Faculty visits: making an academic trip earn its cost

A professor flown to Vietnam for a week is one of the more expensive things an institution can deploy, and the itinerary is often built around whatever invitations arrived.

What academics are uniquely good at

• Talking to Vietnamese academics. Partnership conversations that an admissions officer cannot open.
• Answering the questions strong applicants ask — about research, supervision and what the programme is actually like.
• Being believed. A subject specialist describing their own field carries authority no marketing asset does.

What they are poor at, and should not be asked to do

Staffing a fair table for eight hours, repeating fee tables, and handling enquiry capture. It wastes the asset and they resent it, which affects whether they volunteer next time.

A better itinerary

• Two or three university meetings with a stated agenda and a named follow-up owner.
• One session for high-achieving students, in their subject, not a general talk.
• One agent briefing on the academic side of the programme, which is what agents cannot get anywhere else.
• Everything else handled by people whose job it is.

The part that determines the value

Who owns each conversation after the plane leaves. A trip with no named follow-up owner produces goodwill and nothing else.

Trip planning and coordination: Logistics Arrangement →