Sample Host Family Application

October 9, 2010

Choosing host families for your international education or language program takes significant time and effort. Matching prospective students with families willing to open their hearts and home to a foreign student who is studying English as a Second Language (or any other language or subject, for that matter) requires skill, patience, background checks and a fine balance between working with the people that you have in your pool of students and families and ensuring that some basic requirements are met.

The first step in setting up your host family selection process is to develop your host family application. The application needs to include more than just the name and address of the family. You also want to ask questions about lifestyle, such us: do they allow smoking in the home?

The local police service in many communities will perform security checks for a small fee. Adult members of the household should include a police security check, as you will want to know if anyone in the household has had criminal charges brought against them, or if there have been incidents of domestic violence in the home.

The more questions you ask up front, the better chance you’ll have of selecting excellent families to host your students.

Here’s a sample host or billet family application that you can download and adapt to your own needs. Remember to include a statement about privacy if your area requires you to do so when you collect personal information.

Related posts:

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Factors international students consider when choosing where to study

October 1, 2010

A recent article posted by Inside HigherEd, originally written by John Morgan for Times Higher Ed. talks about what motivates international students. The article reveals the results of The British Council’s Student Decision Making Survey, which includes information gathered from around 115,000 students, from 200 countries. There are three major priorities identified by international students which affect their decision of where to study abroad. The article reports that “higher quality is cited by 54.2 percent, followed by career improvement (53.8 percent) and the chance to live overseas (51.5 per cent).”

Quality outranked price as being a factor in the decision-making process of international students. Prospective students are more interested in getting value for their educational dollar (or Euro, won, yen, real, peso, etc.) than they are in finding a bargain, it seems.

The article also talked about changes in the market. Specifically, countries who traditionally have not offered courses in English are starting to do so. Nordic countries were cited as the example. If more countries start to offer formal education in English, students may be less tempted to study abroad. There will have to be something else in it for them other than learning the language. Cultural immersion, a chance to experience the world, adventure, the opportunity to travel and perhaps explore job opportunities, may become more important factors than the language alone.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

The biggest mistake educators make when marketing new programs

September 17, 2010

My first job in educational administration was in 1989 at Saint Mary’s University. I worked in what was then the Division of Continuing Education. Part of my job was to promote current and new programs. I’ve learned a thing or two over the past twenty years of working in education. What’s the biggest challenge of marketing of new educational programs?

One word: Impatience.

As educators, we tell our students that they need to study regularly. We tell them that consistent effort over time brings results. We tell them to set aside time every day for their studies. We tell them that if they put in the work, that they’ll see results… but they just have to be patient.  If we followed the same advice, we’d be much better at promoting educational programs.

Instead, administrators want results NOW. If a program is posted in the course calendar in one semester and it doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for registrations, it’s canned. Wiped off the books. Written off.

Imagine if you saw a student giving up so easily after getting less than stellar results on a test. Would you say, “Yeah, you’re right. You bombed this first test, so clearly you don’t have what it takes…”

No, of course not! You’d sit down with the student, review the results, determine strategies to improve and then monitor their progress. We can do the same thing with educational programs. If a new program bombs the first time, examine the results and try to figure out why. Develop some new marketing strategies and go out and try them. Keep an eye on your process and watch for improvements.

If we promoted our programs with the same vigilance and patience that we have with our students, we’d have better long term results.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Rosetta Stone’s Marketing Woes

September 7, 2010

Today’s issue of Bloomberg Businessweek featured a story entitled “Rosetta Stone’s Management and Marketing Woes”. For some people, Rosetta Stone is the pinnacle of technology-based language learning. It has become somewhat of a household name among language learners. In 2009 the company went public, selling shares that increased in value almost immediately. A year later however, stock prices have dropped, leaving investors wary.

One reason cited for the company’s downfall was unsophisticated marketing. Sure, they ran ads on TV, but it seems what they lacked was a long-term, comprehensive marketing strategy that accounts for the ups and downs of the economy. This is a topic I’ve written about both in articles and in my PhD thesis.

Marketing in good economic times is easy because money flows freely. Marketing during an economic downturn requires more creativity, more tenacity, more focus and better strategies.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

OECD Report: Doing more with less

September 3, 2010

Check out this new report OECD that will be presented at the upcoming OECD conference in Paris:

Higher Education in a World Changed Utterly: Doing More with Less – Discussion Paper

by Mary-Louise Kearney and Richard Yelland

OECD/IMHE Conference, 13 – 15 September 2010, Paris, France

This is an insightful and timely paper that covers issues of post-secondary education during an economic recovery, post-crisis world.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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