PP 1 - International Student Recruitment

International Student Recruitment

Many international students are going to the United States to combine their sports with their education. I would not have been able to continue playing tennis at a high level at the same time as being in school back home in Sweden. I heard about the opportunity of combining tennis and university here in the US and deciding to come here was very easy. When I looked for a University to attend I was mainly looking at the opportunity related to tennis, the academic part of it was not as important to me since the main reason for why I am here is the tennis part. I was looking at the level of the teams at different schools, how many matches they play during the season, what their gear looks like, and their social media presence. I am a part of SAU's Tennis team which consists of mainly international people and I know that most of us choose school based on the tennis perspective of things. 

I asked one of the freshmen on the tennis team what they thought was important in choosing a good school here in the United States. Things she was asking for were what division the school was in the NCAA, if it was a public or a private school, the location of the school, facilities for the sport, size of the team, possible position in the lineup, the size of the University, and if the tennis courts are located on the campus. Looking at her answers it seems like she also thought the tennis part of coming here to study was the most important. 

I did some research and came to the conclusion that New York University is the university in the United States that has the most international students attending its programs. New York University has over 21,000 international students and scholars from over 120 different countries. On NYU's website, there is a place specifically for international students and are provides good and important information to international students wanting to attend NYU. 

There is an "event" title you can click on that takes you to a calendar of events that can be important for international students. For example, they have events related to the OPT (Optional Practical Training) which is an option for international students and the process can be a bit complicated to go through. I like that they have this event at their school because it is something that I am currently looking through and I wish there was this help at this school as well. They also have a Global Table Talk and a Discover New York which I think can be very interesting if you are an international student. 

They also have a New International Student Orientation page on their website. This is for the international students to be able to get acclimated to the school and get comfortable around the school. 

NYU is active on Instagram under the username @nyuniversity and already by reading its Instagram bio you can tell it is very welcoming to international students. Their bio says "NYU's official Instagram - in and of the city; in and of the world". 

While scrolling through their Instagram posts I got a bit disappointed. I was expecting more content uploaded related to their international students than what I saw. They post about many different things such as events going on on campus or their sporting events, but not much about their international students. I might have not scrolled through their whole Instagram page so I am for sure missing some of the content posted that might be related to their international students, but I would still expect more content related to international students since they have the most international students out of all the universities in the country. 

Lund University, with campuses in Lund, Malmö, Helsingborg, and Ljungbyhed, is the largest unit for research and higher education in Sweden. The University has about 40,000 students in total over a year - of whom 6,400 are international students. 

Lund University is ranked among the best universities in the world for the overall quality of their education and research, international outlook, employability, and sustainability. Their website is already in English instead of being in Swedish which makes it very welcoming for international students that does not speak Swedish. 

The University has its own "Lund University International Podcast" that launched in March 2023. The podcast aims to present real, first-hand accounts of everything their listeners could want to know about studying at Lund. Since then, they've featured conversations on a whole host of different topics, with a new episode released every week during each semester. The podcast can be found on most major podcast streaming platforms, as well as on their website. 

As NYU, Lund University also has an Instagram platform that they are updating actively under the username @lunduniversity. What I liked most about their Instagram is that they are posting more content related to being an international student. For example, they have made a reel with a TikTok trend related to international students. 

I think I would say that Lund University is doing a better job from a media perspective to reach out to international students. They post content that international students can relate to, information about studying in Sweden, etc. This is something that NYU could start doing and working on as well because it can make it seem more attractive to international students to attend their university than it already is.