International competition for overseas students has never been fiercer, with recent reports showing that the UK’s main competitors are increasing their international student numbers faster than the UK and eating into our share of the global market. Prospective students will use many different sources of information to whittle down their choices, but the opportunity to speak with representatives in person is still highly valued by all those who have the opportunity to meet us, and still forms a key element of the international student recruitment strategy.

Each year during the planning phase, the student recruitment team will assess what worked well in the previous year and what can be improved and revamped from our trip schedule. We approached this year with a new tactic, using a matrix to tier countries based on size of market and potential for recruitment to UCL programmes. Based on these results we have invested more in markets with the greatest potential at the same time maintaining a presence in lower-tiered markets in order to diversify the student body. We noticed that applications from certain markets were growing yet conversion from offer to enrolment could be improved. For this reason, we have shifted away in some markets from mainly application generating trips in the fall to be more focused on conversion activity in the spring. We have added conversion trips to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. We will be monitoring the application, offer and acceptance numbers for each market against activity within that market to evaluate the success of the additional conversion activity.

Details of UCL’s international student recruitment activity for 2019/20 are now available in the UCL Visits You section of the international pages of the UCL website. The event list is regularly updated as we add more details about forthcoming events, so bookmark the site and check it regularly for the latest information. Members of the Student Recruitment team will represent UCL, and academic staff and other departmental representatives will join us at selected events. Each overseas trip includes a range of activities such as attendance at an education exhibition, university visits, school visits and meetings with key contacts in-country, such as funding bodies and alumni. Each trip aims to include a mix of events to cover all levels of study.

The 2019/20 recruitment activity is scheduled to include visits to a wide range of countries, covering every continent except for Antarctica. Most of the countries on the list are places we visit regularly. It is important for us to be constantly reviewing our activity, and we must be both alive to new opportunities and bold enough to change what we do not feel is working. The education sector welcomed the government announcing that international students will be allowed to stay in the UK for two years after graduation to find a job, reversing the decision made in 2012 by then Home Secretary Theresa May. We anticipate this will generate an influx of applications, especially from India the market that saw the largest decline in students coming to the UK when the scheme was pulled in 2012. The additional trip added to India in the spring is timed very well to not only focus on conversion but also address the new visa scheme.

All the trips are thoroughly researched beforehand and analysed afterwards, to ensure that we are participating in the most appropriate events and reaching as wide an audience as possible. Overseas visits also provide the Student Recruitment staff with invaluable opportunities to meet key contacts and influencers, as well as to get the latest market information. If you would like to know more about any of our overseas recruitment events, please contact Katja Lamping, Director of Student Recruitment at k.lamping@ucl.ac.uk .