IQ – Helping Partners Achieve their Goals with IDP Data Intelligence and Analytics Services

IDP is ideally placed to recognise that sustainable and scalable growth is increasingly challenging for higher education institutions. Socio-economic and policy uncertainty, shifting demand trends, and highly competitive markets are all contributing factors that threaten student recruitment goals and outcomes.

Our primary focus at IDP Connect is to help institution clients achieve their strategic goals and the IQ team’s expertise and innovation is a pivotal component of our products and support package. Our data scientists, research professionals and higher education consultants work with IDP’s student-facing counsellors to provide institutions with unique insights, trusted advice, and the tools and support services they need.

Through the development of various data products and services, including IQ Subscription, IQ Consultancy, and our new IQ Analytics service, the IQ team has built a diverse suite that clients can rely on to inform their recruitment and marketing efforts, and to help them stand out in the highly competitive international education marketplace. 

In this article we take a look at what makes IQ datasets so extraordinarily essential and unique, and how our clients are using the information we provide.

The rise in the use of data to drive strategy within the international education sector has been exponential over the last few years and IDP Connect’s IQ team focuses continually on developing data products and services to support our clients’ goals and address the challenges of brand positioning, portfolio offering, market strategy and long-term vision in terms of both UK domestic and international recruitment.

The IQ team creates and manages IDP’s self-service data analytics products which provide access to both UK and International datasets. The team also delivers thought leadership, bespoke consultancy and analytics services, and new data products and services that assist clients with student recruitment and portfolio challenges.

The team is dedicated to continuous innovation and improvement, and each team member is motivated to provide the best experience for clients. Through our emphasis on teamwork across IDP and collaboration with our clients, the IQ team is able to provide the most comprehensive data analytics services in the higher education sector that focus on:

• Institution brand impact that communicates value proposition.

• Portfolio strategy to meet student demand.

• Go-to-market identification of the countries to target and local market strategy.

• Enrolment forecasting to futureproof financial and operational needs for international recruitment.

• Identifying the right domestic student audience by course and region.

• Strategic insight on domestic product positioning and student engagement.

We know more international students than ever before are considering multiple destinations for their studies and that each destination possesses different qualities students find attractive. As a result, the competition among educational institutions has increased significantly. It can be challenging for institutions to ensure they have a diverse portfolio mix while also developing effective recruitment and marketing strategies to attract and engage the most suitable international students.

As a student placement specialist, with a clear student-first approach, we have a unique understanding of how overwhelming it can be for students to navigate the world of higher education. Our student-facing services, which assist students from the start of their education search, through application, enrolment, and arrival at their study destination, mean we have a wealth of experience in understanding student needs. It also provides us with a vast amount of data. This rich data, which comes from our global scale, means we are able to provide expert insights to help institutions make informed decisions about their recruitment and marketing strategies.

Driving your diversification strategy with IQ

IQ plays an essential role in helping institutions analyse data, gain insights, and develop targeted strategies to diversify their student populations. Our data helps clients identify which source markets to focus on and our granular data, down to city level, allows for diversity across source countries to be considered.

Additionally, our tools and services can assist institutions in diversifying by targeting students interested in specific programmes or sub-disciplines. By utilising our IQ resources, institutions can foster inclusivity, expand their reach, and create a welcoming environment for students from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

We offer three exceptional services: 

• IQ Subscription – provides self-serve real-time data and analytical tools that offer unparalleled insights into students' study intentions up to two years before enrolling.

• IQ Analytics – provides in-depth reports from our sector and data experts to enhance the subscription services, ensuring our clients receive the most comprehensive insights.

• IQ Consultancy – delivers customised, full-funnel strategic analysis using our complete range of unique data sets from UK and international sources, analytics, and expertise to help clients optimise their student recruitment strategies.

Our suite of IQ Services offers institutions data-driven insights, market intelligence, and strategic support to improve recruitment efforts for domestic and international students. These services help institutions stay competitive, attract suitable students, and optimise their recruitment strategies for better results.

