It’s All About Balance:
Managing an Unbalanced Exchange Program
By Ben McKelfresh, Iowa State University
If you have ever worked with exchange programs, you have likely run into the situation where your exchange has become unbalanced. Perhaps some of your applicants withdrew at the last minute or programs were redistributed within your office, making an unstable exchange program your new responsibility.
First, a little background on me. I work at the Iowa State University Study Abroad Center, where I have two main areas of responsibility: program coordination and marketing. I inherited a few exchange programs in 2018 when one of my coworkers left and found myself in this very situation with an exchange in England where we had sent 103 students and received 114.
In addition to being 11 semester spots behind, I received an email from the partner asking if they could send 11 academic year (22 semester spots) students in 2019/2020! I was looking at a situation where our institution could be more than 30 spots out of balance! Before I go on, let me say that I have a healthy relationship with this partner, so I felt comfortable asking for a compromise of six academic year students instead of the original 11.
I wanted to write this article to share how I am currently addressing this situation, focusing on various promotional efforts to hopefully repair the unbalanced exchange. The marketing activities I am using to recruit for this exchange could be organized into one of the following three categories: old-school, millennial-friendly, and thinking outside the box.
Old school promotional activities, or in other words, promotion not involving technology:
Thinking outside the box marketing activities
This could also be called “being in the right place at the right time!” Shortly after I had been asked by our partner to accept 11 students for the next academic year, I found myself meeting with a study abroad colleague from another institution in Iowa. She inquired whether or not we had any partners in England to recommend as their demand was not being met through existing partnerships. I mentioned that I was very pleased with both of my exchange partners in England. In addition to needing a new partner in England, my colleague’s office was short-staffed.
We then had an idea - why not have my colleague’s students attend my exchange in England? I like to think of this idea as a triple win:
I have applicants in the pipeline to go to England for both the Fall 2019 and Academic Year 2019/2020. I am hoping to send at least 10 Iowa State students during 2019/2020 and around five from the other school in Iowa.
If we reach this goal, the exchange balance will be off by eight, which is better than 11. Also, for those of you that have worked with English universities on an exchange program, you may know that their students can withdraw for a variety of reasons, one being low test scores. So if only four or five of the original six make it to Iowa State, my balance will be even better off and should be able to be on track by the end of the 2020/2021 academic year.
Correcting an unbalanced exchange program is more of a marathon than a sprint. It may take two to three years when using this gradual approach. Sure it would have been easier to tell the partner that we cannot accept anyone for 2019/2020, but taking that line could have been harmful to our partnership.
First, a little background on me. I work at the Iowa State University Study Abroad Center, where I have two main areas of responsibility: program coordination and marketing. I inherited a few exchange programs in 2018 when one of my coworkers left and found myself in this very situation with an exchange in England where we had sent 103 students and received 114.
In addition to being 11 semester spots behind, I received an email from the partner asking if they could send 11 academic year (22 semester spots) students in 2019/2020! I was looking at a situation where our institution could be more than 30 spots out of balance! Before I go on, let me say that I have a healthy relationship with this partner, so I felt comfortable asking for a compromise of six academic year students instead of the original 11.
I wanted to write this article to share how I am currently addressing this situation, focusing on various promotional efforts to hopefully repair the unbalanced exchange. The marketing activities I am using to recruit for this exchange could be organized into one of the following three categories: old-school, millennial-friendly, and thinking outside the box.
Old school promotional activities, or in other words, promotion not involving technology:
- Work with campus departments with strong academic ties to the program to promote it to their students
- Posters around campus
- Display case in the Memorial Union student center
- Prime study abroad fair table location and staffing using program alumni and current English exchange students
- Social media posting, images on Instagram from this location in England and sharing promotional videos from the host university
- Study abroad office homepage banner featuring program hyperlinked to more information
- Online program brochure (we use Terra Dotta) with high resolution promotional photos supplied by exchange partner
Thinking outside the box marketing activities
This could also be called “being in the right place at the right time!” Shortly after I had been asked by our partner to accept 11 students for the next academic year, I found myself meeting with a study abroad colleague from another institution in Iowa. She inquired whether or not we had any partners in England to recommend as their demand was not being met through existing partnerships. I mentioned that I was very pleased with both of my exchange partners in England. In addition to needing a new partner in England, my colleague’s office was short-staffed.
We then had an idea - why not have my colleague’s students attend my exchange in England? I like to think of this idea as a triple win:
- Iowa State wins because we can send more students to our partner in order to strike a more balanced exchange program.
- The other school in Iowa wins because I can assist their students who want to go to England while they are short-staffed and in addition, they can test drive a partnership with this university in England to possibly partner in the future.
- The exchange partner in England wins because this will help restore balance in the exchange and allow them to send more students in the future. In addition, they would also get to test drive a partnership with this university in Iowa.
I have applicants in the pipeline to go to England for both the Fall 2019 and Academic Year 2019/2020. I am hoping to send at least 10 Iowa State students during 2019/2020 and around five from the other school in Iowa.
If we reach this goal, the exchange balance will be off by eight, which is better than 11. Also, for those of you that have worked with English universities on an exchange program, you may know that their students can withdraw for a variety of reasons, one being low test scores. So if only four or five of the original six make it to Iowa State, my balance will be even better off and should be able to be on track by the end of the 2020/2021 academic year.
Correcting an unbalanced exchange program is more of a marathon than a sprint. It may take two to three years when using this gradual approach. Sure it would have been easier to tell the partner that we cannot accept anyone for 2019/2020, but taking that line could have been harmful to our partnership.
