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, one marked by changing student preferences and also by much more intense competition. The result, the study concludes, is a widening gap between student expectations and institutional performance, especially in terms of responsiveness to student enquiries and the channels that institutions and schools use to engage prospective students.

The findings rely in part on a recent Sinorbis survey of a small sample of international students at Australian institutions, but they are backed by a wider field of evidence from the latest edition of Edified's ongoing Enquiry Experience Tracker study.

One in three students responding to the survey said they abandoned an application to a prospective university because of communication issues.

The challenge begins with responsiveness. Seven in ten students said they expect a response from an institution within a couple of days, but only about a third (34%) actually received a reply within that window.

That gap alone carries a significant cost. Nearly six in ten respondents (59%) reported disengaging from a university because communication felt "slow or difficult."

An even greater proportion (71%) said the quality of communication played either a major or moderate role in their final decision on where to study, and 66% said that "response speed genuinely matters when choosing a university."

Those expectations loom even larger given the increasingly competitive marketplace for student recruitment. Nearly all survey respondents (94%) said that their shortlist included five or fewer universities, and the findings make it clear otherwise that a delayed or ineffective response can be enough to shift a student's attention to another institution.

“The enquiry stage is an incredibly influential moment in a student’s journey,” notes Elissa Newall, senior partner at Edified. “When a prospective student reaches out for the first time, it gives them a glimpse of what it might feel like to be part of an institution’s community. A clear, responsive experience builds trust; a poor experience simply pushes them away”.

The study report adds, "Student expectations are changing at a much faster rate than many institutional processes. While universities have expanded their recruitment activity and added some new communication channels, students are now judging their experiences against a much higher standard…For university marketing and recruitment teams, this creates some very real pressure. Students are engaging across more channels, expecting faster responses, and comparing experiences more closely than ever before. Yet many institutions are still operating with engagement models that were designed for a different era.

Although email remains central, as student preferences shift toward messaging, new channels are added, but systems, resourcing, and processes often struggle to keep pace. The result is a growing disconnect. Enquiries go unanswered or are answered too late. Conversations break across channels. Students are asked to repeat information, and what should feel like guidance instead ends up feeling transactional."

Introducing the omnichannel

In part, those findings reflect a growing student preference to communicate outside of email, and especially via messaging apps such as WhatsApp or WeChat. The issue for recruiters is not only managing communications with students across a widening array of channels, but that that ideal channel mix varies by market as well.

Even so, there is no mistaking the shift. As the study report explains, "Email once the default channel for formal interaction, is no longer the main reference point for many prospective students. Instead, expectations are now increasingly shaped by the messaging platforms that students are using every day. These more modern environments have the benefits of being immediate, conversational, and perhaps most importantly, highly familiar. They set a standard for how quickly and easily information should flow."

That standard, however, collides with the reality that many recruiters face today of large and growing volumes of enquiries from prospective students. Edified reports that two in five institutions now receive more than 25,000 enquiries from prospective international students each year, yet, four in five say they lack "a single view of the customer" – that is, a way to effectively manage communications with prospective students at scale.

The authors argue for an "omnichannel" approach that allows recruiters to meet students where they are at, in terms of communications channel, but where all channels are strongly linked to and owned by the institution, where the use of that wider range of channels is properly resourced, where all are integrated into recruitment systems (especially CRMs), and where those aligned workflows and systems can support more effective and meaningful student communications at scale.

"Automation supports this process by enabling both speed and structure, especially during peak enquiry periods," adds the report. "Beyond simple acknowledgements, segmentation and automation allow institutions to prioritise leads based on factors such as level of intent, programme interest, country, or stage in the journey. High intent enquiries can be surfaced quickly, while earlier stage prospects can be nurtured over time without manual intervention. This ensures that the attention is focused where it is going to have the greatest impact, even when teams are under pressure."

As the students engagement with the institution continues – as they progress along the enrolment funnel – that alignment between channels, workflows, and systems can equally support a more targeted engagement with well-qualified prospects. In other words, this is the stage at which automation gives way to more one-to-one communication. The study report adds that, "By prioritising personalised dialogue at the bottom of the funnel, institutions create space for meaningful reassurance rather than transactional exchanges. This human connection often becomes the final factor that turns intent into action, helping students feel confident in their decision and supported in taking the next step."

For additional background, please see:

• "Mystery shopping study finds broad improvement in student enquiry handling this year"
• "Three international education trends for 2025: Revenue optimisation, marketing personalisation, and on-the-ground local intelligence"
• "In a time of shifting student demand, a speedy response to enquiries is a must"