Student recruitment strategy: four universities, five key questions

To send the right messages out requires asking the right internal questions – Frederika Whitehead hears from universities in Canada, the US, Denmark and Hong Kong.
The key to a successful student recruitment strategy is thinking about "what you communicate, to whom, and how," according to Richard Levin, executive director of enrolment services and university registration at the University of Toronto in Canada. "Messages must be consistent and clear and authentic," he says. A university that asks itself the right questions is more likely to provide answers that students want to hear...
To whom
Dean Schmill, dean of admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says his university puts almost all of its energy into creating "a website that offers an accurate picture of what our university is like and what it would be like to study here". The main feature of MITadmissions.org is its weblogs, personal accounts of the institution made by students which are left unedited by staff. "It's important for us to have that honesty," says Schmill. "It is more credible to prospective students because it is not always positive."
Why
Thinking about why you want to recruit is also important when designing your strategy, advises Ulla Gjørling, international director at Aarhus University in Denmark. "Our primary goal concerning recruitment, and also one of our core missions, is talent development," says Gjørling, who sees any potential recruit as a potential long-term partner for the university...
Where
Potential for future collaboration is also first and foremost in the minds of applicants to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Applications to HKUST rose by 54% last year, applications from mainland China by 53% and from some Chinese provinces by as much as 75%. In fact, half of all HKUST's mainland China applications came from just four regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Liaoning. More...