When data opens the doors to the world's best students
The Faculty of Business and Social Sciences is in the process of professionalising international recruitment with a data-driven and strategic setup. We interviewed Christian Vester, Head of Section in Educational Communication, who will tell us about the work of recruiting international talent.
At the Faculty, we are working to find the most effective recruitment journey for international students. Therefore, we are in the process of professionalising the way we attract international students.
The goal is clear: to attract great talent with quality in focus and to use our resources where they make the biggest difference.
The faculty has an internationalisation strategy that focuses on international recruitment, among other things. This is unique and shows that the area is highly prioritised. The international area has received a lot of political attention, which led to our international coordinator Yulia Tinyakova starting in Educational Communication with Christian Vester as head back in 2018.
Most recently, the Think Tank DEA has analysed international university students in Denmark in a recent analysis. Their partial conclusion is the following:
"The importance of international students for the quality and capacity of Danish degree programmes means that a more comprehensive national strategy for attracting and retaining international students may be relevant."
Over a number of years, we have built up extensive experience by participating in international recruitment fairs, most recently in Lisbon, where Yulia Tinyakova participated. We collect data on everything from the number of participants to which young people we meet, how well the fair is organised and how well they are prepared.
We are now working on an annual cycle that allows us to identify exactly which fairs to prioritise. We are proactive in this area and we are looking for new opportunities. For example, potential collaborations with other highly ranked universities or good networks such as Nibes. Business schools like ISCTE Business School in Lisbon are also relevant. Here, the AACSB accreditation has proven to open doors for Yulia Tinyakova and we have learnt that our strategic and analytical approach actually puts us ahead of some of the institutions we work with.
We work with different touch points like online Open Days, students for a day and info sessions, and we measure them. We can track participants via email addresses and follow their journey: from meeting at a trade fair abroad to attending an info session to enrolling in one of our programmes a year later.
It all requires us to do our homework properly. We need to know who we want to attract. It's about quality, not quantity. We go for quality, and the system must support filtering with that in mind.
The goal is clear: to attract great talent with quality in focus and to use our resources where they make the biggest difference.
The faculty has an internationalisation strategy that focuses on international recruitment, among other things. This is unique and shows that the area is highly prioritised. The international area has received a lot of political attention, which led to our international coordinator Yulia Tinyakova starting in Educational Communication with Christian Vester as head back in 2018.
Most recently, the Think Tank DEA has analysed international university students in Denmark in a recent analysis. Their partial conclusion is the following:
"The importance of international students for the quality and capacity of Danish degree programmes means that a more comprehensive national strategy for attracting and retaining international students may be relevant."
Data and leads as strong drivers
Today, we work with data and lead generation. In collaboration with our colleagues in the Faculty's education staff/DKL hub, over the past year we have developed a setup that can measure which of our recruitment efforts have the greatest impact.Over a number of years, we have built up extensive experience by participating in international recruitment fairs, most recently in Lisbon, where Yulia Tinyakova participated. We collect data on everything from the number of participants to which young people we meet, how well the fair is organised and how well they are prepared.
We are now working on an annual cycle that allows us to identify exactly which fairs to prioritise. We are proactive in this area and we are looking for new opportunities. For example, potential collaborations with other highly ranked universities or good networks such as Nibes. Business schools like ISCTE Business School in Lisbon are also relevant. Here, the AACSB accreditation has proven to open doors for Yulia Tinyakova and we have learnt that our strategic and analytical approach actually puts us ahead of some of the institutions we work with.
We work with different touch points like online Open Days, students for a day and info sessions, and we measure them. We can track participants via email addresses and follow their journey: from meeting at a trade fair abroad to attending an info session to enrolling in one of our programmes a year later.
Huge potential in the data sources of the future
There is significant potential here. Imagine what curves and insights we can work with in five years. The future is to work even smarter and more strategically. The strongest knowledge is data, because it is measurable. The ambition is that we want to attract talented international students to our programmes, and the goal is to identify the most effective recruitment journey for an international student. If data shows that fairs, info meetings and the web are the most valuable initiatives, this is where we should focus our efforts. Today, we are also doing a lot of other things.A strategic tool for the Faculty Management
It gives the Faculty Management a powerful strategic tool. When we can see patterns in our data, recruitment becomes much more targeted and less random. We are still in the process of building it, but we already have the first data. The plan is to develop the solution into an app, which will make it much easier to work with. It takes effort to establish the setup, but the goal is that it will then be automated.Focus on quality over quantity
In line with SDU's strategy to recruit international talent, we must also ask ourselves: Where can we raise the level of our programmes? The political attention calls for a strategic effort rather than a "feel good" effort. Many large companies are simply looking for skilled employees, and for them, citizenship is less important.It all requires us to do our homework properly. We need to know who we want to attract. It's about quality, not quantity. We go for quality, and the system must support filtering with that in mind.