Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
14th Nov 2014

Five for Friday

For this instalment in our occasional “Five for Friday” column, we have gathered below some of the more eye-catching and varied items that we’ve been reading lately. We present them here for your end-of-week reading pleasure.

When admissions becomes marketing

This post from College Admissions Today has been nagging at us for a little while now. It makes the interesting point that admissions staff are now often asked to play a more direct role with respect to marketing and recruitment, and raises some interesting questions about how this impacts workloads and focus in the admissions office.

Is Japan going to hit its target?

Japan aims to attract 300,000 foreign students by 2020. The good news: there is just one thing standing in its way. The bad news: that one thing is China. The Japan Times reports on how China’s efforts to attract greater numbers of international students are drawing market share from Japan.

Saudi Arabia tops the first ranking of Arab universities

Saudi Arabia owns the top three positions in an initial ranking of 91 Arab universities in 16 countries published recently by US News & World Report. The rankings are notably concentrated: the top seven countries counted 77 universities in the table (85% of the total), while seven other countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen - had only one ranked university each.

Pearson launches new English test

Education giant Pearson and the online language learning platform busuu have partnered for the global launch of a new English proficiency exam: the Global Scale of English Test (GSET). busuu is the first company worldwide to offer the test, on exclusive terms with Pearson for an initial six-month period.

We’ve looked at Facebook from all sides now

Social marketing specialist Brian Carter offers an unvarnished view of Facebook: the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this nicely balanced post, he offers a compact summary of the challenges - and strengths - of this key social media platform.

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Because you found this article interesting

Japan surpassed its foreign enrolment target of 400,000 in 2025 Japan’s Immigration Services Agency has announced that the number of international students in the country as of June...
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ICEF Podcast: Students are switching to AI for search. Are you ready? Listen in as ICEF’s Craig Riggs and Martijn van de Veen recap some of the latest developments in...
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Australia: Full-year data for 2025 reveals impact of AUD$2,000 study visa application fee on ELICOS sector Australia’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has released full-year data on student visa applications and grants in 2025....
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Germany’s foreign enrolments continued to grow in the 2025/26 academic year German universities’ international enrolments continue to grow. In 2025/26, about 420,000 foreign students were enrolled, a +4% year-over-year...
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Survey highlights a growing “engagement gap” between international student expectations and institutional response New research from Sinorbis and Edified makes the case that international student recruitment has entered a new phase,...
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Foreign recruitment of American students and researchers is intensifying The US, along with the UK, has always been a preferred destination for top international students. Now, it...
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Inside Spain’s growing appeal for international students Along with Italy, France, and Germany, Spain is positioning itself as a more compelling destination than ever for...
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Canada struggling to attract and retain global talent  In Canada, two years into the government’s introduction of caps on international student enrolments and related reforms to...
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