Begin recruiting early and continue until your program is full or you’ve reached your deadline.
There are a variety of avenues through which faculty led study abroad programs can be advertised.
Keep lists of students who have expressed interest in your program and e-mail them periodically with information regarding meetings, deadlines, updates, fun facts about your program or program site, etc.
Possible recruitment venues/strategies
Classroom Presentations (your own and, with permission, your colleagues’).
Make a special effort to recruit students in classes that are pre-reqs to your program. They are ideal candidates.
Info Sessions (during the day or after 5:00pm).
Email.
Webpages (your own, your department’s, your college’s/school’s).
Whiteboard Messages—can be placed in various classrooms in many academic buildings.
Brochures/posters/flyers for Departments and Message Boards around campus.
Make sure your program is featured in any departmental/college newsletters.
Table in Wagoner during International Education Week.
Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc.).
Small cards or info sheets for your colleagues to distribute during advising sessions.
Table at the Study Abroad Fair in November or set up an information table in your academic building.
Enlist help of other faculty and graduate assistants in your own and other units on campus who may have an interest in your program and/or be willing to promote.
You may ask that International Programs, your department and/or school, and other relevant institutional offices link to your site on their respective pages.
If acceptable, ask The Office of Education Abroad to advertise your program to non-UNCW students.
Advertise in campus publications/newsletters (student paper).
Present your program to relevant non-academic student groups on campus.
Secure a table in Fisher Student Center (outside of Starbucks), or another busy, public space, for a few hours during high traffic times (11-1). Set up a display and talk to students.
Attend special events on campus, especially events sponsored by your department that will draw students. There may be opportunity for discussion or at least distribution of promo material about your program.
Utilize study abroad ambassadors to help you recruit. Prospective students are very interested in hearing another student’s perspective. The testimony of past participants is one of the most effective recruitment tools you have. Even if your program is new, chances are we have some an ambassador who has studied in the same country or, at least, the same continent, where your program will be held. At list of ambassadors and their study abroad sites may be found at: http://www.uncw.edu/international/ambassadors.html.
Create a sandwich board or tripod table display that you can put up in academic advising offices, outside of your office, in the entry hall of your building.
Help from The Office of Education Abroad
Reserve a room for info session. (You’ll need to run your own info session.)
Create brochure.
Publicize on our website and SEAHAWK TV.
Present to all UNIs on the benefits of education abroad. We don’t single out programs but we “plant the seed.
These are just suggestions. No doubt, you’ll come up with more of your own.
