ICEF Monitor Global Summit - Seminar Programme

This opening session sets out the context for the 2025 Summit programme with a high-level view of the most important trends shaping international student mobility, and the factors driving student choice and study abroad planning.

This important keynote takes a deeper dive into best practices for building and managing international partner networks, especially those including agents, in-country representatives, schools, and other institutional partners in international student markets.

Events, agents, alumni and peer-to-peer, social media and messaging apps, websites, search and AI: how do students first encounter an institution or school, and begin to consider it for study abroad? This keynote presentation will offer data-based insights on these very questions and share the latest of what we know now about how students discover and filter their options for overseas study.

Each of the big four study destinations – the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada – have been badly disrupted by rapidly changing policies and political contexts over the past 18 months. There are important takeaways for all international educators and this panel of sector leaders will share the lessons learned and the path forward for each country.

Learn from master-practitioners the latest strategies for managing partner networks in-country, and share your own experiences and lessons learned in this collaborative workshop.

This collaborative workshop will showcase innovative strategies and best practices for recruiting through digital channels, and will also open up space for expanded audience participation and discussion leading to concrete takeaways for recruitment marketing.

There are so many dots to connect in your international recruitment strategy: diversification by country of origin, recruiting for specific fields of study, targeting specific student profiles that lead to better retention and graduation results, and/or focusing on attracting students to help address labour market gaps in your country or theirs. This keynote will explore how you can balance those many priorities in your recruitment marketing. 

There is plenty of evidence of a shift in student demand from the Big Four destinations to a much wider field of options in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. This expert panel of sector-leaders will share observations of how those changing student preferences are playing out this year, and the key strategies now in use in emerging or alternate destinations that are keen to further build their foreign enrolments.

This expert panel will explore innovative uses of AI agents and other key technology tools at the very top of the enrolment funnel: at the enquiry (and even pre-enquiry) stage. The panelists will also reflect on key lessons for managing high volumes of student enquiries, including filtering for best-fit students, and engaging students during their journey to admission and enrolment.

In a more competitive recruitment environment, it is more critical than ever to efficiently target best-fit prospects, convert them to application, and then to retain those admitted students through to enrolment. This collaborative session will showcase findings and best practices from a panel of expert-practitioners to zero in on the key factors driving conversion today.

There are so many factors affecting student decision-making for study abroad, and, needless to say, not all can be controlled by an individual institution, school, or agency. But one area where we can exercise a great deal of influence is in the quality and range of wrap-around services that we provide for our students. Whether accommodation or student advising or career counselling, those supports are a key component of the international study experience. 

As this keynote will reveal, they also relate directly to recruitment and retention, and represent a real source of strategic advantage for every international educator.

Any international educator will tell you: if a visiting student isn’t happy with their accommodation they won’t be happy with anything else about their study abroad experience. That’s how important affordable and attractive student housing is. Add to that that there are now significant constraints on access to housing stock in many destinations – and a growing responsibility for institutions and partners to ensure that its availability for incoming students – and we arrive at a point where housing is now everyone’s concern.

This panel will open with new data insights on what students value most in terms of housing options during study abroad, and the latest trends in the marketplace. We will go from that important context to a wide-ranging discussion on some of the key issues in student housing and how institutions, service providers, and other stakeholders are working together to solve them.

We are entering an era of increasing regulation and self-regulation in international student recruitment. Approaches vary by destination, but there is no mistaking the greater emphasis in quality assurance, standards of practice, and formal compliance requirements across the major study destinations. The UK provides a fascinating case study in this respect, with strengthened compliance requirements coming later this year and with new expectations for accountability and transparency in recruitment. This expert panel will explore current developments in the UK, reflect on takeaways for recruiters in all parts of the world, and consider how that changing environment for compliance and quality assurance will affect recruitment practice going forward.

This collaborative workshop will showcase some fascinating case examples of outstanding services for international students, and then open up into a “hands-on” working session where audience members and panelists will work together to brainstorm new areas for service improvement or innovation.

This keynote makes the business case for a clear focus on promoting and communicating student outcomes throughout the recruitment process. It explores the benefits that students value most from study abroad, and how institutions can both measure those impacts and better communicate them to prospects, current students, and alumni. 

Institutions and schools are being challenged to provide expanded and improved career supports for international students, and to smooth the students’ transition to work both in their study destination and in their home countries. There is a lot of complexity here, but also a great deal of opportunity. And that is exactly what we will explore in this collaborative workshop led by expert-practitioners.

As distinct from a panel session or keynote, the roundtables provide a space for a less-structured discussion but with guidance from an informed specialist. To provide that guidance, each table is led by a host whose role is to moderate and animate the discussion around the topic at hand.

There will be a single sitting for each table, beginning at 18:00 and lasting 55 minutes. We are inviting each table host to open the session with some introductory remarks of up to 10 minutes to introduce fresh data insights, a case example, or otherwise set the context for the discussion to follow.

Roundtables' topics:

1. How to train your AI: New techniques and tools for recruiters - Rob Burchell
2. Innovate to attract: PBSA aolutions for the next wave of global students - Paul Humphreys
3. New directions in TNE - Matt Durnin
4. What can we expect from the Chinese market this year? - Jin Yuan & Christina Ke
5. Unlocking global potential: New models for financing African students’ study abroad - Dr Lydiah Kemunto Bosire

It has long been a truism in international recruitment, that you “make four students out of two, and six students out of four.” That is, you build your enrolment over time by ensuring the students you already have on campus have a great experience and can become enthusiastic advocates for your institution or school. 

This session features a panel of specialists, each with an interesting perspective, and a slightly different model, for building and activating ambassador networks.