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繁 All borders, including Taiwan's, are closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The Global Affairs Office of YZU has shifted its enrollment strategy to social media and online marketing to counter the raging epidemic.
The number of foreign students applying for admission increased by 86% each year in the 2017-2021 academic year, despite the epidemic.
Enrollment campaigns previously included face-to-face participation at education fairs and exhibitions at high schools and universities, along with media coverage. Via the results of Institutional Research, it is found that international students rely on relatives and friends, the Internet, and YZU's official website to get to know YZU. This is accounting for nearly 80%. This shows the importance of word of mouth and Internet propaganda. Hence, current international students are encouraged to share their living and learning experiences on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in order to enhance online marketing.
Additionally, international students from different countries are invited to participate in or host a Virtual International Showcase webinar. Mobile phones, computers, and tablets can be used by potential international students to watch the live broadcast briefing anytime and anywhere. They can also watch it later if they miss the scheduled time slot. Unlike the previous physical enrolment campaigns, the Virtual International Showcase webinars are not geographically restricted, so they can reach more potential international students at once. There will be regular online interactive events in the future due to the high quality of the interactive platform.
There will be six languages offered for the online briefing for the academic year 2021: Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, Cantonese, and English. The webinar is promoted by students, alumni, and international sister universities on personal and official social media. In one case, a Ph.D. student from Bangladesh presented YZU in her mother tongue and shared it through her previous institution's (Daffodil Group) education network, attracting nearly 6,000 viewers. Online admissions briefings for India and Indonesia are also very popular, where each session can reach approximately 100-300 people.
Professors are also invited to introduce their research areas during the webinar. As an example, Prof. Chung-Jen Chien of the College of Management was invited to participate in the webinar session with YZU's sister university in Indonesia, Telkom University sharing leadership in diverse cultural contexts. Prof. Hen-Yi Jen from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management was invited to share his professionalism in computer simulations and applications with Maranatha Christian University in Indonesia. Prof. Yueah-Cin Liew, Chair of the College of Management was invited to share insights on supply chain management with Telekom University Indonesia.
Based on enrollment activities in recent years, all 23 enrollment campaigns in the academic year 2018 were physical official visits. In the academic year 2019, when the epidemic first started, GAO travelled abroad for official visits five times and held 3 online webinars. Organize or participate in 36 webinars in the academic year 2020. In addition, there were 21 online webinars conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2021.
According to the figure below, the number of foreign students applying to the program has grown from 632 in the 2017 academic year to 1,148 in the 2021 academic year due to online marketing.
Prof. Chih-Yang Lin, Chief of the Global Affairs Office of YZU, acknowledged that enrollment numbers from the main recruitment countries have been growing year after year based on enrollment experience in recent years. A combination of Internet marketing and word-of-mouth marketing works well to recruit international students under epidemic conditions. A key aspect of attracting international students is improving their satisfaction with the quality of education and preparing them for their future career prospects.
