the expectation was that the government would continue to rely on the equally controversial Ministerial Directive 107 (MD107). First introduced in December 2023, MD107 is an immigration framework that classifies Australian institutions into different risk levels and offers preferential treatment to “low-risk” institutions. The directive triggered a significant spike in visa rejection rates for students from some countries, especially for providers that were assessed to be higher risk.

There are indications this week, however, that the government is now moving to replace MD107. The Australian reports that the government intends to go forward with a new mechanism designed to further reduce student numbers: “With Labor’s bill effectively shelved without the support of the Coalition, The Australian understands the government will seek to pursue its cuts to the international student intake and net migration through a revamped direction.”

MD107 has been a highly contentious policy mechanism, which Education Minister Jason Clare has previously described as a “de facto cap” on foreign enrolment in Australia. The Australian notes: “Since Directive 107 was introduced, the number of offshore student visa applications lodged has fallen 37%, as prospective students look to other markets with greater chances of success.”

The newspaper quotes International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) CEO Phil Honeywood, who observes that, “The government was ‘disappointed’ after the caps failed to pass the parliament…In anticipation of this, it has put together a provider stakeholder task force which has been meeting over many weeks to provide advice on any redesign of Ministerial Direction 107. The key request from the international education industry is that there is more fairness in visa processing for the different risk-level providers.”

In a December end-of-year update to IEAA members, Mr Honeywood explained: “We held back the publication of this Monthly Update in the hope of an announcement about changes to Ministerial Direction 107 (which we now understand will be made later this week).” He added: “Recent decisions of Government have the potential to exacerbate ill feeling both within, and between, public and independent education providers. The decision to stop some public providers from dropping from [Risk] Level 2 to 3 (while many independent providers were pushed down to that level) has quite rightly raised accusations of favoured treatment and inequitable decision making.”

In a related statement this week, Universities Australia Chief Executive Officer Luke Sheehy said that, “The Government has been using Ministerial Direction 107 to reduce international student numbers since last December and now we are seeing the damaging effects in the data – our outer suburban and regional unis are being hit the hardest…Our economy is stuck in low gear and the handbrake on international education is a big reason for that.”

For additional background, please see:

The following article is adapted from the 2025 edition of ICEF Insights magazine, which is freely available to download now.

Global research consistently finds that quality of education, work rights, career aspirations, tuition fees, and costs of living greatly influence where students choose to study. But another crucial – and less studied – factor for many students is whether their family members (i.e., dependants) can accompany them abroad. If it seems there might be an opportunity to do so, students then explore questions such as:

• Is the right to bring dependants restricted to those studying in certain levels or fields of study?
• Which family members are eligible? Spouses/partners and children? Extended family?
• Can dependants stay for the entirety of a study programme?
• Can spouses/partners work? Full time? In any job?
• Can children attend public schools for free or do tuition fees apply?

Bringing family linked to greater success

The rights of dependants are especially consequential for students intending to study abroad for years, rather than months, and for those aiming to work or immigrate after graduating. The longer students stay abroad, the more likely they are to need their family with them, whether to maintain emotional bonds, help raise children, or integrate family members into the student’s new community.

Consider that:

• International students frequently experience culture shock, social isolation, loneliness, and difficulty making friends when they are studying far from home without their family.

• Research shows that foreign students’ success cannot be measured by their academic performance alone. Another key gauge is a student’s ability to engage with and positively contribute to a host society. This ability increases when students are supported by family and community connections.

Dependants’ rights restricted in some destinations

Policies affecting the families of international students have always been important, but they do not usually capture media headlines. That changed this year when Canada, France, and the UK rejigged rules as part of an effort to curb migration.

Specifically:

• Canada: Only spouses/partners of students pursuing degrees at the master’s (16 months or more), doctoral, or professional level are eligible for an open work permit.

• France: Only if a student has lived in France for at least 24 months may dependants join them, and unmarried partners must be at least 21 years of age, up from 18.

• UK: Dependants can come to the UK only if the student is on a government scholarship or enrolled in a research-oriented postgraduate programme. Family of taught master’s students and undergraduate students cannot join.

The impacts of changes to dependants’ rights are already being felt by educators in Canada and the UK. They are experiencing lower demand from key non-EU markets, especially Nigeria and India, according to various data indicators (e.g., applications, visas processed, deposits, visas granted).

Which countries are the most open to dependants?

