Study Group announces US partnerships
Published 09/01/2018
Study Group has announced new partnerships with US institutions West Virginia University and Baylor University, bringing the number of agreements it has signed in 2017 to six in North America alone.
For Baylor University, Study Group will establish the university’s International Study Centre (opening in 2019) and support its direct international recruitment.
At West Virginia University instead, they will start by supporting the institution’s direct international recruitment – but Study Group North America MD Emily Williams Knight told The PIE News that “the conversation is now on going regarding the opening of an international study centre.”
For both universities, this partnership is part of an international recruitment strategy aimed at widening their global reach and making their campuses more diverse.
WVU’s vice president for Global Strategies and International Affairs William Brunstein told The PIE that currently half of the institution’s international students come from the Middle East.
“Our hope is that our partnership with Study Group will enable us to increase the diversity of our international student population”
This is the first collaboration with a student recruitment agent for WVU, Brunstein said. The institution’s strategy includes hiring regional recruiters – focusing on key markets such as Middle East and South Asia, Latin America and East Asia – to work along with Study Group.
At Baylor University, which already recruits in 27 countries annually, the collaboration with Study Group is part of plan to bring international enrolment from 3.6 percent to more than 5 percent in the next five years, and to double that in 10 years.
“This partnership with Study Group is a result of several new Baylor initiatives, one of which was a Quality Enhancement Plan focused on attracting and graduating globally minded citizens,” Baylor’s assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions & enrolment Jessica A.King Gereghty told The PIE.
“Our new president, Linda Livingstone, reinforced our commitment for Baylor to be a tier 1 institution, and the university leadership recognises that having a more globalised campus is one of the key ways to achieve this goal,” she said.
New partnerships may be on the horizon for Study Group. In an interview with The PIE, Study Group CEO David Leigh said that increased awareness of the benefits of pathway programs means this is an interesting time for the company.
“We signed six [partnerships] this year. We won’t sign six every year for the next few years – I think that is not going to be consistent in relation to what our priorities are. The opportunity today is certainly stronger than it has ever been in the five years that I have been with Study Group,” he said.
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