Category: Uncategorized

The Transition In: Setting International Students Up for Academic Success

A survey conducted in 2011 by three researchers from different institutions confirmed that while most international students feel welcomed and at home on their college campuses, many have a low sense of belonging in the US generally and face challenges in making the transition to American culture. These same students voice concern over the lack of support from the institution in making that transition. One student remarked about the international student services available, “The office helped in all administrative matters, but nothing more. Please, do not get me wrong: they were very helpful, but they did not help in my transition from Mexican to American culture.” Other students cited feelings of isolation and culture shock, as well as difficulties adjusting to the social expectations of the American classroom. The survey results, though taken from a small sample, raise the question: as colleges and universities enroll more international students, what steps can they take to ensure that their growing population of international students have the peer support and services needed to aid them in acculturation and academic success? While international students often come to your institution with an impressive student record, they face significant obstacles in the transition: Differing cultural expectations […]

Recruiting and Admitting International Students: Key Considerations

Unless you are already enrolling high numbers of international students, it’s likely that stepping up recruiting efforts will require significant work in revisiting your admissions communications and processes. Many processes that are “tried and true” in the US may throw unintended obstacles in the way of international applicants, and simply translating your current communications and documents may leave international prospects and parents at a loss to find the information they need most. To gather some expert advice, we reached out to Bob Johnson, president of Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC; Marjorie Smith, associate dean and director of international student admission at the University of Denver; and Kevin Spensley, director of international marketing, recruitment, and enrollment at Saint Michael’s College. Your Website and the International Student Web marketing guru Bob Johnson notes that your website is the first introduction many international students will have to your institution; if you have designed your site with only US students in mind, you will miss many of your best opportunities to interest students from other nations. Johnson offers these tips to get your website “recruitment-ready for visits from potential international students”: Offer a landing page for international students and ensure that the most critical, “can’t-miss” […]

Does Your Curriculum Serve International Students?

“Too often, integration of international students into the institution is not viewed systemically. The institution may be recruiting international students to increase diversity, to increase revenue, or for some other goal … but you rarely see the globalization of the campus conceived of as a systemic effort.” Gayle Woodruff, University of Minnesota Recruiting international students without ensuring that the curriculum itself is internationalized is an unsustainable effort. Providing international students with an education that will equip them for success whether in the US or in their countries (and simultaneously providing domestic students with a truly global education) entails the integration of international content and perspectives across the curriculum, as well as a careful look at biases in pedagogical design and delivery that may make the learning experience less accessible to all students. To learn more, we interviewed Gayle Woodruff, who directs a system-wide curriculum and campus internationalization initiative at the University of Minnesota, one that she has modeled closely on successful examples from universities in Australia that have conducted extensive research on internationalization, such as the University of Melbourne and the University of South Australia. Woodruff advises that institutions enrolling high numbers of international students take steps to: Focus on […]

A Whole-Campus Approach to International Students

In This Issue Does Your Curriculum Serve International Students? Recruiting and Admitting International Students: Key Considerations The Transition In: Setting International Students Up for Academic Success The Transition Out: Moving International Students into the Donor Pipeline A Letter from Amit Mrig, President, Academic Impressions May 2012. According to the Open Doors report on international education, international student enrollment has increased every year for the past 60 years. With this trend expected to continue, and international students becoming an increasingly important constituent group, it’s critical for institutions to take a more holistic view at how they’re meeting these students’ needs now and in the future. Beyond recruitment efforts, institutions need to think broadly about integration into the campus community and the academic curriculum to ensure international students persist and succeed. They also need to plant seeds for future support and giving as these students graduate and potentially return to their home countries. A holistic strategy for approaching the international student market can serve both the students and your institution well. We’ve asked experts in the field to share advice and insights into recruitment, transition, campus life, the academic curriculum, and moving international students into the donor pipeline. We hope their advice will […]

Measuring Marketing ROI: Debunking 3 Common Myths

Higher education marketing professionals are under increased pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness of their marketing and branding initiatives. To ensure funding, marketing offices must measure the return on investment of their strategies and communicate their success in tangible ways. We turned this week to Elizabeth Scarborough, CEO of SimpsonScarborough, to ask where institutions may be misdirecting their attention when it comes to measuring marketing ROI. She indicated three “myths” or challenges that hold many institutions back. Myth 1: That it’s impossible. “There is a common misperception, both within and outside of university marketing departments,” Scarborough notes, “that it’s ultimately impossible to measure the impact of your marketing efforts. But you can gather metrics that allow you to assess the impact of your work in specific terms. The problem is that often, presidents and board members will in fact ask unanswerable questions, such as ‘How many students do we enroll because of that billboard we put up on the interstate?’ That’s an unanswerable question. Most colleges are investing more in marketing than they ever have in the past, and leadership has every right to ask what they are getting for their investment. But they may not know which questions to ask.” […]

Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Faculty Buy-in and Involvement

