Formulating and Implementing an International Admissions Strategic Plan

1
Formulating and Implementing an International
Admissions Strategic Plan

• Charles Grim
• Senior Administrator for
• International Development
• Oberlin College

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Why Bother?

• More Efficient Resource Allocation
• Helps Maintain Focus
• Provides Additional Credibility
• Continuity

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More Efficient Resource Allocation

• The World is a BIG Place
• Regardless of institutional resources we can
  never travel everywhere or cover every fair that
  might possibly generate admissible international
  applicants.

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More Efficient Resource Allocation

• Staff time is never adequate.
• Anything that helps prioritize our utilization of
  time toward meeting institutional priorities is a
  plus.

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More Efficient Resource Allocation

• Financial Aid and Admission Slots are Limited
• Perhaps our most important scarce resources are
  the positive admission decisions that we make.
  Since we will invariably be called upon to make
  choices between applicants, making those choices
  with institutional priorities in mind is key.

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Helps Maintain Focus

• We all experience those Crazy Times in our
  admissions offices. These are the times when it
  is easy to miss the institutional forest as we
  become overwhelmed with the application trees.
  A concrete plan can help everyone involved in the
  process keep perspective.

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Helps Maintain Focus

• Responding Appropriately to Admissions Pressures
• From within the admissions area
• From outside the admissions area

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Admissions Area Pressures

• Gender Balance
• Discount Rate
• Academic Profile
• Etc.
• While your strategic Plan may well incorporate
  these. It may not.

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Non-Admission Pressures

• Athletics
• Faculty
• Development
• Administration
• Again, your Plan may incorporate these, but they
  may also be counter to goals.

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Intl Admissions Credibility

• Within the admissions area
• Within the broader institutional community

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In-house Credibility

• A Plan strengthens the position of international
  admissions when it comes to allocating spaces in
  the class and/or financial aid.
• It also helps earn the appreciation of staff
  members who will need to work harder to process
  international applications.

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Campus Credibility

• Helps make Intl Admissions a more apparent part
  of the Bigger Picture.
• Helps the Development Office do its job more
  effectively as it gives them a coherent Intl
  Admissions product to market.
• Helps other offices to understand when you cant
  always satisfy the external pressures mentioned
  earlier.

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Continuity

• Having a written plan helps maintain continuity
  in the inevitable event of staff turnover.

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Creating an Intl Admissions Strategic Plan

• Generate support for the creation of a Plan
• Integrate the Plan with broader campus
  priorities
• Use as broad-based a creative process as possible
• Share Plan as widely as possible

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Generate Support for a Plan

• Creating a good plan takes a lot of time.
• The more people who buy into the idea, the more
  likely you will have the time you need to create
  it and the more likely that the plan will
  actually be useful when it is completed.
• Feel free to use the Why Bother ideas already
  presented.

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Plan Integration

• Your school has a mission statement, read it.
• You may have some kind of institutional Strategic
  Plan. If it has been done in the last 10 years,
  it probably includes something about
  internationalization.
• There may be other, less formal, campus-wide
  goals (e.g. tapping intl alumni for donations,
  introducing a new major with intl attributes,
  etc.).

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Broad-Based Creative Process

• Accreditation Reports have been based on this
  philosophy forever.
• More likely to be comprehensive.
• More likely to possess adequate expertise.
• Increases buy-in from appropriate stakeholders.

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Broad-Based Creative Process

• This is one of the places where reality may not
  cooperate.
• Many programs will not have multiple staff in an
  area.
• Staff outside admissions may not be adequately
  available.
• It is better to have an imperfect but workable
  Plan, than to committee the thing to death and
  have nothing.

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Wide Review of Plan

• Wide review of a draft can help offset any
  deficiencies generated by a a less-than-inclusive
  drafting process.
• Wide review by senior staffers is essential for
  the plan to have any teeth in its implementation.
• Wide dissemination is essential for the Plan to
  yield most of the benefits outlined earlier.

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Creating Oberlins Plan

• In many ways Oberlins plan was created under
  ideal circumstances.
• The College had just completed a campus-wide
  strategic plan. This created an appreciation for
  plans generally.
• One of the main strategic goals in the College
  Plan was to Further Internationalize Oberlin
  providing even more impetus for an International
  Admissions Plan.

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Creating Oberlins Plan

• The College hired a relatively experienced person
  with a declared responsibility to draft a plan.
• I was brought on-board in time to be included in
  the implementation process for the Colleges
  Internationalization Strategic Goal. This was a
  key in helping me to understand the broad
  institutional priorities relatively quickly.

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Creating Oberlins Plan

• In many ways Oberlins plan was created under
  ideal circumstances.
• I was given adequate time to prepare the Plan,
  working through an entire admissions cycle before
  being asked to put pen to paper.

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Time Line for Admissions Plan Development

• Spring 2006 - Conceptualization Research
• June 2006 - Drafting Review by Dean
• July 2006 - Review by Intl Team and by President
• August 2006 - Shared with broader admission staff
• 2006-2007 Cycle - Initial Implementation
• Summer 2007 - Informal Review of Plan including
  review by new President
• 2007-2008 Cycle - Continued Implementation with
  no significant changes in focus.

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Ongoing Assessment of Plan

• No formal changes were made to the plan prior to
  the second year of its implementation.
• All strategic goals were deemed to still be
  appropriate.
• Reasonable progress seemed to have been made in
  most strategic goals.