The more restrictive rules in effect this year in Canada, France, and the UK are now in line with those in Ireland, Singapore, and the US. Germany and New Zealand offer more opportunities (if students meet certain conditions or are enrolled in certain levels/programmes).

Technically, Australia occupies the middle ground. Spouses/partners and children under the age of 18 may join international students in Australia, and partners can usually work (48 hours per fortnight if the student is an undergraduate and unlimited if the student is in a research-oriented postgraduate programme).

However, partners/spouses must show savings of AUD$10,395, and each child must have funds of at least of AUD$4,450. This is on top of the AUD$29,710 required for the main student applicant. In effect, the amount of savings required of students and their dependants – and the new, non-refundable visa application fee of AUD$1,600 – is enough to discourage many international students with families from applying to Australia.

Canadian institutions, too, are experiencing lower demand this year from Nigeria due to dependant policies.

The coming months will provide a more complete picture of how significantly rules about international students’ families affect destination choice. Our guess is that it will change the decisions of thousands of students who want partners to be able to work, and to have children with them, while they study.

For additional background, please see:

Students looking for English-taught online degree programmes now have more options than ever. A new report from British Council and Studyportals shows that the number of online English-taught programmes (ETPs) has increased by 123% since 2019. The report is entitled Mapping English-taught Programmes Worldwide.

Which countries offer the most online ETPs?

The vast majority of online bachelor’s and master’s programmes are offered in Australia, Canada, UK, and US (92%). The UK and US are by far the biggest suppliers of the four, offering thousands of ETPs versus under 500 in Australia and Canada. Together, the rate of online ETP expansion in Australia, Canada, UK, and US since 2019 is 126%.

The supply of online ETPs is increasing quite quickly outside of the Big Four as well, with a doubling of growth since 2019 (from 623 to 1,212 in 2023, an increase of 94%).

Megan Agnew, IELTS Global Partnerships at British Council said:

“This report highlights that, while the Big Four markets continue to dominate the landscape of online programmes, the overall shifts in English as a Medium of Education provides international students with more choice and flexibility than ever before. Ensuring standardised frameworks in both policy and assessment, whether in on-campus or online programmes, is critical in ensuring students can access valuable educational experiences in their chosen location.”

While interest in online programmes dissipated somewhat after the pandemic – because international students embraced the opportunity of learning face-to-face for the first time in months (or even years) – it is picking up again. International students are faced with high costs of travel and rising costs of study/living in leading destination countries. For these reasons as well as more restrictive immigration environments in Australia, Canada, and the UK, online learning is becoming a real option for students who might otherwise have preferred to travel.

Another important audience for ETPs are students who like blended learning. A 2022 McKinsey survey of 7,000 students found that 65% wanted to retain some aspect of online learning, citing reasons such as flexibility and convenience.

Top levels and subjects

Growth is occurring at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and as shown below, this is expected to continue through 2026.

At the bachelor’s level, Applied Sciences and Education & Training are expanding the fastest of all online ETPs (+1,000% and +700%, respectively), while arts and design-related programmes, law, and journalism are either stagnant or declining. At the master’s level, the fastest growth is occurring in Computer Science & IT (+181%), Business & Management (+137%), and Hospitality, Leisure & Sports (+135%), while provision of Education & Training, Journalism & Media, and Law online programmes is declining.

Expansion outside the Big Four

Europe’s Higher Education Area (EHEA) accounts for 68% of non-Big Four online ETPs, with Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Switzerland the leaders. Germany, in particular, is quickly catching up to Canada and Australia: in 2019 Germany offered 34 ETPs, while in 2023 it offered 204. Canada offered 271 and Australia 471 In 2023.

Provision is also growing in regions including Africa and the Middle East – notably in South Africa, the UAE, and Jamaica – while online options are notably scarce in Asia.

Online learning as a complement, not a threat

Edwin van Rest, cofounder and CEO of Studyportals, said: 

“We clearly see that these online programmes primarily give access to a different segment of students who may otherwise miss out on higher education: adult learners, flexible learners, people with different learning styles/preferences. It is a misconception that online programmes are a threat or a competitor to on-campus programmes. Online education is poised to drive a more inclusive and dynamic future for international higher education, stimulate Lifelong Learning and increase the flexibility of labour markets.

