Share Case Study
Our client was one of New Zealand’s largest universities, with approximately 30,000 students across multiple campuses.
The university’s market share was slipping
About one-fifth of the university’s revenue came from international tuition fees in 2019, but by 2021 it had lost market share. Many staff were focused on teaching domestic students and unsure of the value that international students and internationalisation could provide.
The university sought our help to increase its international education footprint by developing an international strategy and a go-to-market plan for India, as well as advising it on partnerships.
We developed a strategy to bring the university together around internationalisation
We developed an international strategy that articulated what and how the university aimed to achieve in international education, including which countries it would target. We articulated the value of internationalisation to strengthen a positive staff view.
We combined market analysis and perspectives from Nous’ international network of education experts with engagement with university leaders, faculty and function representations to refine a strategy that represented institution-wide views. This included engaging with Māori and Pasifika university staff, which highlighted the need for the strategy to respond to the university’s global responsibilities to these students, staff and communities.
To support the university to implement our strategy, we reviewed the institution’s partnerships to focus efforts on a smaller number of high-value partnerships and a market plan for India that outlined recommendations to rapidly increase recruitment from this market.
The new strategy has built momentum for the university’s internationalisation efforts
Internationalisation requires a truly pan-university effort to achieve change. The strategy has helped the university’s International Office bring the university together around a vision and agreed priorities and actions to progress internationalisation.
The university is implementing an outcomes-focused approach to developing international partnerships and putting in place recommendations from the India market plan to support it to increase its market share from India.
What you can learn from this project
Achieving significant growth in international student recruitment requires university leaders to build institutional support, necessitating strong communication of international students’ value.
As competition for international student recruitment grows, a focused international strategy that articulates a unique value proposition and clear institutional priorities becomes more vital.
Universities are increasingly seeking – and are sought after – as partners internationally: principled decision-making will ensure that the value delivered is greater than the maintenance cost.
Key people in this project
Tom Levi
Principal
Tom works with clients to deliver large-scale strategy and transformation projects, primarily across education and government.
Julia Gilmour
Director
Julia is a Director with experience supporting clients across the public and private sectors in government, utilities, infrastructure, transport, higher education, and products industries.
Matt Durnin
Principal
Matt specialises in higher education strategy and internationalisation. He has played a role in establishing more than 30 academic and research partnerships across 15 countries.
Doron Chimes
Manager
Doron is a well-rounded strategic thinker with a wide breadth of educational and professional experience.
Tim Andrews
NousCubane Senior Adviser
Tim brings to clients his experience in strategy, evaluation and stakeholder engagement.
Aimee Scott
Executive and Project Assistant
Aimee has more than 15 years of experience working in executive assistant and administrative roles.