The True Costs of International Student Recruitment

To approach this question, we randomly selected universities across the globe, ensuring no bias or prejudice influenced our choices.

It’s important to note that the numbers presented here are estimates based on publicly available data from university websites and other sources. While they may not be perfectly accurate, they aim to provide a general understanding of costs related to student acquisition.

Student Acquisition and Enrollment Costs (SAEC)
Beyond marketing, SAEC includes expenditures such as agency commissions, staffing for admissions, technology infrastructure, and operational costs. Using this comprehensive framework, we estimated the SAEC for some well-known institutions:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology - US$8,069
• Harvard University - US$7,786
• Monash University - US$5,220
• Arizona State University - US$4,350
• University of Cambridge - US$4,341
• National University of Singapore - US$2,963
• University of Toronto - US$1,725

Key Conclusions

1. SAEC Reflects Institutional Goals: Prestigious institutions like Harvard and MIT allocate substantial SAEC to maintain their global reputation and rigorously select top-tier students. Meanwhile, universities with higher acceptance rates, such as Arizona State, focus their SAEC on scaling recruitment efforts.
2. Cost vs. Selectivity: Institutions like Cambridge and NUS balance competitive acceptance rates with significant SAEC investments, leveraging their reputation to efficiently attract and process thousands of applications.
3. Marketing as a Strategic Priority: Universities with moderate tuition fees, like the University of Toronto, emphasize scalable marketing strategies to enhance accessibility. In contrast, Monash demonstrates higher SAEC to remain competitive on a global stage.
4. Technology for Efficiency: To optimize SAEC, universities must integrate technology to streamline recruitment and admissions processes. AI-driven tools like INSELECT can significantly reduce costs while improving the precision of student selection.
5. High Investment Doesn't Always Mean High Return: Comparing SAEC with tuition fees reveals disparities. Universities with higher tuition fees may recover their investments more quickly, while institutions with lower fees face greater challenges in achieving a high return on investment.

Expanding the Discussion: ROMI and SAEC Allocation
While the direct ROMI for international student recruitment in higher education is often estimated at around US$1,200, much of the remaining SAEC falls into salary expenditures. This includes the time spent conducting "live" interviews, which limits the capacity of admissions staff to handle other tasks. Staff involvement in repetitive admissions processes becomes a bottleneck, making efficiency gains difficult.

This is where INSELECT comes into play. By delegating routine tasks, such as candidate pre-screening and English proficiency evaluations, to an AI assistant, universities can save significant staff time and resources while maintaining the quality of student selection.

Learn more about how INSELECT can be integrated in your regular admissions operation or book an individual presentation of INSELECT.