While Online English-taught programmes are still predominantly a niche strategy for only a part of institutions, and is more developed in the Big Four destinations, it is good to see other markets starting to catch up with phenomenal growth in relative terms. With anti-immigration sentiment rising in many markets, it is also a pathway for institutions to make their internationalisation strategy less dependent on visa and/or accommodation restrictions.”

For additional background, please see:

This year has witnessed a trend in some Western economies towards deglobalisation. Pressured by a conviction among large voting blocs that unemployment, inflation, and healthcare and housing crises are linked to rising levels of immigration, many governments are tightening their borders and enacting new trade protections.

The trend is especially visible in new migrant policies in Australia, Canada, and the UK; in far-right gains in France; and in the victory of Donald Trump in the November 2024 US presidential election.

International educators in those countries are naturally affected given their vulnerability to immigration policy changes. As Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at the University of Oxford has observed: “The higher education sector [in the UK] is caught trying to be global while national politics push hard in the other direction.”

By contrast, national politics are not an issue for institutions in key Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. These countries are both:

• Important student sending markets;
• Increasingly attractive destinations for international students.

Demographics are a main reason that the governments of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea are embracing more international linkages. In Taiwan, the share of the population aged 65 and above will increase to 35% by 2050, and it will rise to 37% and 38% in Japan and South Korea, respectively . Of the three, Japan is currently the oldest, with 29% of Japanese currently over the age of 65.

This – along with a need to strengthen geopolitical partnerships in the face of Chinese and Russian alignment – is behind the urgency of the three destinations to increase the internationalisation of their higher education sectors. Today, we’ll focus on Japan as both a sending and receiving market.

Major goals

In Japan, official goals are to increase inbound mobility, outbound mobility, and partnerships with foreign institutions.

Specifically, according to the J-MIRAI strategy (Japan Mobility and Internationalisation: Re-engaging and Accelerating Initiative for future generations) created by government-backed Council for the Creation of Future Education in 2023, Japan’s goals for 2033 are to:

• Send 500,000 Japanese students abroad (150,000 for degrees, 230,000 for shorter programmes, and 110,000 for high school via overseas study tours);
• Welcome 400,000 inbound international students;
• Double English-only undergraduate programmes, and nearly double English-only graduate programmes;
• Nearly double the number of joint degree programmes and exchange programmes;
• More than double the number of dual degree programmes;
• Triple the number of Japanese high schools where students can take multiple subjects in English;
• More than triple the number of international students in Japanese high schools;
• Increase the post-graduation rate of international students in Japan by 25%.

Those are ambitious goals, but the fact that former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida himself chaired the Council for the Creation of Future Education is an indication of how seriously the government is approaching the targets.

The role of language supports

In 2023, there were about 280,000 international students in Japan. The 2023 tally represents a 21% increase over 2022, and growth was driven mostly by students coming to the country to study Japanese.

Japan needs more international degree students to work in Japan after graduating – ideally with a good grasp of both English and Japanese. We can assume that there is a significant effort afoot to encourage language students to progress to university studies in the country. A survey conducted in 2019 by the Institute for International Business Communication found that 40% of Japanese companies now insist on English-language skills in their hiring.

J-MIRAI includes a focus on attaching Japanese language and cultural supports to degree programmes to encourage university students to complement their English-language skills with proficiency in Japanese. This dovetails with the government’s aim to ease the integration of international graduates into the domestic labour force.

In addition, J-MIRAI’s ambitious target of tripling international students in elementary and high schools is being supported by improved Japanese language supports at those levels (see chart below).

The need to diversify

China is by far the largest market for Japanese universities (115,495 students in 2023, +11% year-on-year), but Chinese students have always been more likely to return home after study abroad than students from other countries. This tendency does not align with Japan’s goal of encouraging top international graduates to stay and contribute to the Japanese economy. Chinese students compose 60% of the student population in Japanese graduate and postgraduate programmes.

Other top markets are Nepal (37,875), Vietnam (36,340), South Korea (14,945), and Myanmar (7,775). Nepal was up by a massive 56%, Vietnam was down by 3%, South Korea was up by 9%, and Myanmar grew by 104% in 2023 versus 2022.

Professor Yonezawa, vice-director, International Strategy Office at Tohoku University, told QS that Australia, South Asia, and Africa are new target regions for Japanese universities.

The aim for 500,000 Japanese students to study abroad

In 2023, there were about 200,000 Japanese students abroad, with about 60,000 of that total pursuing degree programmes. The aim is to more than double that by 2033. “The growth and success of young people, who are the bearers of the future, through studying abroad is the key to transforming society,” former Prime Minister Kishida said at the launch of J-MIRAI in April 2023.

