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How higher education institutions (HEIs) approach the recruitment of international students is an area of global interest (James-MacEachern, 2018, Ross et al., 2013), but there is limited focus on how institutions in different parts of the world approach international student recruitment as an export marketing orientation (EMO). The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences of export marketing orientation amongst three higher education institutions.

This study uses export marketing concepts to compare three universities from Canada, Hong Kong and the UK to explore how institutions use international student recruitment as export marketing in international markets.

The study finds a number of similarities and differences in how HEIs react and respond to market and global environments, and responses impact the level of EMO. It argues that institutions rely differently on export marketing in their approach international students and highlights the need to understand how various factors such as national policy and institutional strategy impacts institutional adoption of an EMO in higher education.

By comparing HEIs from different parts of the world, this paper shows differences in export marketing orientation that are shaped by national policy frameworks and organizational culture. This is the first time three institutions from Canada, Hong Kong and the UK have been compared for EMO, and this study provides new insights into the factors that contribute or hinder EMO for HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate international student recruitment from an institutional perspective and to consider institutional factors that may affect recruitment.

A qualitative study is undertaken in which education marketing practitioners are interviewed regarding aspects of international student recruitment at their institutions. Interview data are analysed by NVivo and categorized into four institutional factors: marketing department size, employee qualifications, institutional recruiting experience, and institutional focus.

Differences are found to exist between universities and secondary schools in terms of their current international education recruitment practices. The percentage of international student cohort appears to be largely responsible for sectoral differences.

Findings presented are from a sample of secondary schools and universities in Australia and New Zealand. Further research is required to determine applicability of the findings to other education sectors.

Implications are considered from the viewpoint of the international education marketing practitioner, education manager and policy makers. The theoretical contribution of the study is also discussed.

This paper fulfils an identified research and practitioner gap through investigating international student recruitment from an institutional perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of the strategies that new, regional universities use for recruiting international postgraduate research students (IPRSs).

An exploratory, qualitative cross-case study analysis was used to address a problem and associated gap in the literature, identified from a review of academic literature and government statistics. Case studies comprised multiple data sources, including interviews and questionnaires with 66 employee and student respondents and document reviews.

A disparity between the views of students and employees regarding effective recruitment strategies was apparent. This led to divergence between the needs of prospective students and institutional strategies used during recruitment. Findings include suggestions to improve such strategies.

The study provides a basis for future research on higher education recruitment for new and regional universities and for IPRSs. As the research focused on two Australian universities, knowledge obtained should be explored further.

Results suggest students considering overseas postgraduate research study prioritize information, readily available online, about the university’s research focus and capacity, the features of surrounding communities and the regional impact of the research. Results also suggest that focusing on developing institution-to-institution and researcher-to-researcher relationships provides a mechanism by which the institution can enhance its international reputation to attract more students.

Limited research focuses specifically on recruitment of IPRSs. The results can support new, regional universities to review and modify their strategies for benefit to students and universities.

The purpose of this study is to understand and accentuate the value of social media in international student recruitment in Lebanese higher education institutions (HEIs). This study analyses the significance of social media and the changes occurring in the means of communicating with the potential international students, with an aim to understand how the HEIs could adapt with the changes to implement a model of engagement to include social media as a fundamental constituent of the Lebanese HEIs’ international student recruitment strategy.

The researchers carried out a study through quantitative descriptive approach by using a probabilistic simple random sample and a self-administered questionnaire on 230 international students from several universities and colleges in Lebanon as a data collection method.

The findings demonstrated a certain level of engagement in social media networks from the part of the students during their search for college or university and course information. Research showed that international students still prefer the traditional sources, apart from social media, during their search. Among traditional media sources, friend, family and university website were the highest in ranking. Among social media sources, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube showed the highest ranks. Most students have, indeed, contacted a friend or a university staff for university course information by using social media sites.

For managerial practice, this is an incentive for institutions of higher education to re-evaluate and assess the effective impact of social media on the recruitment of international students and to regulate their social media marketing strategies. For research in international education, the insights of this study are useful to explore further research avenues in the area of capacity building for business innovation, marketing and quality assurance in higher education in the cross-cultural context.

