Integrating Immersion Programs

Mark Rentz explains how and why universities should re-align their Intensive English Programs to better serve the long-term goals of students and the university as a whole

We are focusing on the “five-year” student and not the “five week” or “five month” student. In 2011, we spent $320,000 marketing ASU to a larger international audience. To encourage student flow from the IEP to ASU, we reduced our commission to agents that send students only to the IEP in order to double it for agents that help students come to the IEP as conditionally admitted students. Another re-alignment was the creation of a university-wide international brochure for marketing and recruiting purposes. The international brochure focuses on the excellent graduate and undergraduate programs at ASU and the position of the IEP within the larger university. We printed and paid for 30,000 copies and now, all international departments, and even upper leadership, use this international recruiting tool. In response to the growing number of conditionally admitted students who have come to the IEP with “three-year” or “five-year” scholarships, we hired two sponsored student coordinators to provide the highest levels of support and customer service to these students and their sponsors. Academically we raised passing grade requirements in all of our levels, slashed the number of minutes students can be absent from class, and created classes that prepare students for popular university departments and colleges. We surveyed our IEP students for future areas of study at ASU and created a number of academic English courses, including English for Science and Technology, Sustainability, Architecture, Nutrition, Engineering, Business, and Native American Studies.
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