The 500,000 target will be challenging to achieve, as there are several factors that make Japanese students hesitant to study abroad.

As reported in University World News, students worry about job prospects upon their return to Japan, as the Japanese academic calendar is not aligned with the calendar in top Western destinations. The Japanese academic cycle ends in March, while the Western academic year ends in July. What’s more, Japanese students tend to begin their job hunting in their third year of a four-year degree programme. Students returning from study abroad therefore lose precious months to compete for jobs with their peers who have studied in Japan.

“Not being able to compete in the job market is cited by Japanese students if they study abroad,” said Hiroshi Ota, professor and director of the Global Education Programme at Hitotsubashi University to University World News.

Japanese students are also known to be quite content to study at home, especially since the employment rate for graduates from Japanese universities is very high. A survey conducted in 2019 by Japan’s Cabinet Office in 2019 with 13–29-year-olds in seven countries found that in only one country, more than half of respondents said they have “no intention of ever studying abroad.” That country was Japan. Reported barriers that are dampening students’ interest include the costs of study abroad, limited foreign language skills, and preferring not to take a leave from their domestic universities.

Western institutions will face fierce competition in Japan from Asian destinations, as Japanese are increasingly favouring intra-regional study abroad for cultural and financial reasons – and to be closer to home. Malaysia, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, and UAE are alternative destinations that are becoming more popular.

Ms Ota told University World News:

“Most Japanese students cannot afford the high tuition fees that now reach almost US$50,000 annually to obtain a degree at American universities. Cheaper Asian destinations for non-degree study are growing attractive for Japanese students, avoiding high costs for studying in English-speaking countries.”

Skills gaps in the Japanese economy

Foreign educators recruiting in Japan should know that:

• Demand for information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) graduates is skyrocketing. According to the 2023 Economist Impact Study, “65% of employees in Japan choose digital skills as a top skill to acquire … advanced digital skills such as cybersecurity (53.8%), IT support (52.3%), and data analysis and visualisation (50.8%) are also considered must-haves.” The prediction is that by 2030, Japan “will be short of 450,000 IT professionals.”

• Employers told The Economist that one of “the major hindrances to digital transformation is the shortage of high-calibre IT talent with bilingual capabilities (fluency in both Japanese and English).”

• Alternative credentials and modes of study are on the rise: the same study found that “60% of employees report that employers are shifting to new hiring practices such as skills-based hiring while 54% agree that their employers value online certificates.”

• There is an opportunity to recruit older Japanese for short upskilling courses, as more and more older Japanese are staying in the labour force.

Japan is serious about sustainability goals and is transforming its energy and transportation industries. Horton International reports that “investments in transportation networks, digital infrastructure and sustainable energy projects are expected to create numerous job opportunities and support economic growth.” Horton International adds: “Japan displays a higher-than-average share of green-driven occupations and a lower-than-average share of greenhouse gas (GHG)-intensive occupations … this suggests potentially high demand for skills relevant to green-driven occupations and lower costs of job replacement from GHG-intensive occupations.”

Ensuring that programmes are tightly connected to global and Japan-specific labour market needs will be crucial for educators recruiting in Japan, where a government push to send students abroad is complicated by Japanese families’ hesitation to do so.

For additional background, please see:

The following article is adapted from the 2025 edition of ICEF Insights magazine, which is freely available to download now.

You are committed to your organisation’s internationalisation goals and targets and dedicated to guiding students to the programmes that suit them best. But commitment and hard work are one thing and having the right supports to achieve results is another.

Is your organisation optimised for international student recruitment? Consider the following questions:

• Where are students discovering your school/university?
• What proportion take the next step (e.g., engage, enquire, apply)?
• What are common pain points for students trying to interact with your institution?
• What are individual students’ goals, priorities, barriers, and interests?
• Which communications and website content do students engage with, and which do they ignore?

If you don’t have these insights, it could be time for your institution or agency to invest in student journey mapping and a customer relationship management system (CRM).

What is the student journey?

The path that students follow from first awareness of an institution to enrolment is called the student journey. It can also be extended to encompass graduation and even employment.

