As part of the Study in Europe project, ACA has led a number of webinars and a networking meeting throughout 2021. The most recent webinar, held on 13 December 2021, brought together experts from several national agencies that are part of the Study in Europe project, to showcase how to successfully use digital tools in the organisation’s marketing and recruitment strategy, and to promote Europe as a study destination for international students more generally.

The webinar, moderated by Raul Ranne, ACA Senior Advisor, comprised two presentations and several case studies, highlighting what can be achieved by leveraging digital tools in higher education promotion activities. The presentation by Rachel Rau from Study.eu showed how digital tools, such as web analytics and digital marketing in general, are being used by higher education institutions, and how national agencies can utilise similar strategies to become more competitive when it comes to student recruitment. Guus Goorts showed to the audience how to use these tools in practice and gave an overview of what can be achieved by monitoring traffic effectively, while making it easy to digest for colleagues.

As for the case studies that followed, Study in the Czech Republic gave useful insights about how it successfully ran an online campaign through Instagram and other social media to promote the Czech Republic as a study destination. A representative from Study in Sweden showed how powerful CRMs can be in managing and segmenting student contacts and potential leads, and how student portals can be used for promotional activities. In the last case study, Study in Lithuania showed how it implemented a chatbot, greatly reducing the time spent answering basic questions from students, such as where to find contact information and doubts about eligibility criteria.

This online session concluded the webinar series organised by ACA in the project in 2021, which counted another webinar for national promotion agencies held on 19 March on Taking stock of the impact of COVID-19 on HE promotion activities and future outlook and one for EU Delegations around the world, held on 16 September, to support with their wider Study in Europe promotion efforts. A networking meeting was also held on 4-5 October, supporting further peer learning and professional development of national promotion agencies. The webinar series will continue in 2022 and 2023, as will a number or Study in Europe fairs – check the upcoming Study in Europe virtual fair in Malaysia and ASEAN Region (exhibitor registration deadline 10 January 2022), portal and social media updates and related activities run in collaboration with the other project partners and national agencies.