Manager - International Student Recruitment
Abu Dhabi University
Total years of experience :14 years, 0 Months
• Reporting to the Chancellor, responsible for development and implementation of international student recruitment strategy, online and offline marketing activities, agents/corporate partner’s management, partnerships with international schools/ colleges and universities in GCC, Africa & South Asia
• Work closely with Vice Chancellor-Financial Affairs and University’s strategy team in developing and managing the annual budget of allocated regions. Responsible for effective ROI and achieving set target of international student recruitment
• Managing wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and research programs across five faculties at the university (Business, Engineering, Health Science, Health Science, Arts & Sciences and Law)
• Planning and managing the annual recruitment calendar for events and digital activities. Participating in the international fairs and exhibitions in GCC, Africa and South Asia
• Directly working with the regional marketing team in developing country specific marketing collateral (brochures, international student guides, promotional videos, e-mail templates etc.) as well as digital marketing campaigns such as Google AdWords and social media for branding and quality lead generation from international markets
• Responsible for recognizing and signing up new education partners in the territory, signed up with 25+ quality agents covering 15 countries. Achieved 5 admissions from agents in first intake itself from agents as compared to none in last academic year.
• Manage an international recruitment staff and work with the admissions team across 4 campuses to ensure the recruitment and admissions process is streamline and efficient.
• Support local recruitment team in organizing open house, spot registration days, local school visits for presentations / career fairs etc. to recruit domestic students in ADU
• Counsel prospective students and families about admissions, scholarships, academic programs and student life at ADU. Review and help in processing all international applications as per established guidelines and timings, and maintain regular contact with applicants for effective enrollment
• Report to the Chancellor & the President of the University. Responsible for developing and executing new student recruitment, student registration and marketing strategies for branding, quality lead generation to achieve and exceed intake targets
• Set semester targets for new admissions and overall registrations as per University’s growth strategy. Developed recruitment strategies as per previous best practices, introduced new practices to maintain student data from multiple sources for effective pipe management and eliminate lead leakages. Surpassed semester target by 30%
• Directly working with the Media team in developing marketing materials (Brochures, One Pagers with University USPs and achievements, emailers etc.) Digital Marketing campaigns such as Google Adwords, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook ads for branding and quality lead generation.
• Handling a team of 4 - student recruiters and tele-sales. Recognize their individual strengths and challenges and utilize it to get the best results for the team. Challenge the team with higher responsibilities and motivate them to grow their skills and be best performers.
• Recruiting other nationalities in the University through school visits, presentations, career fairs in Indian, American/ IB Diploma, British/ IGCSE and Pakistani curriculum schools
• Coordinating directly with the Registration, Admissions and Deans of each College to ensure admissions and registration policies are accurately followed throughout the admissions cycle.
• Counselling students for programs, admissions requirements, visas, scholarships, payment plans etc.
• Develop monthly reports on team performance, achievements, recruitment forecast and events calendar. Analyse performance of each lead sources to decide on future budget allocations.
• Reporting to Head of Admissions & Marketing (Middle East Centre). Responsible for developing and executing University’s marketing & student recruitment strategies for allocated regions
• Managing annual budget to ensure effective ROI by generating quality leads and successfully achieve recruitment and revenue targets using multi-channel platforms both digital and offline
• Managing wide range of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Research programs across 5 faculties (School of Business, Architecture, Life Sciences, Engineering & IT, Media & Communications)
• Working with media agencies like Bachelor Studies, Master Studies, Study Portals, Gulf Talent etc. to
increase the visibility and lead generation
• Responsible for planning and managing annual Events calendar. Represented University in various international education fairs & exhibitions across South Asia Middle East & Africa for branding and lead
generation (eg: QS Fair, MBA Tour, Edutex - Bahrain; NIEF - Kenya; ASF - Nigeria; Career Guidance Fair - Saudi Arabia; Artemus Fair - Mauritius; GETEX-Dubai; GHEDEX- Oman etc.)
• Responsible for developing and managing indirect business through signing-up new Educational Agents / Consultants. Successfully signed up 20+ new agents within the first quarter
• Counsel students, parents and School counsellors on courses, admissions eligibility, hostel, transport, library etc. during Open house and international fairs. Also, verify documents, convert enquiry to admission, disbursement of scholarship and discounts as per eligibility, follow up on registration and fee payment. Ensure accurate data is maintained in the CRM
• Responsible for designing and implementation of sales and marketing strategy for full time MBA and Specialized Masters programs (Finance, International Business, International Marketing, Social Entrepreneurship)
• Co-managing the team and budget to successfully achieve enrollment target of 150+ students at various campuses of Hult globally
• Managing the allocated scholarship budget for the region. Reduced scholarship / financial aid budget by net 4% in 2 years
• Responsible for developing and maintaining relationship with partners like International Education Agents, School counselors and various colleges / university representatives in the region to enhance indirect business. Also conducted training sessions and webinars regularly to train and update partners in business unit propositions
• Planned and participated in 50+ successful recruitment events in every academic cycle. Events comprised of Hult information sessions, networking/retention events, educational fairs and webinars for prospective students
• Works in matrix reporting structure and day to day close interaction with various departments (Admissions/ Recruiting / Marketing /Student Services / Career Services / Finance) globally across 5 campuses
• Planned, forecasted, analyzed regular statistics regarding admissions trends for the enrollment of students using Salesforce CRM reporting. Also prepared ROI reports on various marketing campaigns
• Set Marketing & Recruitment plan based on clear sales objectives for Post Graduate programs in South Asia
• Surpassed individual year end targets by 56% and awarded Globally Best Recruiter
• Had Tie up with various new Education Consultants in India increasing the indirect business by 4%
• Attended almost 50 different Education fairs / Agent fairs in an academic cycle to maximize visibility in India which increased the total number of applications by 20%
• Led Marketing and Promotional strategies to promote Hult’s UG and PG Degree Programs through Seminars, Executive events and personal consultations in Universities, Colleges and young student organizations (eg: AIESEC) throughout India.
• Initiated many new retention strategies (Hult experience / Meet & Greet events) and achieved 25% increased performance compared to previous year
• Interviewing candidates using competency based questionnaire, numerical testing, basic IT evaluation test to get the best candidate for the B-school
• Helping students with application, documentation, and visa process for US, UK, UAE and China
• Scrutinizing applications from Local and International market and counseling students for various programs offered by the University and Edexcel along with guidelines on intakes, fee structures and visa rules.
• Conducting student’s interviews (face-to-face, Skype, telephonic) for admissions process. Follow-up for approvals from the Dean and the University and issuing offer letters for successful candidates
• Database maintenance for managing Agents records, Sales Team records and student records such as course and academics.
• Managing the Oxford Online Placement Test for all the students to ensure the English eligibility criterions.
• Performing the NARIC checks for all the recruited students and providing the UK education equivalence for admissions.
• Generating and issuing Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (C.A.S.) number for visa issuance according to updated visa rules for local and international students
• Responsible for planning and managing events calendar. Organizing College Stall at various events such as exhibitions, seminars, presentations, fairs etc. in coordination with Sales team.
• Coordinating with other marketing executives to implement account plans in order to achieve sales revenue targets
• Contacting Degree and Diploma colleges within UK for tie ups to progress their existing students to our higher level programs.
• Conducting primary research and analyzing market intelligence to produce regular reports on the UK and international markets.
Master of Business Administration in Marketing. With overall Merit. Got first Class in Dissertation on" An exploration of the ethical considerations of using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in the Consumer Product Goods from a consumer’s perspective".