The journey metaphor illustrates how many decisions students make as they proceed towards enrolment, and it prompts institutions and agents to:

• Map out all the brand touchpoints and phases of engagement/activity that can influence a student’s decision to enrol;
• Create a plan to nurture leads at each phase;
• Make customer satisfaction a priority from the time a student indicates interest
  to the time they graduate.

Studyportals envisions the student journey as a series of actions that leads take: discover, shortlist, apply, commit, prepare, and study.

That progression is depicted in the following illustrations.

What is a CRM?

Salesforce explains: “A CRM system helps with contact management, sales management, agent productivity, and more. CRM tools can now be used to manage customer relationships across the entire customer life cycle.”

The consulting firm Higher Education Marketing (HEM) elaborates on what a CRM can do:

• Contact management – build and store individual contact profiles, segment them according to your needs, and track your interactions with each one.
• Team management – collaborate, schedule tasks, track leads, and plan workload.
• Communications tools – log and detail communications with contacts via phone, email, SMS, instant messaging, physical meetings, and even social media.
• Reporting – synthesise valuable, granular data on your audience and your own team’s work into reports that can be used to improve your efforts.

Consider what is truly expensive

It’s common for marketing and admissions teams to be told by management that their existing systems (e.g., their original, poorly performing CRM or Excel) have been paid for and must therefore remain in place. This is a huge mistake for at least three reasons:

1. Excel does not offer marketing automation.
2. An outdated CRM that nobody knows how to use is pointless.
3. What is truly expensive is recruiting inefficiently and ineffectively.

When staff lack tools or training to respond immediately and helpfully to prospective student queries, they can easily lose leads through no fault of their own. When they are trained on a well-configured CRM, they can focus on providing the strategic thinking and human touch that remain crucial to customer service.

Alejandra Otero, founder and CEO of education marketing and recruitment consultancy geNEOus, says:

“Viewing [CRM and staff training on it] as a cost is missing the point. Remember, cost is part of an equation. If the cost is outweighed by incoming revenue, it is not a cost; it is an investment that is paying off.”

Common pitfalls

Ms Otero’s company helps institutions and agents to replace inefficient marketing and admissions structures and technologies with new systems and ways of working. These systems are set up with one overarching goal: to track and nurture student leads along the student journey to enrolment.

When brainstorming the process, Ms Otero considered common issues that can derail a recruitment drive:

• Slow responses to student enquiries. According to Keystone Education Group’s State of Student Recruitment (2024) global survey, 85% of students expect a response within 24 hours, preferably through email (70%) or instant messaging (12%, a marked 36% increase over 2023).

• Lack of coordination. Ms Otero explains: “We have seen cases where agents are recruiting diligently and according to an institutional contract, but the admissions team isn’t aware that the agent channel is even being used. The marketing team knows, but this information hasn’t been shared or isn’t visible in the CRM to admissions. The student – after having spoken to an agent – contacts admissions, and admissions tells them they aren’t working with agents. This undermines both the agent’s and institution’s trustworthiness in the market. The silos within an institution should not hinder student experience.”

• Frustrating processes. Asking students to complete many forms with the same basic information, or overly long forms, is a sure way of annoying leads. So is a website chatbot that leaves students with no answers and no idea where to turn to next.

• Lack of personalisation. Are you collecting the right information from students to personalise your communications? Ms Otero notes that when students click on a paid ad or search on a webpage, heated zones where they have lingered can provide data on their top interests (e.g., programmes, scholarships, etc.). Marketing may have this information, but admissions should have it as well for their own interactions with students.

• Limited collection/use of data. Ms Otero says: “Everyone should have data showing where leads are at in the student journey – whether you’re an agent, an admissions officer, or a marketing director. That data is like gold. It reveals opportunities as well as signs that a lead is about to drop off. Data signals where an intervention is required (e.g., a personalised email, an application fee waived, an early admissions offer). Many clients think they need more leads, but better lead management through a CRM is really what is required.”

Customisation is key

When Ms Otero’s team begins to work with a client, the first thing they do is an audit of what data is available (and often not being used) and how marketing and admissions are functioning and interrelating. The team discovers where leads are coming from, enrolment trends, opportunities for better synergies between departments, and common points at which prospects are leaving the enrolment funnel. Ms Otero says:

“You have to know what is and what is not working before coming up with a plan. Every institution is unique, so when we implement a CRM or train staff on new systems, it’s always customised. Everything you do should be for a reason, and each element of a plan must relate to all the other elements.”

