Peter Hanami: New visa changes to impact international student recruitment - difficulties exist in recruiting the most profitable student markets

According to The Australian, Higher Education section, forthcoming visa changes may impact international student recruitment for Australian education institutions.

"India, China and Nepal continued to be strong growth markets, but those such as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan continued to decline."

It seems that even though there is good growth in the sector there is difficulty in recruiting the most profitable student markets.


Source: Tougher immigration rules for Indian students
Guy Healy | September 03, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24284358-12332,00.html


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Peter Hanami: Full disclosure - education institutions can only benefit from sharing as much information with customers

It looks like we are on the same wave length when it comes to disclosing information to students and customers. It seems the Australian Federal government is talking about all schools in Australia being more transparent. This can only be a good thing. Let 's hope it soon applies to all customers including international not just domestic students.


"Ms Gillard is proposing schools make public as much information as they can, from the qualifications of their teachers to comparing their students' performance and improvement against groups of similar schools."


Source:"School choice is 'guesswork': Julia Gillard"
Justine Ferrari and David Nason, August 23, 2008

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Peter Hanami: How cultural integration impacts on marketing decisions

Photo: Leafy street in a Perth suburb, Australia

"Acculturation measures the integration of an individual to another culture. It is an individual process, as each person develops his or her own "acculturation style" and pace.We reference this at three main levels: unacculturated, bi cultural and acculturated"
Liria Barosa & Angelina Villarreal


Source: Acculturation levels play role in marketing strategy
Liria Barosa & Angelina Villarreal
Knowledge Base
Marketing News, February 15th 2008, page 26
American Marketing Association


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Peter Hanami: When will education institutions provide Japanese international students the metrics they need to make a study decision?

Photo: A class room in Japan

Education institutions the world over are in a period of change as students can now travel and study in more locations. This change also means the way education is packaged and marketed to students has changed.


Education is a mix of a service (teaching) and a product (a qualification). This is a new hybrid for marketing in which there is little knowledge and understanding as the focus is not on products but on people.


Education as a business is 110% based on people, people management. The qualification and skills are the end result. People marketing is new, particularly to education institutions. International education adds a new twist in that education institutions have to combine people marketing with cultural understanding. Not an easy feat. To be a player in international education institutions will need more staff who are highly trained, flexible, internationally focused, multicultural and bilingual. Quickly.

The student has now become a high paying, demanding customer and has more time, choice and flexibility in deciding where to study, what to study and with whom to study.

Education institutions the world over are just starting to grapple with the changes. Education as a business, student as a customer, the world as a market and education as a service, not a product.

For example: Japanese students in Tokyo can visit a range of education fairs throughout the year to learn about what education offerings are on offer in other countries.

Universities, technical colleges and English language schools all come and peddle their wares. Institutions try to dazzle Japanese students with Western marketing techniques, catchy phrases, glossy brochures, DVDs, t-shirts, coloured wrist bands and other sales promotion items.

What institutions fail to understand is what metrics Japanese students need, to be able to consider their educational offerings amongst all the hype. Japanese students have access to vast amounts of information about their own education institutions, in their own language and at their convenience.

Foreign education institutions wanting to gain the interest of Japanese international students need to research, publish and share their metrics.

Metrics such as email response times, relevance of information, web clicks before satisfaction, the technology skill of the institution and staff, the international experience of staff , the patience of staff toward non-English speakers and customer service (what systems, responses and follow up do they have)


These are basic metrics and yet foreign education institutions still do not provide them. Without such metrics Japanese students test each institution using a range of methods and evaluate institutions themselves and institutions never know why they were not selected.


Japanese students have their own metrics to rate education institutions on and unfortunately without access to an institutions metrics they can't begin to get excited about an institutions courses.


As international education becomes more competitive the focus on metrics will push foreign education institutions to reveal what students need to know. Not what they want to tell them, after they have paid for tuition.


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Peter Hanami: Book Review - Japan as Number one by Ezra Vogel - thirty years on

Book Review

Title: Japan as No.1- Lessons for America

Author: Ezra.F.Vogel

Publisher: Tokyo: Charles Tuttle, 1987

Details: 265pp:

ISBN: 4-8053-0470-7

Available at:Amazon.com

What has the West learned in thirty years?

Next year (2009) marks the nearly thirty year anniversary of Ezra Vogel's overview of the differences between Japanese and American industry. The book holds up very well and a first time reader will walk away with good insights into a still undiscovered and little known country, Japan. Vogel must have taken an enormous risk writing the book. He really broke all the rules, he spoke about an enemy, studied them in detail and then tried to tell his own country, to reflect and change.

It is important to note the setting in which the book was written. According to Vogel, "In gross national product per person, Japan passed the United States in 1977 or 1978", page 21. Finding a situation like this must have been dire and an immediate investigation must have been called for.

In my opinion Vogel did a good job at explaining, what happened, why and what to do. In hindsight it is disappointing that even after thirty years since its first publication; few of his insights have been further studied by western countries. For example: "the Shinkansen bullet trains are a model of passenger transportation that may yet influence American patterns as energy problems affect passenger car travel", p80

It is easy to label his work too positive toward all things Japanese, but it must be remembered that when one truly discovers through detailed study and observation a unique Japanese technique. It can be hard not to be in awe of it, as it may be something so simple but yet very powerful. That doesn't match anything in western logic and thinking.

He could have focused on negative aspects of the culture but that was not the aim of the book. It was aimed at making the reader consider that Japan could overtake America as the number one economic power. As an American he saw what was happening to America and dared to share his insights by observing a key competitor, Japan. His positive view can be seen more as a worried observer wanting changing after discovering insights of a serious competitor, rather than coming across as loving all things Japanese.

One must also put into perspective that Vogel's work is significant in that he put himself in a position to study the culture and tried to explain it to a western audience. Added to this one must also consider just how difficult it is for westerners to truly enter Japanese society. Vogel's lifetime of study, can hardly be compared in the same breath as a short term expat experience in the modern era.

Yes, Japan has changed over the past thirty years and the current economic situation is vastly different. Will Japan prosper in the future, who knows? I personally don't agree with all his observations but I do credit his detail and insight.

If one looks at the key premises of the book, it is not the systems that makes Japan unique and of interest, but the stability of the culture to adapt and keep changing. A key point that keeps recurring throughout the book is just how formidable the Japanese are as competitors, "very flexible in adjusting...to changed conditions", p70

Another premise equally important, is why the West doesn't study Japan, the way Japan studies the West. A very good question and one that is still hard to answer.

The book today would be of interest to academics, business leaders, small business and students preparing for study abroad in Japan.

Vogel's book is good from a historical perspective as it provides a window into the past and it can easily be used as a reference point from which to observe and understand the future. Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict provided western readers with an insight into the Japanese whereas Vogel provides an insight into Japanese society.

Does the book achieve its goal? I believe it does. One must read between the lines to get the true message of what is being said.

What can you take from the book thirty years on? Cultural insights, history and a detailed overview of how things work in Japan.

Rating: **** 4/5

Japan as Number One

Follow up book - Is Japan still Number One

Chrysanthemum and the Sword - Ruth Benedict

Most Recent work - Japan and China in the World Political Economy - 2007








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