Selected work
Four case studies and a working perspective, from five years working in UK universities. The themes run from partnerships and agent networks to conversion and budgets. Ask me about any of them.
Making partnerships flourish
The case studies cover specific projects. This one steps back to the model behind them: how you actually run a signed progression or articulation agreement, day to day, so the partnership keeps growing. It comes down to internal alignment, a year-round engagement calendar, looking after applicants properly, commercial awareness, and an annual review so each intake feeds the next.
The Vietnam opportunity
Asked whether the university should put recruitment resource into Vietnam, I wrote a proper investment case for it. Vietnam has a hundred million people and its outbound students mostly fund themselves, so I mapped the competition and the regulatory openings, then set out the subjects to lead with, a region-by-region digital plan, and the transnational partnerships worth pursuing. It was written for senior leadership to take in quickly and still stand up to detailed questions.
The China country plan
China is the university’s largest source market, but volume does not make a strategy. I built the annual country plan from the ground up: regional segmentation, a tiered partner framework across 60+ agents, an engagement calendar aligned to the Chinese academic cycle, and CRM pipeline reporting in Slate. The plan also drew on direct in-country market intelligence gathered through fair attendance and school visits across multiple cities.
The dual-degree partnership
I helped take a dual master’s degree, run jointly with a Russell Group partner, from QA sign-off through to a live, compliant programme. That meant getting two institutions, two academic calendars and three internal teams pulling in the same direction.
I kept the QA milestones on track, sorted out the CAS and entry-requirement detail, worked with senior academics on course mapping and how we pitched it, and brought ambassadors and channel partners on board. Once recruitment went live, I stayed the main point of contact.
The Taster Lecture series
To lift conversion, I ran a taster-lecture programme that pulled together academics, marketing, enrolment and student ambassadors. The old step-by-step process kept creating bottlenecks, so I scrapped it for one shared tracker that every team could update at the same time.
With clear deadlines and owners, the academics could focus on teaching rather than logistics. I ran the live online sessions myself, handling the setup, the delivery on the day, and any problems staff or attendees ran into.
“Around 40 sessions across the year, 100+ registrations each, and a closing data review shared with the wider team.”
From 20 to 60 partners
When our London campus came under its Boston headquarters, there was no shared way of managing agents and the handovers between offices were messy. I held review meetings with in-country staff, went through every agent we had, and picked out the ones worth backing under a clear tier structure.
I put together a simple workflow and straightforward forms, dealt with the contracts, commission letters and compliance myself, and let local staff set the commission tiers they knew would actually motivate people. Data protection stayed tight throughout.
“Hands-on training and a simpler process grew the active network from 20 to 60 partners in a year, lifting total applications by nearly 20%.”
Me in videos
I took part in recording an online video that guides international students through the UK visa application process, turning a step many find stressful into clear, practical advice.
“Around 40 sessions across the year, 100+ registrations each — and a closing data review shared with the wider team.”