Our international datasets cover the end-to-end student experience and are the most extensive available in one place, anywhere. We collect and analyse:

• 2.8m+ student course search records from our sites per month

• 370k+ student applications via our international counsellor network per year

• 100k+ international course fees every year, for comparison purposes.

• Numerous other destination-specific visa and enrolment datasets (e.g. HESA, IPEDS, IRCC, DESE, etc.)

IQ’s real-time, in-cycle UK Domestic datasets provide insight into the study intentions of UK students - collecting data in a rolling 2-year basis. Top features include:

• 17m+ annual site visits across 3 UK sites

• Tracking UG & PG prospective student research behaviour

• Ability to filter by study level, clearing, origin and destination regions, mission groups, subject and disciplines

• Identify trends based on region, course spread, course age profile and more

On the ground intelligence for international recruitment: IDP counsellors work with international students every day, and these interactions provide us with unique insights into student drivers. Through data gathered from counsellor network interviews and surveys, we help clients understand their institution's reputation in the market and the appeal of their programme and scholarship offerings.

Most importantly, we can show our clients how their recruitment performance compares with other institutions and help them understand the opportunities available. We also support them in optimising their recruitment strategies in their target markets.

Global presence: IDP’s wide-ranging network and global presence allows us to gather data from many markets. This provides us with a comprehensive understanding of international student trends, preferences, and behaviours on a global scale. Our datasets are derived from a vast and continuously updated student information database, which includes student enquiries, course choices, institutions of interest, and more. We constantly update the database to ensure the data remains relevant and reflects current market dynamics in real time.

Real-time data for domestic and international recruitment: Unlike many other datasets, which are usually 12-24 months old, we offer up-to-date information.

We can see the programmes, courses and institutions students have explored, the types of content they are engaging with, and where they have applied. We can also identify when students ultimately decide to attend a different institution than they initially considered. This helps us create bespoke insights for institutions so they can identify what is working for them and for other institutions.

We use advanced analytics, data science techniques, and intuitive visualisations to help clients derive actionable insights from our self-serve tools. In addition, our team of analysts and researchers, who are destination experts, specialise in interpreting the data, identifying trends, and providing invaluable intelligence to institutions. Our data-driven approach ensures that institutions can make informed decisions based on evidence and trends.

IQ’s suite of tools and services provides distinguishable benefits for UK institutions’ domestic recruitment. By utilising the largest live UK student dataset combined with our unique analytical tools, we provide self-serve, real-time insights into the study intentions of students at the top of the funnel and throughout via our IQ Subscription service. Our new IQ Analytics service takes our unique data sets and combines them with the expertise of our in-house experts to provide in-depth reports and insights, while our IQ Consultancy service is a bespoke modular service with analysis tools including competitor analysis and positioning, institution and subject demand analysis, and portfolio and course analysis.

Our most recent innovation, IQ Analytics, is the perfect solution for clients who are short on time or resources for data analysis. Our in-house sector and data experts, armed with our unique datasets, deliver up to four comprehensive reports within a 12-month period. These reports provide exclusive insights and intelligence beyond our standard subscription services.

We understand that each client has unique needs and challenges, so each report is a bespoke analysis, created to suit the specific institution. We also incorporate additional data sources such as sector data, IDP application and enrolment data, and other datasets that will provide useful insights. Our IQ Analytics service offers clients the most comprehensive and tailored analysis.

Find out more about IQ

Samir Shah, IDP Connect’s Head of Intelligence and Analytics, says, “My team and I have a simple but powerful goal: to help our clients make the best data-informed decisions to achieve their strategic goals.

“We're dedicated to continuous innovation and improvement, and each team member is motivated to learn and grow. Through our emphasis on teamwork and collaboration across IDP and with our clients, we're able to provide the most comprehensive data analytics service in the higher education sector today.”

Learn more about our International Subscription and Consultancy services

Learn more about our Domestic Subscription and Consultancy services