Southern Alberta Institute of Technology IDP IQ Case Study

Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) wanted to increase the total number of international students at their school over the next 3-5 years. To achieve this goal, SAIT needed real-time student demand data for popular programs by subject and study level to identify gaps in their current portfolio and to guide investment in program expansion.

SAIT partnered with IDP Connect IQ to better understand and identify the gap between its current portfolio and the demand in key international markets.

IDP Connect IQ provided SAIT with:

• A comprehensive analysis of real-time demand trends at a subject and program level

• A portfolio gap analysis -future proofing course portfolios through demand-side gap analysis and opportunity identification

• Custom dashboards, periodic updates, final report including recommendations and presentation to stakeholders

How will you use the IQ data and analysis?

We are using it to help us make decisions on what new programs to develop and offer at SAIT, as well as using it in tactical marketing and recruitment activities in key markets.

What strategies have you or will you implement from these findings?

We plan to use the data to target our marketing resources/strategies for our in-demand programs in markets where the IDP Connect IQ data indicates strong demand – all the way down to the city level.

What impressed you about the research?

We were impressed by the level of geographic detail the data provided us. We also liked the gap analysis function, which we found useful in benchmarking against our peer post-secondary institutions. In addition, we liked the heat mapping function by discipline and markets/country.

Anything else you'd like to add about your experience with IDP Connect IQ?

We like having the Tableau dashboard with all our results available. We are able to revisit the data to validate (or not) some of our assumptions and adjust decisions and recruitment activities accordingly. We also appreciated the final presentation where we were able to discuss the data/findings with the IDP Connect IQ data team.