This study offers insights on the implications of social media for international student recruitment strategies in a particular Lebanese context of HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a digital marketing capability maturity model (CMM) as a guiding framework in support of increasing international student recruitment to the public universities in Saudi Arabia (SAPUs).

The CMM was constructed by comparing the common practices of Web 2.0 usage for international student recruitment from five SAPUs and from five Scottish universities. The stages of the awareness, interest, desire and action (AIDA) marketing model were used to guide the analysis of the data and used as the business processes for the CMM.

All SAPUs use Web 2.0 for the recruitment of international students focusing on awareness and interest, but the content often lacks consistency and depth. Scottish universities use Web 2.0 across all stages of the AIDA model, and the content often has greater consistency and depth.

The analysis draws on published content from a small sample of SAPUs and Scottish universities but did not solicit the views of the staff about the content's effectiveness.

This study extends the knowledge about the strategic use of Web 2.0 in SAPUs for addressing international student recruitment marketing challenges.

Increasing the international student population at SAPUs is one strategy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision to reduce its dependency on oil exports.

This study applies the AIDA model to develop a CMM for the use of Web 2.0 in SAPUs explicitly for international student recruitment.

There is little research into small higher education institutions and international students’ choice in selecting these institutions. The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that influence international student choices in selecting a small institution. In particular, this study compares the differences between Chinese students and other international students in selecting an institution, specifically based on sources of information used, usefulness of the information, pull motivations, and reference groups/items.

This research study examined undergraduate international students at a small-sized Canadian higher education institution. “International students” were surveyed – as the total population included all students who are studying at the institution on a study permit or a temporary resident (visitor) visa. All full-time and part-time international students attending the institution were eligible to participate in the survey regardless of their faculty or major. For the sampling process, international students at the institution were intercepted on campus using convenient sampling and personal interview method to participate in the survey. In addition, students were invited within the classroom to volunteer to complete the survey. They were able to complete either a paper-based survey or an online survey by following a hyperlink.

Results indicate that international students considered “the university’s website” as the most used information source but perceived “direct communication from the institution” as the highest ranked usefulness of the information when selecting a small institution. Further, findings indicate that international student cohorts perceived “environmental cues and educational facilities” as the most important pull motivational factor and the institution itself as the reference that has the most significant influence on student decision making.

This study was conducted on students who were surveyed following their enrolment and attendance at the institution. Students were surveyed at various stages of their undergraduate studies. As a result, some of these responses may be several years from the actual decision of selecting an institution and student recall may not be accurately reflected. In addition, examining student decision making prior to, during, and immediately following their choice of institution would most likely create better information as student attitudes and perceptions would be recorded closer to the actual decision. In addition, given that these students are attending the institution their actual experience on-campus may have impacted their responses either positively or negatively.

This study provides insight into international student choice in choosing smaller institutions. These findings can support recruitment policy and strategy for international students and may assist in enhancing institutional performance.

The study reinforces the need for policy makers, institutional leaders and recruiters to understand motivations to pursue overseas studies and to ensure push, pull, and structural factors are aligned for successful student recruitment outcomes. While there is commonality among international student cohorts, there are also significant differences that need to be addressed by institutions and destinations for international students. These findings are presented from one small higher education institution in Canada.

This study created new knowledge regarding international student decision making in choosing to study at a small higher education institution. The study compared the key factors that influenced decision making and identified differences among Chinese students and other international students. There is little research into the international student decision making and small institutions. This study provides unique insight into international student choice and influences on their decision making.

The global market for international students have become highly competitive and many institutions, particularly higher education institutions, rely heavily on fee income from overseas students. This study aims to examine the countries from which Australian education institutions draw such students and used this information to better understand such patterns.

Data were obtained from a sample of 225 schools, colleges and universities that were actively engaged in the recruitment of international students and correspondence analysis and cluster analysis were used to examine the recruitment choices made by these institutions.

It was clear there were three groups within the data that had different recruitment strategies. Group 1 (local players) institutions were primarily established to cater to the needs of international students studying in Australia and had a narrowly focussed recruitment strategy. Group 2 (global players) were institutions (mainly universities) operating both within Australia and offshore who recruited widely. Group 3 (minor players) institutions were mainly high schools that engaged in international student recruitment only on an ad hoc basis.

