Abstract
International student recruitment is often framed through the funnel: awareness, leads, applications, conversion and enrolment. While these metrics matter, they do not fully reflect universities’ educational and social responsibility. In the AI age, as communication becomes more automated, personalised and scalable, institutions must consider how to embed humanity, trust and student agency into admissions and engagement.
This session explores how universities can move beyond transactional outreach by recruiting with students, not just to students. Drawing on overseas admissions and marketing experience for specialised Master’s programmes at HKU Business School, it presents a student-centred co-creation approach with student societies and communities in target markets. It will outline how to identify and select student partners, considering audience fit, community credibility, shared values, communication reach, engagement capacity and potential for sustained collaboration. Examples include events, dialogues and content on career pathways, employability trends, skills development, study destination choices and future opportunities. Partner feedback will highlight what students valued, what strengthened trust and how their input shaped future engagement.
Positioning recruitment as more than programme promotion, the session considers its role as an educational service and form of social impact. Participants will gain practical strategies for balancing AI-enabled communication with human connection, partnerships and impact evaluation.
Learning objectives
- Reframe international student recruitment as an ethical and educational engagement practice, beyond traditional funnel metrics.
- Examine how AI-enabled communication can be balanced with human connection, trust, and student agency.
- Understand how collaboration with student societies and student communities can improve relevance, credibility, and market-specific engagement.
- Identify practical strategies for designing co-created recruitment activities that support informed student decision-making.
- Apply student and partner feedback to improve outreach design, engagement quality, and long-term relationship-building.
- Consider ways to evaluate recruitment impact beyond leads and enrolments, including engagement quality, student feedback, trust, and long-term relationship-building.
Target audience
This session is designed for international education professionals involved in student recruitment, admissions, marketing, student engagement, partnerships, and global strategy.
