As a newer Technological University formed through significant institutional integration, South East Technological University (SETU) operates in a context familiar to many senior leaders in international education: growing international ambition, increasing organisational complexity, heightened student expectations, and sustained pressure on resources.
For SETU, the challenge has not been a lack of data about international students, but rather how to turn the student voice into a credible, shared evidence base that supports strategic decision‑making across recruitment, admissions, pre‑arrival and onboarding. The International Student Barometer (ISB) has become a key tool in addressing that challenge.
SETU has been deliberate in how ISB results are positioned internally. Rather than treating the survey as a retrospective satisfaction report, ISB is used as a diagnostic tool to guide action and prioritisation.
As Dr Colm Walsh, Global Business Development Manager at SETU, explains:
“At SETU, we’ve found the ISB most valuable when we treat it not as a satisfaction scorecard but as a diagnostic tool to guide action and prioritisation.”
Central to this approach has been the use of derived importance analysis, which has helped fundamentally reshape internal conversations. Instead of reacting to individual scores in isolation, teams focus on understanding which aspects of the student experience most strongly influence confidence, advocacy, and recommendation.
“That has helped us move internal conversations from ‘this didn’t score well’ to ‘if we improve this, it will have a measurable impact on the student experience’.”
In practice, this has enabled SETU to focus on a smaller number of high‑impact priorities, rather than attempting to address every issue simultaneously — an approach that has proved particularly valuable in the context of ongoing institutional development.
ISB’s year‑on‑year dimension has played a critical role in building confidence in the data at senior leadership level. Trend analysis allows leaders to see where progress is being sustained, where momentum is slowing, and where further intervention may be required.
“Being able to show trends — what has improved, what has held steady, and where momentum has slipped — has given the data real credibility with senior leadership,” says Colm.
This longitudinal perspective has positioned ISB as a tool for informed decision‑making, rather than post‑hoc reporting, supporting planning discussions and investment decisions over time.
One of the most significant insights for SETU has been around the timing of experience formation. ISB results made clear that many international student perceptions are formed well before arrival on campus, particularly during the offer‑to‑arrival period.
This insight prompted a reassessment of how SETU approaches admissions communications, pre‑arrival engagement and cross‑team coordination — especially given the university’s relatively high use of recruitment agents.
Rachel Ni Neill, Senior Staff Officer - International, (speaking on a UniLife webinar) highlighted the clarity ISB brought to communication preferences:
“One of the results again from the ISB is that 91% of our students said that they really preferred email communication through the admissions process.”
Importantly, ISB also revealed how those preferences evolve over time. While students value clear, personalised, “black and white” communication during admissions, their needs change once an offer is secured.
“Once they have their offer and then they're moving towards accepting, then they're no longer interested in getting black and white emails from us,” Rachel explained.
“Then, at that stage, it’s all about peer engagement, ambassador engagement, and engagement with students who are already here.”
These findings have underpinned a more segmented, journey‑aware communications strategy, helping SETU balance clarity, personalisation and community‑building at different points in the cycle.
ISB has also provided SETU with a robust mechanism for evaluating and managing external recruitment partners. Agent performance can be difficult to assess objectively, yet ISB benchmarking has offered valuable reassurance from the student perspective.
“They are also rated very highly on the International Student Barometer, satisfaction with 91% of students rating our agents good or very good,” Rachel noted.
For SETU, this data has reinforced the importance of maintaining close alignment with external stakeholders, while also ensuring that the student voice remains central in evaluating partnership effectiveness.
Perhaps one of the most important impacts of ISB at SETU has been its role in fostering alignment across internal teams.
Recruitment, admissions, student services and academic areas now reference a shared evidence base when discussing the international student journey. This has helped move conversations away from anecdote and assumption towards a more constructive, evidence‑led dialogue.
As Rachel observed:
“Students really experience one university, not five different internal departments.”
Grounding discussions in ISB findings has reduced siloed thinking and supported a more coherent, end‑to‑end approach to international student experience design.
Colm echoes this sentiment: “From our perspective, this is where ISB has real value - especially as a newer TU which has undergone and is undergoing significant integration / restructuring. It cuts through assumptions, supports prioritisation, and gives leaders a credible, student‑voice‑led basis for improvement.”
At SETU, the International Student Barometer has become more than a survey. It functions as a common language that connects the international student voice with strategic intent, operational decision‑making and continuous improvement.
In an environment of ongoing change and increasing scrutiny, SETU’s experience demonstrates how ISB can support institutions not only to measure student experience, but to shape it deliberately, coherently and sustainably.