ICEF Podcast: Sustainable international student recruitment from a UK-China perspective

Listen in as ICEF’s Craig Riggs and Martijn van de Veen recap some of the latest developments in our sector, including the new pressures on the ROI that students expect from study abroad and how education agents are looking at recruitment for Japan.

Martijn is then joined by an expanded panel for a discussion on sustainable recruitment through a China-to-UK lens.

The panel includes Christina Ke, Managing Director of UOffer Global; Dave Amor, Founder and Director of Higher Insights; Jian Li, Deputy Director (Education) with the British Council; Cheryl Xu, Director of China Office for the University of Portsmouth; Kiran Patel, Senior Director Commercial and Deputy Head of China with The China-Britain Business Council; and Tony Lee, Chief Visionary Officer at ICEF.

The discussion occurs as the UK has solidified its position as the preferred study destination for Chinese students, recently overtaking the US on the strength of its strong higher education brand and the efficiency of its postgraduate models.

However, Chinese families are becoming increasingly results-oriented, prioritising employability and return on investment over rankings alone, while the UK government’s International Education Strategy has shifted the focus toward "sustainable" growth.

This creates a new landscape where value, student experience, and strict compliance are paramount, and our panel considers what this means for UK recruitment in China going forward.

You can listen right now in the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• "ICEF Podcast: Are you using the right digital channels to reach international students?"