Austrade international education update 2022
09 Dec 2022
Messaging
Austrade’s messaging is focused on reassuring students, parents, and agents worldwide that Australia continues to offer world-class qualifications and outcomes, and that the Australian community welcomes and cares about international students.
We use insights from social media listening, student surveying, digital student journey mapping and website navigation research to create and improve our communications. We continue to develop initiatives designed to engage all audiences in the Global Study Australia Community, while identifying and growing new market segments.
Projects
Promotional activities and campaigns
In addition to localised campaign activity led by Austrade posts around the world, Austrade’s global organic social and promotional activities have delivered over 2.6 billion impressions globally, resulting in 12 million clicks to the Study Australia website or landing page and 94,000 student leads to institutions since 1 January.
International education campaigns in 2022 have included: ‘Welcome to Australia’; Visa fee refund; Shine with Australia: Masterclasses; Discover your brilliant future self (Phase III); Dubai World Expo Virtual Fair; Study Australia Showcase (India); and the Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge (India).
In India:
- The Study Australia Showcase in India ran 12-22 September 2022, with an accompanying campaign delivering 69.2 million impressions and attracting 3,420 event registrations. PR activity delivered 275 media articles with a readership of 13 million. The event covered six cities, and involved 26 Australian institutions, Australian Government and all state and territory Study Australia Partnership (SAP) members. Nearly 95% of attendees were satisfied or highly satisfied.
- The Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge engaged 18 Indian institutions, 36 student teams and 36 academic and industry mentors across four Challenge themes: creative industries, cybersecurity, digital health, circular economy.
- Shine with Australia: Discover your Brilliant Future Self (Phase III) ran in-market in India between 19 Sept – 17 Oct, resulting in a 122% increase in leads generated via the Study Australia website Course Search tool over the four-week period prior.
Course Search Tool
The Study Australia website houses the world’s most comprehensive Course Search tool – covering Australia-based, branch and partner campuses worldwide, wholly online courses and programs with the option to transfer to Australia. Since 1 January 2022, the tool has attracted over 556,000 uses and sent 94,000 referrals directly to Australian education and training providers.
Employability Hub and Career Matcher
In recognition of the importance of employability for international students, prospective, current and former students all have access to the Study Australia website Employability Hub. The Career Matcher tool, launched in 2022, enables students to complete a quiz to identify their potential future career/s and related fields of study. To date, over 6800 users have completed the Career Matcher activity.
Study Australia Industry Experience Program (SAIEP)
Austrade and the Study Australia Partnership members, together with Australian providers and delivery partner Practera, launched the Study Australia Industry Experience Program (SAIEP) in July 2021.
The program offers students the opportunity to apply their knowledge, enjoy an enhanced, ‘work integrated learning’ student experience, demonstrate their capability to employers, and build peer-to-peer networks. To date, SAIEP has offered free placements to more than 2600 international students in over 50 countries, enrolled across 55 Australian providers, working on industry projects with more than 240 Australian and global employers. A new cohort began in November 2022.
SAIEP was selected as a finalist in the global PIEoneer Awards 2022 and received a High Commendation. The Program also won the Innovation category for the IEAA Excellence Awards in October 2022.
Study Australia Masterclasses
The Study Australia Masterclass Live Series and Library project engages the global student and education community. Austrade has 15 free classes available online, including classes on hydrogen, the expansion of the universe, sustainability in the built environment, global mega trends in sustainable food production and the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. In September and October 2022, these Masterclasses were used to support social campaign activity focused on Engineering and Health in China (WeChat). Recordings are freely available at the Study Australia Masterclass Library on the Study Australia website.
Social media listening
Austrade uses social media listening to inform messaging and content creation. A new social media listening project, delivered in collaboration with all states and territories under the Study Australia Partnership, was launched in mid-2022 and delivered by The Lygon Group.
Recent social listening has ascertained the following popular subjects: pathways to permanent residency, visa policy, graduate employment, courses aligned to skills shortages, accessing internships, and moving to a regional area. There is also a growing discussion among offshore students about studying the first part of their degree online in their home country given that Semester 2, 2022 has continued to be, for many, taught in hybrid mode and the cost of living in Australia continues to rise.
Student voice capture
A new iteration of the Austrade-SAP International Student Sentiment Survey project concluded in October 2022, with QS as the new delivery partner. The project assesses student access to information and support services, with the aim of identifying and addressing gaps and improving student experience. This fifth survey intentionally includes prospective students for the first time. The full report will be available via the MIP shortly.
#MyAustralia
MyAustralia content has now been integrated into the ‘Student stories’ section of the Study Australia website. The MyAustralia initiative was developed in collaboration with the SAP to showcase positive experiences and student connections with the Australian community and employers. Shared globally via the Study Australia Facebook and Instagram channels, this initiative delivered over 10 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram and Weibo, and over 1 million video views.
Agent engagement
A new Study Australia Agent Newsletter was launched globally in March 2022. Following a mid-year Global Agent Update event in August 2022, the annual Global Agent Week event was held 28 November – 1 December 2022 in two time zones. The event attracted almost 2000 registrations and featured speakers from federal, state and territory governments, as well as a virtual exhibition hall, and local/regional sessions. New program features this year included conversations with students and alumni, an agency leaders’ panel, and a pilot in live translations.
The Study Australia Partner Hub is a dedicated resource for eligible education agents, housing news and resources supporting the promotion of Australia as a preferred study destination.
Australia’s Nation Brand for Education
In June 2022, Austrade launched the Study Australia Marketing Toolkit. The Toolkit is an online creative asset library available to education providers, agents, study destinations and government agencies. It includes Nation Brand assets and guidelines, as well as dedicated international education images and videos, social media tiles and campaign collateral. To date, 285 users have downloaded assets from the Toolkit, including agents in 24 different countries.
New data and insights reports
In mid-2022, Austrade and StudyPortals launched a series of new quarterly reports, by region, on prospective students’ online search behaviour. The five reports in each series present prospective students’ online search behaviour as collected by Austrade and StudyPortals. The reports share findings on how Australia’s market share is developing in a COVID-normal context and offer the opportunity to act on real-time insights based on search behaviour. Each report has a regional focus, with Q1 and Q2 reports currently available and Q3 reports to be released shortly via the MIP.
Austrade IE LinkedIn page
Austrade now hosts a LinkedIn page used to share the latest news from the Austrade International Education team. Information shared includes upcoming events and briefings, global engagement initiatives and useful links to data, insights and opportunities, including via Austrade’s MIP.