Kim Dienhoff is Manager for Communications and Stakeholder Relations at IDP. She talks to The PIE about how IDP has evolved from an Australian outfit to a global force in international education, active in English language teaching; English language tests and global student placement.
The PIE: Hi Kim. When did you join IDP?
KD: I joined in August and have come into a newly created role as manager for communications and stakeholder relations. The team I oversee includes market research, marketing, our global brand manager, internal communications, media and external relations, and also stakeholder engagement. And that’s important for us right across the business but particularly on the IELTS side where we need to engage a lot with government and other organisations.
The PIE: How does IDP’s relationship with [English language test] IELTS work?
KD: IDP Education is one of three owners of IELTS, our subsidiary company IELTS Australia co-owns IELTS alongside the British Council, and Cambridge ESOL. There has been a lot of IDP input into the design of the test, the ongoing assessment and changes to the test, and particularly the security of the test – Australia’s played a leading role in driving that forward.
The PIE: I hear IELTS is the most taken of all English tests now?
KD: Yes, it is of the high stakes tests – by that I mean the tests where the result is vital for the taker and their future, whether it’s for immigration or to be a student. There are two versions of the IELTS: an academic test and a general test for migration, which can also be used by employers to assess job readiness.
“Some 300 million in China are thought to be learning English”
The PIE: Where do you have most demand for IELTS testing?
KD: China is the world’s biggest market for English language testing. Some 300 million are thought to be learning English.
Other statistics suggest within a few years there will be more English speaking people in China than any other country, and then some years after that more than all other countries combined. The level of growth is incredible. India’s also seeing huge growth.
The PIE: I’m interested to know how IDP evolved from something that was predominantly Australian into to what it is now – a global player in international education.
KD: IDP is about 43 years old and it was set up by Australia’s universities to do things like recruit international students through scholarships. Over time it’s developed into the world’s largest student placement organisation, and led the world in developing the business of being an agent effectively, promoting the efficient model that was being driven by Australian and British universities.
Around 20 years ago, we contributed to the research and development of a language test that is now known as IELTS,; then a third stream of activity was setting up English language schools in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
The PIE: Is language teaching an area IDP would like to expand?
“IDP’s main focus is more about the overall international student journey”
KD: In Cambodia and Vietnam we’re by far the largest provider of English language training, under a number of brand names, including our own. ELT is a smaller part of the business currently, but if we see opportunities in those markets to expand we will take them.
However, there are a lot of people in that market now, and I suppose IDP’s main focus is more about the overall international student journey. Just teaching English in itself isn’t an end for us. It’s more of a “value add-on” for those wishing to travel and study overseas.
The PIE: You have 80 offices in 25 countries for your agency business. How did you manage to get embedded in so many countries?
KD: As you know we were set up by Australia’s universities, who had an interest to get into many markets. So we very rapidly moved into more markets. From a testing point of view, we have 114 test centres in 45 countries, as the test is recognised by many student destinations, and students don’t necessarily want to go to Australia (IDP’s primary recruitment focus).
The PIE: Do you work with sub-agents in countries?
“We’ve expanded very heavily in the last few years in the Middle East”
KD: No. There are certain countries where we have licencees that we have traditionally worked with. Our primary model is to set up our own offices. Part of this is to ensure quality – our licencees also operate exactly as IDP agents do, meeting the same standards.
The PIE: When did you stop working just for Australian institutions and whose idea was it?
KD: We started about three years ago, and we’re now in the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand. It was a natural evolution – just a matter of finding the right time. SEEK also became a joint shareholder in IDP in 2006 and expansion was in the best interest of both parties.
The PIE: Are you looking to expand into other markets? [more>]
KD: Yes absolutely. There are certain markets where we don’t have a large presence like South America, Europe and Africa where we don’t have significant operations. So these are three primary areas for us.
The PIE: There’s some concern in the US about the ethics of agents. What is your opinion of the agent debate and how does IDP fit into it?
KD: IDP is very much a trailblazer in the US market and when we entered a few years ago, we had to educate people, to show that we were a different style of organisation. The American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) also started around the same time, offering another swell of support to US universities who wanted to work with agents.
“When we entered the USA a few years ago, we had to educate people, to show that we were a different style of organisation”
We are AIRC-accredited. So there is a genuine interest in agents and the way they can help universities find new revenue streams, which is increasingly important as other funding sources reduce.
The PIE: The IDP website was cited [in research unveiled at AIEC] one of the most used sources of information for (prospective international_ students. How much are you using social media and other technology to reach students in-country?
KD: Social media is a key part of how we generate interest among students. Facebook is a very important platform, Twitter too. In China, we have 15 members of staff dedicated to social media marketing given the massive use of social media in that country.
On a slightly different note, we’ve created our ‘Knowledge Base’, through which we can correspond with interested students much more easily and systematically throughout their application cycle. It means we can more easily do follow up.
All correspondence is logged as well for accountability, which is very important to public universities.
The PIE: Your virtual events have also done well.
KD: Yes. IDP has always been one of the biggest student event providers – we’ve run about 70 in Australia and it has spread to other countries. An event could attract up to 3,000 students but we do boutique events too. Holding them virtually enables institutions to connect with prospective students from the comfort of their desks back at home. It saves a lot of expense on travel and is efficient.
“In China, we have 15 members of staff dedicated to social media marketing”
The PIE: You have placed about 350,000 students since inception. What markets are most interesting to you in terms of student placement at the moment?
KD: We’ve expanded very heavily in the last few years in the Middle East. We always had offices in Saudi, Oman and UAE, now we’ve opened up in Jordan, and Libya before the troubles, and we’re seeing a resurgence there now things are more stable. We’re opening up in Egypt [late 2012] and we’ve had a presence in Turkey for a year now. Azerbaijan too.
The PIE: And what are students choosing?
KD: It varies within countries. Some countries traditionally favour certain study destinations. However there is surprise growth from time to time, and factors such as currency fluctuation or immigration policy changes make people change their mind. Canada has been growing well we’ve seen. The US too – although these factors haven’t dominated student choice. Quality of education and reputation of institutions are actually more important to most students.
Quality of education and reputation of institutions are actually more important to most students
The PIE: How do you see the future of the agency industry. Some predict students will steadily move away from using them to applying directly.
KD: We certainly give time to considering this outcome. We think the agent model is valid for some time to come and a key reason is that it costs about US $100,000 to study and stay in a foreign country. So it’s a very significant purchase, not like buying a holiday or a dress.
The decision making process is quite complex, regarding issues such the visa application and course applications, which are far from trivial. The prospect of that being catered to 100% online we think is some way off.
