Stay up to date with our work
Our monthly updates are a great way for you to stay up to date with our work, events, and higher education news.
Image
Diversification and strengthening international recruitment practices
Last updated on Wednesday 14 Jun 2023 at 2:31pm
On this page
International students deliver huge cultural, social, and economic benefits to the UK.
We should be proud that our universities continue to attract students from all over the world, and that higher education is one of the UK’s most important and successful exports. Geographical diversification of international student recruitment has become a priority for many universities over recent years. Combined with the growth in the overall number of international students, universities are working hard to identify and address any challenges in international recruitment and to maintain the very high levels of compliance seen across the student immigration system.
Summary
This report sets out the findings of a survey of UUK’s membership and is intended to support the sector’s efforts to achieve both sustainable growth and diversity in international student recruitment, alongside high levels of compliance with the immigration rules.
Promoted content
The survey was completed by 60 of UUK’s members, including a broad mix in terms of geography, size, and mission. This work was also informed and supported by attendees of a roundtable on international recruitment and compliance, made up primarily of Pro-Vice-Chancellors for International from across UUK’s membership as well as wider conversations with our members.
We also consulted with the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and British Universities’ International Liaison Association (BUILA).
Our findings
Diversifying recruitment
- Many universities are currently diversifying their international student recruitment, including 90% of the respondents to our survey. This is in a wide range of markets, with 40 different countries mentioned by survey respondents.
- Universities are making changes to strengthen their international recruitment practices to ensure they keep pace with the changing global market and applicant behaviour, including; reforming application processes adapting Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) issuance deadlines, setting earlier deadlines for applications and deposits, introducing the ability to close programmes by applications by domicile.
Reviewing deposit requirements
- Universities may wish to consider reviewing their deposit requirements alongside their diversification plans to help ensure applicants are genuine students and intent on studying.
- Almost all (96%) respondents to our survey told us that their university required deposits from at least some international students.
- Two thirds (67%) of respondents told us that their university’s deposits for international students were set at a specific monetary amount, and 17% of respondents told us they were set at a percentage of the tuition fee.
Using pre-CAS interviews
- Using pre-CAS interviews can help universities understand the motivation and level of interest an international student has in studying a particular course at a particular university.
- 57% of respondents to our survey told us that their university carried our pre-CAS interviews. Most respondents who told us they use pre-CAS interviews told us these were only for select domiciles.
- Common elements of pre-CAS interviews include using a variety and range of questions, identity checks, and conducting interviews with a more intensive conversational element.
Practices in relation to dependants
Following the marked increase in the number of dependants on sponsored study visas over the last few years, universities should consider making changes to their processes in response, including asking students about whether they have dependants that plan to travel to the UK at the point of offer so they can provide appropriate advice and better plan support for them..
Working with agents
- Universities should consider how they can best work with international student recruitment agents to support diversification. Respondents to our survey told us about a wide variety of activity with agents. The most frequently mentioned was recruiting agents in new markets or using existing agents in target markets, as well as providing training and support to agents, and capping numbers for some specific programmes or domiciles.
- We strongly recommend that universities familiarise themselves with the UK Agent Quality Framework to support their work with agents and agent aggregators. Over half (55%) of respondents to our survey told us that their university uses the framework. This includes incorporating it into the design of agents’ contracts, using it to review policies and processes and use in agent training.
Working with sub-agents and agent aggregators
- Over half (55%) of respondents to our survey told us that their university worked with agent aggregators or agents who use a subagent model. Universities who do use agent aggregators or a sub-agent model may wish to consider how they can increase transparency and maintain quality. We asked respondents to our survey about how they do this, and the measure most frequently mentioned by respondents was performance assessments or monitoring. This includes reviewing metrics such as application quality and volume, enrolment ratios, non-compliance post-enrolment and visa refusals.