International team creating a temp hub in Vietnam for SE Asian recruitment

Our International Relationship Managers, based within Marketing, may be a small team at just four people, but they make a big difference to our new student numbers. In 2018 they contributed to 27% of our total revenue from student fees.

Ben McNally-Burn – International Relationship Manager

Their challenge this year is to keep on track despite the overall drop in international student numbers impacting New Zealand’s ITP sector. Auckland’s International Student market has experienced further difficulties due to a change in immigration policy last year that provided an incentive to international students who chose to study outside of the Auckland region. Also, with the country-wide downturn in international students, the International Relationship Managers have had to review their recruitment strategies to retain market share and the very important contribution they make to our ‘bottom line’.

Each team member focuses on specific countries and regions, manage our education agents (representatives), and develop and maintain overseas institutional partnerships, on a market-by-market basis. Farhana Nalar manages the Indian sub-continent, Middle East and Africa, Toby Yin focuses on managing agents in Greater China and Liang Luo on Greater Chinese partnerships, with Ben McNally-Burn covering South East and North Asia, another huge market.

Ben working at a student career fair in East Malaysia

Vietnam is our largest revenue earner in the SE Asian region, followed by the Philippines, but Ben is also building our brand presence in Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea. As a Psychology graduate (Leeds Beckett University), he is well equipped for a role based on building relationships, and with a passion for travel, stepping into different cultures on a daily basis comes naturally.

Ben’s path to Aotearoa and Unitec was prompted by a ‘’last chance to travel’ having secured a future role at Vodafone UK starting later in the year. After touching down in Auckland, he stepped into a role with the International Team assisting Indian students complete their enrolment applications, then moved into managing our embassy relationships in Saudi Arabia. He eventually had to return home to the UK, where the job with Vodafone was waiting for him, but a long-awaited permanent job came through from Unitec, so he happily returned as an International Relationship Manager in 2017.

With such a broad portfolio to manage, Ben recently committed to setting up a base in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City for 3 months. He says it’s important to be on the ground in key markets, to grow and establish relationships, and to be on-hand to respond to opportunities and address the challenges – an important part of building Unitec’s profile and presence.

Ben running an Agent training session in Cebu, Philipines (also pictured below left)

In Vietnam, Ben’s focus will be primarily on working with agents, which is an important ‘two-way’ relationship. Agents represent us in-market and counsel students on educational opportunities overseas, as well as helping with completing applications and the visa process. They know what their customers want, so Ben works closely with our agents to establish how we can capitalise on that. He provides agents with training on our programmes, facilities and services to make sure they know what’s great about Unitec – our key selling points.

Ben will also be marketing Unitec at educational fairs and, using Ho Chi Minh City as his base, will spend time in his other key SE Asian markets.

‘Relationship building’ is also about having a bit of fun with the team you’re working with!

There are clearly defined targets and goals to meet for each territory which focus on increasing EFTs and market share. These are challenging due to the ever-changing market needs. In the past New Zealand/English-speaking qualifications provided an international student with an edge over those who didn’t, so travelling to English speaking countries to pursue further education was an attractive option, despite the significantly higher fees international students have to pay.

Australia has always been our biggest competitor and also Canada which, despite the distance, is another attractive proposition due to their more welcoming approach to immigration and work rights for international students and graduates. We’re also now seeing English speaking institutions setting up campuses offshore

…and this is one of things Ben won’t be doing while away… using a scooter to get to meetings. Using the most popular form of transport in Asia, motorbikes and scooters, is not covered by Unitec’s travel insurance policy (even if it is on the back of an Agent’s scooter)!

to develop their in-market qualification delivery. This strategy is currently being implemented across both the SE Asian and Greater China regions and is likely to expand to other markets in the not so distant future.

This is why having boots on the ground in our international markets is so important to ensure we’re taking the time to build our international partnerships with local education providers. This is another focus area for Ben, and when he visits Malaysia, he’ll be looking at developing credit transfer pathway partnerships where we can provide cross-credits to students who have successfully graduated at one of our partner institutions This will reduce the amount of time a student will need to study at Unitec and the overall costs involved for them, but will still contribute greatly to maintaining our market share.

Ben is looking forward to the warmer weather of SE Asia and immersing himself in the culture, but knows he will be working much longer days as is the custom in SE Asia, and will have to deal with the intensity of Asia’s enormous cities and the challenges of getting around. He will also miss his friends and colleagues, so make sure you keep in touch with Ben!

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Our international partnerships – you can read about one of our longer term partnerships in this Nest article Hangzhou Polytechnic praises Unitec’s approach to teaching.

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