As international recruiters, I think we’re all still recovering from a bit of a shock to the system when recruitment conditions took a turn for the worse this January intake following the boom in demand for the UK which we had experienced since 2019/20.

When there’s so much that is out of our hands – e.g. political and economic turbulence – it’s hard to stay positive. However, it’s times like these that often inspire us to uncover new and perhaps better ways of working.

A few opportunities my team and I see emerging from the current challenges include:

1. A new focus on undergraduate recruitment

QA Higher Education (QAHE) works closely with a network of more than 700 agents all over the world. Against the backdrop of the dependant’s policy, we’ve worked with our agents to pivot focus on generating undergraduate demand. Our agents still firmly have their hands on the wheel for PG, but more resource is now allocated to UG. This re-calibration helped us drive Year-on-Year increases in UG enrolment across our partnerships for the January 2024 intake.

We are also experiencing increased organic enquiries for UG study in markets such as Kenya and even Nigeria.

Like a lot of the sector, Nigeria has been a key growth market across our partnerships the last couple of years. The majority of the Nigerian students we serve are on PG courses and the dependant’s policy coupled with the currency devaluation caused a sharp decline in demand. The impact of the currency situation remains one to watch for this market, but we’re now receiving a significant increase in UG enquiries.

2. Increased diversity

I had the privilege of presenting in a session at The PIE Live 2024 on the emerging recruitment potential within Francophone Africa. Diversifying international recruitment is no longer a nice-to-have but is now critical to recruitment success as we face steep downturns from top source markets.

Diversification has been core to our recruitment strategy at QAHE for years, and although we weren’t immune to the negative conditions the sector is facing, this investment in diversification did help us buck the trend this past January intake.

Some of the key areas of opportunity where we’re seeing traction include:

• Francophone Africa
• Pakistan
• Nepal
• Sri Lanka
• Bangladesh
• The Balkans

3. Re-imagining education delivery

UK Higher Education remains very well respected globally, and the demand for UK study hasn’t gone away.

Economic and political barriers may prevent students from coming to the UK, but this opens the door for universities to seriously consider alternative ways to bring high quality education to students.

It’s a good time to prioritise discussions about online, 2+1 and 2+2 study options.

With the much anticipated MAC report coming up and a general election, there’s still a lot of uncertainty to navigate. Pressure is high, but with a focus on finding and maximising new opportunities, we’ll be all the better primed for the future – whatever that will look like.

About the author: Lanre Kesiro is Director of International Recruitment at QA Higher Education. A passionate educational professional with over 13 years experience within the international student recruitment sector, Lanre currently oversees recruitment from Africa, The Americas and Central Asia at QA Higher Education. His key role is to develop and implement strategies for expansion and growth within the nominated regions. Lanre specialises in building relationships across all levels within and outside the educational sector. He has been instrumental in establishing key partnership agreements for QA, and has recently participated in the BBC’s Question Time.