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Ongoing Assessment of Plan

• Informal progress reports were made to the Dean
  of Admissions on a periodic basis.
• The Dean reported on the Plan annually to the
  Board of Trustees

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Deans Report to Board December 2006

• The International Strategic Plan establishes
  goals to enhance the number of enrolled
  international students, particularly from
  affluent countries, while also broadening the
  scope of the applicant pool. We intend to better
  utilize alumni, faculty, and currently enrolled
  foreign students to conduct a multi-faceted
  electronic communications plan with prospective
  students. In addition, we plan to advertise more
  broadly in print, through the web, and among
  EducationUSA advisors to increase our exposure
  worldwide.

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Deans Report to Board December 2007

• The Arts and Sciences Admissions Office continues
  to implement elements of the International
  Admissions Strategic Plan. Our international
  recruitment team maintained a strong presence
  this fall in South and East Asia both
  traditional feeder regions for Oberlin.
• As outlined in the international strategic plan,
  we are working to better utilize non-admissions
  staff resources.
• We have endeavored to work with the Development
  Office as it continues to play an important role
  in internationalizing Oberlin.

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Oberlins Strategic Plan

• 5. Internationalize Oberlin.
• Rationale Oberlin should play a leading role in
  American higher education by making itself a
  world college. Oberlins capacity for
  international education is more important than
  ever. The major challenges that will face
  current and future generations of Oberlin
  students, such as climate change, the AIDS
  pandemic must be understood and addressed in a
  global context. Oberlin is well situated to
  address these challenges by building upon its
  international curricular offerings and its
  cosmopolitan campus.

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Strategies

• Build on the strengths of our area studies
  programs and other international curricular
  offerings to make our curriculum richly global.
• Emphasize the study of foreign languages and
  cultures.
• Enhance the recruitment of international
  students.
• Create opportunities for meaningful international
  study and research for every student, regardless
  of academic major, who desires such experience.
  

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Strategies

• Establish relationships and collaborations with
  international institutions of higher education
  and with business, governmental, non-governmental
  and other organizations in the interest of
  creating educational exchanges for students and
  faculty and creating additional opportunities for
  international study and internships.
• Consider using Winter Term and summer months for
  international programs abroad and on campus.
• Collaborate more with Shansi.

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Implementation Program

• The College put together Task Forces to develop
  implementation programs for each of the strategic
  priorities of the College Strategic Plan.

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Increase the Population of International Students
Enrolled on Campus

• The campus community must establish a renewed
  emphasis on the recruitment of international
  students. As we seek to build a diverse and
  tolerant community, students from broadly
  different backgrounds are an invaluable part of a
  world college.

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To increase the enrollment of international
students we must

• Complete a long-term strategic plan for
  recruitment of four-year degree-seeking
  candidates
• Devote additional financial resources to
  financial aid for international students
• Enhance Oberlins ability to attract
  international transfer students

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• Explore exchange relationships with foreign
  institutions
• Establish a revenue-generating intensive English
  as a Second Language (ESL) Program
• Establish a summer academic program drawing on
  Oberlins curricular strengths to bring rising
  international high school seniors to Oberlin to
  earn academic credit.

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Intl Admission Plan

• Table of Contents
• I. Introduction 1
• II. Recruiting 2
• III. Selection 18
• IV. Financial Aid 27
• V. Yield Enhancement 37
• VI. Transfer Applicants 42
• VII. Visiting Students 44
• VIII. Summary 45

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I. IntroductionII. Recruiting

• A. Use of Human Resources in Recruiting
• B. Existing Markets
• C. Priority Expansion
• D. Secondary Expansion
• E. Advertising
• F. Foreign Language Materials

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III. Selection

• A. Academic Standard Enhancement
• B. Yield
• C. Early Decision
• D. Geographic Diversity
• E. Gender
• F. Beacon Students
• G. Quantity
• H. Financial Contribution

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IV. Financial Aid

• A. Financial Aid Applications
• B. Grants
• C. Scholarships
• D. External Funding Sources
• E. Loans
• F. Campus Employment

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V.Yield Enhancement

• A. Historical Yield Data
• B. Explanations of Yield
• C. Pre-admission Correspondence
• D. Internet Chat Sessions
• E. Early Notification
• Personalized Notification
• Phone Contact
• H. Alumni Parent Group Contact
• I. Parent Brochure
• J. Merit Aid

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VI. Transfer Applicants

• A. Campus Contribution
• B. Proficiency
• International Enrollment Numbers
• Yield
• E. Transfer Methodology

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VII. Visiting StudentsVIII. Summary
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How well have we done?

• For the most part weve been pleased with our
  implementation so far.
• Obviously some areas have been more effectively
  implemented than others.

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I. IntroductionII. Recruiting

• A. Use of Human Resources in Recruiting ?
• B. Existing Markets ?
• C. Priority Expansion
• D. Secondary Expansion ?
• E. Advertising -
• F. Foreign Language Materials -

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III. Selection

• A. Academic Standard Enhancement ?
• B. Yield
• C. Early Decision
• D. Geographic Diversity ?
• E. Gender ?
• F. Beacon Students ?
• G. Quantity
• H. Financial Contribution ?

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IV. Financial Aid

• A. Financial Aid Applications
• B. Grants ?
• C. Scholarships
• D. External Funding Sources ?
• E. Loans
• Campus Employment ?

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V.Yield Enhancement

• A. Historical Yield Data N/A
• B. Explanations of Yield N/A
• C. Pre-admission Correspondence ?
• D. Internet Chat Sessions ?
• E. Early Notification
• Personalized Notification
• Phone Contact ?
• H. Alumni Parent Group Contact -
• I. Parent Brochure -
• J. Merit Aid ?

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VI. Transfer Applicants

• A. Campus Contribution N/A
• B. Proficiency N/A
• International Enrollment Numbers -
• Yield N/A
• E. Transfer Methodology ?

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VII. Visiting Students ?VIII. Summary
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Thanks for Listening!

• Please let me know if you have any questions.
• Cards Available
• Executive Summary Available