The study was undertaken within a single country. However, the findings, which highlighted the international student recruitment patterns of the responding education institutions, suggested they paralleled the types of activity found among other types of exporting firms.

The paper suggests managers in educational institutions seeking to engage in overseas markets must make a strategic choice as to the level of their commitment to internationalisation and that this will impact on the choices they make about the way they recruit international students.

There are few studies of education institutions in the international marketing area and even fewer have examined the issue of geographic recruitment choices. This study provides useful statistical evidence of the types of strategies that are likely to be found in this sector.

This paper seeks to analyse how excellence and diversity are addressed in student recruitment strategies, and how these strategies are developed in eight Norwegian higher education institutions.

The study utilises a theoretical perspective that asserts that strategy is developed through practice. The authors have combined document analysis with qualitative interviews to investigate the development of institutional student recruitment strategies, their characteristics and their links to the individual institution's profile and ambitions.

The study reveals that student recruitment strategies are often grounded in inherent institutional identities, while at the same time responding to external ideas about excellence and diversity. The study also finds that higher education institutions show significant creativity in trying to adapt to these ideas and general trends, while at the same time maintaining their own characteristics and traditions. Findings suggest that student recruitment strategies are also used for accountability purposes. Given the importance of student recruitment, many higher education institutions attach surprisingly little importance to this issue.

The study encompasses only a small number of institutions in a single country, limiting the possibility of generalising aspects of the profile and content of the student recruitment strategies. Nevertheless, the analysis indicates that the processes associated with the development of student recruitment strategies are quite similar, with more emphasis on specific quantitative analytical schemes and less emphasis on other ways of organising strategy development.

The paper reveals the importance of placing greater focus on the ways in which strategic processes are organised and identifying the potential for improving the creative organisation of the strategising process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comparative analysis of the main objectives of international institutional partnerships in four UK leading universities. Based on the presented case studies, the paper outlines a model for objectives and implementation of international partnership.

Using a multiple case study approach, the paper employs three sources of data: templates of international partnerships, actual agreements of international partnerships and interviews with senior and very senior managers concerned with internationalisation at the four universities. The analysis includes inter‐university comparative analysis and templates‐agreements‐interviews comparative analysis for each of the four universities separately.

It is found that, for the four universities, the objectives of international partnerships are related to both students and staff with relative importance given to the student dimension. While the student dimension refers to any overseas partnerships where the core topic of the partnership is the student whether it is related to student exchange, collaborative programs, student recruitment, etc.; the staff dimension refers to any overseas partnerships that are more related to the staff topic, such as joint research, collaborative teaching, staff exchange, etc.

The comparative analysis of templates‐agreements‐ interviews show some gaps in international strategy design in one of the universities, and some gaps in international strategy implementation in the other three universities.

The comparative analysis is developed into a model for international strategy design and implementation. This model can assess university managers in running their international business.

The paper highlights the importance of adopting a realistic strategy by university managers. The realistic strategy is the strategy that gives equivalent attention to the two dimensions: the design and the implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how post-92 UK universities perceive and manage market orientation (MO) in their export operations of educational services to international students (i.e. export market orientation (EMO)) in the context of international student recruitment.

Through a case study design, this qualitative research was undertaken amongst eight post-92 UK universities. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with managers in the international offices of universities.

The results indicate that EMO in universities consists of information-based activities geared towards foreign markets. Superior knowledge and awareness of the market components is central to the implementation of these information-based activities. This involves market information generation and dissemination, as well as the need for rapid responsiveness due to the changing nature of the higher education market.

The selected methodology makes these results alone unfit for generalising to a larger population. Improved theoretical models are needed for generating more knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of EMO in universities.

The authors believe the findings are particularly relevant for international marketing managers of exporting universities. The current paper suggests some implications for international marketing managers when actively managing their marketing activities towards foreign markets.

The paper identifies a gap in current higher education marketing research. The original contribution of the paper is to address this gap so that researchers and practitioners have some understanding of the export marketing behaviour of UK universities in the context of the recruitment of international students.