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

UK transnational education enrolments poised to surpass onshore students this decade The latest available numbers from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) tell us that there were 732,285 international...
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Trump administration’s proposed deal with select US colleges includes a cap on international undergraduate enrolment The White House has sent a draft “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine US colleges...
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Australia introduces new integrity measures through proposed amendments to the ESOS Act Australian Minister of Education Jason Clare tabled the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 in...
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Australia: With ELICOS under pressure, peak bodies push for reduction in “extortionate” visa fees The latest data from the Department of Education reveals that enrolments in Australia’s ELICOS sector (English Language Intensive...
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Mystery shopping study finds broad improvement in student enquiry handling this year The results are out for Edified’s annual Enquiry Experience Tracker study, and they reflect the best overall performance...
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South Korea hits its 300,000 student target two years ahead of schedule In 2023, the South Korean government announced a plan to attract 300,000 international students by 2027: 220,000 in...
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Canada: Study permit numbers are in steep decline in 2025 In 2024, the first year under Canada’s current cap on new international student enrolments, the total number of...
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UK confirms levy on international student fees as new analysis argues that government is “drastically underestimating” the impact of the move Updated for 30 September 2025: On 29 September, the Department of Education announced that it would reinstate “means-tested...
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