On November 18, more than 45 colleagues participated in the online training of STUDY IN ACAdemy series co-organized by ACA and DZS as part of the Study in Czech Republic initiative. The Webinar #2 featured a combination of contextual knowledge based on Robert Coelen’s 25 years of experience in international education and Jan-Frederic Buss’ insights on the means and methods for running digital marketing and student recruitment campaigns in Asia. As a bespoke training programme, participants from the Czech higher education institutions (HEIs) were guided to further develop their knowledge and ideas on marketing Czech higher education online with a more targeted approach.   

The short but inspirational webinar ended with an optional get-together in the STUDY IN ACAdemy Coffee Corner set up for virtual social networking. Some participants took the chance to further engage the speakers and reconnect with their colleagues virtually during such times of physical distancing. The first-ever webinar training series of ACA, thanks to COVID-19, STUDY IN ACAdemy aims to be an interactive learning experience in which the participants are encouraged to do small exercises using Zoom or experiment with other virtual tools such as the virtual coffee shop that may be used in their own marketing and recruitment activities. It’s a common learning experience for ACA, DZS and the Czech HEIs leveraging on ACA’s network of experts and in-house expertise in international higher education.          

Initiated by DZS, ACA’s Czech member, the STUDY IN ACAdemy webinar series began with a big picture perspective of strategizing international marketing and recruitment in October,  with an introduction to the application of a “student journey” approach and higher education-related data in strategic marketing and recruitment. Subsequent webinars will zoom in to specific contexts of selected world regions and corresponding online marketing and recruitment instruments deemed essential and important for effective outreach to prospective students. Based on a survey of interest among Czech institutions, the November webinar focused on S.E. Asian countries, whereas the December webinar will focus on Post-Soviet countries.     

The next webinar is scheduled to take place on December 16.