This guide presents key pointers to enable higher education institutions to successfully develop and use live chat and webinars for international student recruitment. We developed the guide for readers with varying backgrounds and experience, readers who have responsibilities in marketing, recruitment, and admissions within higher education institutions.

International student recruitment has become a top priority for many institutions, but recruiters and prospective students alike can face information overload. At the same time, there is a lack of well-structured information, creating a growing demand for personalised and reliable information.

You’ve likely been invited to use live chat on large shopping websites or have seen companies offering training for their own staff or clients using webinars. These tools have become increasingly popular among universities in countries including the US, Australia, and the UK, as demand increases for more measurable recruitment results.

Early adopters of webinars and live chat in the higher education sector are using them for different purposes, such as training library users, providing IT support, and tracing alumni. These tools are also useful in conducting joint study courses, marketing study programmes, and recruiting international students. Their use in student recruitment is a recent phenomenon, and the level of professionalism varies across institutions and even individual academic programmes and departments.

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