Matching tool for International Student Recruitment: South Korea

Purpose and goal

The objective of Korea Talent Race, KTR, has been to increase the number of students fronm Korea that study at Swedish universities. Another objective has been to gain increased knowledge of the third largest student market in the world. KTR appears to have been an important tool to reach out to Korean students. The goal of recruiting 200 new students by 2017 will however, not be reached. Knowledge about the market, how Sweden is perceived and how online competitions can be used in different markets has increased though.

Expected results and effects

Marketing takes time to have effect. The long term effects of that eight Korean students got scholarships to study in Sweden together with the fact the a number of other Korean students were recruited to Sweden can only be seen in a few years time. Successful alumni can have great impact on recruitment in the longer term.

Planned approach and implementation

Korea Talent Race was conducted in two larger and in two smaller rounds (summer competitions) during the fall -winter 2014/2015 the summer of 2015 and the fall-winter 2015/2016 and summer of 2016. In the larger rounds, contestants could win scholarships to study at Swedish universities. Better results could probably have been achieved if the competitions had focused on more specific subject areas. Another possibility is that better results could have been achieved with more and smaller competitions with smaller prizes.