ALSO READ Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Laying the GroundworkBoosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Leveraging Peer Leadership For this third article in our series on supporting the academic success of underrepresented minority students, we interviewed Goldie Adele, director of the Disability Resource Center at Southern Connecticut State University. Adele is an attorney with expertise in diversity and disability services, a past chair of the National Bar Association, Legislative Division, and a key thinker on supporting diverse student populations. In this article, we’ll share Adele’s tips for inviting meaningful faculty involvement and buy-in. [wcm_restrict] Presenting the Plan When it comes to making the case for their involvement to faculty, Adele suggests taking a methodical approach. “It’s very important to bring the deans and department chairs on board first,” Adele notes, “and then approach faculty with a clear plan.” Approach the faculty with: Specific goals for how the institution hopes to improve minority student retention A framework or foundation for how the plan — how the institution hopes to meet those goals The data and the research that documents the need and provides the rationale for your approach In other words, show the rigor in your thinking, and have the […]

Survey Report: Where Your Institution May be Missing Opportunities to Improve Academic Advising

by Sue Ohrablo, Ed.D.

In November 2011, Academic Impressions surveyed colleges and universities on their practices in assessing academic advisors. 73 institutions responded, and of those who responded, 57 percent employ both faculty and professional advisors, 24 percent use only faculty advisors, and 19 percent use only professional advisors. The aggregated results from the survey reveal some significant issues. When asked what methods they were using to assess the effectiveness of academic advising, respondents indicated: Note that 21 percent – over one fifth – of respondents have no system in place for assessing advising. And though 63 percent are collecting student evaluations, a far smaller percentage are using the data they collect to provide training or other concrete efforts to improve the quality of academic advising: Most institutions are collecting some evaluative data, but few institutions are using that data to improve advising programs and practices. In fact, 61% of institutions surveyed do not use assessment data to reward and recognize effective advising, and nearly half do not use it to inform training for academic or faculty advisors. Lisa Wexler, conference director with Academic Impressions, notes that this disparity in results suggests that what data is being collected is likely not being used to […]

Expelling Students: Cautionary Advice from Allan Shackelford

In two recent, tragic examples, a student who was expelled from a postsecondary institution for apparent behavioral issues later shot, killed, and injured other people. In one case, Jared Loughner, expelled from Pima Community College (Tucson, AZ) attacked citizens who were not associated with the institution. Pima Community College then came under considerable scrutiny as public representatives, legislators, and the press debated whether the college should have done more to alert and protect the community when expelling a person who had evidenced behavioral problems. In the other, more recent case, a student expelled from Oikos University (Oakland, CA) returned to campus, apparently enraged by a dispute over a requested tuition refund, and shot and killed several members of the campus community. “If you have an individual that is creating problems to the extent that you feel you need to expel them from campus, the act of expelling them does not necessarily solve or end the problem either for people within or people outside the ivy walls of the institution.”Allan Shackelford In an interview this week, we asked Allan Shackelford to offer his reflections on the tragedies in Tucson, AZ and Oakland, CA and to offer his recommendations. As an attorney […]

Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Leveraging Peer Leadership

ALSO READ Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Laying the Groundwork For this second in a series of articles on supporting the academic success of underrepresented minority students, we interviewed Georgina Dodge, chief diversity officer and associate vice president at the University of Iowa. Dodge shared with us lessons learned and practical tips based on the early success of the University of Iowa’s pilot peer mentoring program for ethnic minority students, the Iowa Edge program. Students enrolled in that program show a higher retention rate than the overall retention rate for the institution. [wcm_restrict] The Thinking Behind Iowa Edge HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS “We bring 90 admits a week early. Over a period of that week before classes, theyr’e able to get into their dorm rooms, get settled and established with staff assistance. Then a week to learn about the campus, register, learn about success skills, get acclimated, learn how long it takes to walk from one location to the next. Most important, they form a cohort. They have a group they belong to.”Georgina Dodge, University of Iowa Underlying the program is Dodge’s conviction that when transitioning minority students into the institution, the two factors that will best prepare them […]

Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Laying the Groundwork

Iowa’s three public universities have been in the news recently because of a fresh push from the state’s board of regents to improve the six-year graduation rates for underrepresented minority students. The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa are each piloting different initiatives to boost persistence and academic success for their ethnic minority students, particularly African Americans. At Academic Impressions, we decided to reach out to representatives from the Iowa institutions and leading thinkers from other institutions to learn what practices or key considerations they would share with peers elsewhere in the US. In this first in a series of articles on the issue, we interviewed Goldie Adele, director of the Disability Resource Center at Southern Connecticut State University. Adele is an attorney with expertise in diversity and disability services, a past chair of the National Bar Association, Legislative Division, and a key thinker on supporting diverse student populations. Adele offers the following tips for establishing the initial groundwork for a truly effective push to support and retain more ethnic minority students. [wcm_restrict] The Data You Need First, Adele advises that it’s critical not to rely only on data on national trends. You need […]