A main goal is always to empower people: “It is amazing how much more satisfied and
committed marketing and admissions teams become when they have the right tools to do
their jobs well.”

Student-first thinking

A good way of approaching recruiting and admissions management, says Ms Otero, is to ask: “‘Am I making it easy enough for students to (a) become aware of our brand, (b) interact with our staff and agents, and (c) enrol?’ Part of that is collecting and acting on data, and the other is responding quickly and well to students.

A CRM empowers staff with good data, and it frees them from the impossible task of responding immediately to all queries.”

No need for chaos

Students now have almost endless ways of discovering institutions and deciding whether to enrol. They have far more resources available to them now as they research – just think of all the social media channels they are active on!

Without student journey mapping and associated data, it is next to impossible to properly identify and nurture leads. The result is that leads are poorly managed or even squandered and the ROI on your recruitment effort suffers. A student-centred strategy, backed by an effective CRM that everyone on the team knows how to use, is a reliable path to meeting your recruitment goals and achieving better student outcomes. As staff become adept with new systems, and as students achieve more success, everyone wins.

For additional background, please see:

A fascinating study from The Ambassador Platform, What Makes or Breaks the Student Application Experience, finds that prospective students are more likely to apply to institutions when they feel a sense of connection and belonging – and that there are multiple steps along their journey to applying where institutions can foster these feelings. The research reminds us that international students’ decision-making is not only informed by objective analysis of options, but also emotion.

The following screenshot shows the characteristics of the survey sample of over 1,600 prospective students. Most respondents were international, and most were looking at undergraduate studies.

University is not always the answer

One key insight is that surveyed students were not necessarily set on a university degree. Many were also considering work or apprenticeships.

The report notes:

“This is one of several data points in this report suggesting that prospective students increasingly approach the application process with the idea of a “return of investment” in mind. In this sense, university isn’t just a formative and educational experience, but an investment into future career prospects.”

This finding highlights how important it is to include messaging about career pathways and outcomes when promoting programmes.

Wanted: support … and email

The survey asked students what they value most when contacting a university, and more than half (58%) cited the quality of support they receive. Fully 94% said that email is their preferred communication channel, with the university website (59%) and WhatsApp (49%) next. The report makes an astute observation related to many students’ price-sensitivity:

“Many international students have expressed concerns about the high costs of traditional communication methods, like phone calls. Universities can play a vital role by providing support for more affordable options, such as WhatsApp calls. This change would help students who live in a different country stay more connected with the university throughout the application process.”

Community matters

A strong majority (80%) of surveyed students said they were looking for a sense of belonging before arriving at a university, and most of those students were motivated by wanting to fit in (42%) and be reassured that they would be safe (21%).

Universities can instill this sense of belonging long before students arrive on campus – and doing so may well be crucial to a student’s decision about whether or not to apply. Three-quarters of students said they felt like they belonged at their preferred institution before their first day, and 17% said that they felt a strong connection even before they applied. Another 21% said they felt like they belonged after receiving their offer.

These findings underline the importance of:

• Welcoming, warm, personalised communications from the first point of contact with a lead;
• Communicating admissions offers in a celebratory way – again using a personalised approach.

The survey report includes valuable insights from students, who were asked to comment on what is most important to them when applying. Examples of quotes include:

• “All emails were responded to within 24 hours.”

• “A student ambassador who was eager to answer my questions.”

• “A conversation with a staff member, she was so patient and understanding. She explained everything very thoroughly and clearly. She attended to all my questions and even asked if I was satisfied with her answers. She is a very respectful and genuine woman.”

• “Attending the Classics course overview session at [University], given so clearly and engagingly, was memorable for me, as I was immediately interested in the information given, and important information was communicated effectively. I was not bored listening, rather even more excited to work harder and apply to [University].”

• “There was a time I forgot to upload a document during the application process, and when I realized it, I thought my application was done for. But then I received an email from them saying a document was missing and asking me to upload it so they could continue with the process. I felt so relieved after that.”

• “While I was applying to a university in [State], I had already submitted my application. Three days later, I received an email from the university, and I couldn’t help but smile. The university considered me for an additional program with lots of benefits (travelling, etc.). As an international student, I was beaming with joy because I never expected it.”

Those are only some of the quotes included in The Ambassador Platform report – you can download the full report here. The study findings emphasise that it isn’t just the promptness of communications that matters to students – but the quality.

For additional background, please see: