Features
International school admission and growing competition Heather Hoerle reports on the enrollment challenges facing schools The meteoric growth of international schools – from 2,584 to 8,218 in just 16 years (ISC Research Ltd) – has given rise to an important question: are existing international schools prepared to address the growing competition? Last year, The Enrollment Management Association (formerly the Secondary School Admission Test Board, SSATB) – a US-based non-profit membership organization for The first ever global survey of international school admission operations published by The Enrollment Management Association (formerly SSATB) was created in partnership with: • ISC-Research
• NESA
• ECIS
• COBIS
• EARCOS
• AISA
independent school enrollment management professionals and purveyor of the SSAT admission test – reached out to numerous international school associations and professionals to disseminate a survey that would lead to its November 2015 International School Admission Industry report. This first-of-its-kind survey aimed to discover more about: • admission personnel, processes, and operations within and among international schools; • the cost of tuition and the degree of financial aid offered at international schools; Spring
Autumn |
| 2016
• the challenges international schools face in terms of recruitment and selection of students; and • key issues relating to governance and decision making. A total of five regional international school associations partnered with The Enrollment Management Association to encourage their members to respond to the survey, which was completed by 296 international school admission officers. Survey participants were widespread geographically, as well as over segments of interest to the international school admission community. Not-for-profit (34%) and forprofit schools (66%) responded to the survey, with the majority of schools enrolling between 301 and 500 students (23%) or more than 700 students (39%). 94% of responding schools are accredited institutions. The full report may be viewed via www.enrollment.org/intladmission, and some key findings are highlighted below. Word-of-mouth marketing is king Unlike independent/private schools in North America, only a small proportion of international schools are actively engaged in outreach activities designed to attract and refer students to their schools. 64% of respondents say they make no visits to the human resource offices of the companies with whom they are closely tied, though larger schools and those in China are slightly more likely to do so. 63% do not visit any corporate relocation companies, and that same proportion make no visits to sending schools.
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