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

US Office of Management and Budget grants budget reprieve to key exchange programmes In a highly unusual intervention in an area of Congressional authority, the US Office of Management and Budget...
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Canada: How is study permit processing taking shape this year? There are two important and recurring themes in our conversations with education agents over the last few months...
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UK study visa grants strengthening in first half of 2025 A 21 August 2025 data release from the UK Home Office shows that student visa grants were up...
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Asian destinations show their strength in latest ranking of student cities The QS Best Student Cities 2026 rankings were released last month, and, for the first time ever, Seoul...
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Students are switching to AI for search. Are you ready? The early research is in and recent studies are pointing to a broad trend in that AI tools...
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Many foreign students want to stay in Germany but need more help with the transition to life after study Early findings from an extensive survey of international students in Germany finds that two-thirds would like to stay...
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How post-study work rights can make or break the return on investment for study abroad The following is a guest post contributed by Tim O’Brien and Claire Clifford from INTO University Partnerships, where...
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Australia prioritises amendments to ESOS Act in legislative agenda The Australian government has signalled that amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 are back...
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