The September intake: the last four weeks

Four weeks out from a September intake, the recruitment question is settled. What remains is whether the students who accepted actually arrive, and that is a different job with a different rhythm.

What should be happening

• Visa tracking by name. Not a count — a list, with who is waiting on what.
• Accommodation confirmed for every arriving student, with the contract dates communicated.
• Flight and arrival details collected, so somebody knows who lands when.
• A pre-departure briefing, in Vietnamese, covering money, phone, weather and the first week.
• One direct contact with the parents, which is the difference between an anxious family and a confident one.

Where students are lost at this stage

Almost never to a competitor. They are lost to a visa delay nobody was tracking, a document that turned out to be missing, or a family that grew anxious in silence and decided to wait a year. All three are addressable by attention rather than money.

The one number to watch

Accepted-but-not-yet-visa-lodged, by name, updated weekly. It is the leading indicator of a shortfall, and it is visible four weeks before the shortfall is.

Conversion support before intake: VNIS Recruitment Center (VRC) →