International education leaders in the United States shared their insights on how to expand higher education institutions’ global reach even with depleted resources in the recently held M Square Media Think-In event, titled “Creating a Global Reach with Limited Staff and Resources.”
Held on Oct. 27, 2021, the webinar focused on coming up with highly effective ways of expanding HEIs’ international student reach without having to shell out a large amount of money. Sharing their insights as resource speakers were Gjergj Dollani, Vice President Marketing for Bay Atlantic University, and Jim Paul, Director of the U.S. Commercial Service and former Global Education Team Leader of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Suneetha Qureshi, President of MSM’s Global Marketing Office (GMO), led the discussion as moderator.
According to Gjergj, partnering with a trusted agency that has an established global reach is one of the success-driven ways of reaching more international students at a low cost. He explained that such a partnership allows an institution, especially smaller ones, to maximize employee size as these partners may also be considered as the HEI’s employees.
“In my mind, it’s the easiest way to capitalize on making yourself bigger than some of the big-state institutions at zero cost,” Gjergj said.
Meanwhile, Jim built on Gjergj’s insights and shared how the US Commercial Service helps smaller institutions in expanding their international reach.
“We have various market research resources from our embassies and consuls. What are the top markets for you and the approach for your type of schooling, for your type of program; what’s the best recruitment method as well. We will help you target that.” Jim explained.
Suneetha also supported Gjergj’s pronouncements and underscored the integral role of third-party service providers.
“Not only do education service providers adopt innovative solutions to student recruitment that can help institutions, but they also have the established ecosystem to do so without making the institution spend a lot,” she said.
This was the second in a series of MSM Think-Ins in the US. The MSM Think-In aims to be a platform that helps HEIs and student recruitment agents thrive in their shared mission of making international education accessible to all.
An on-demand recording of this webinar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq0zxZ8t-IA
