Making Real Connections Through Higher Education

Audit your enrollment process for rigid decision trees that turn students away
As Dr. Mask put it: "If you create processes that are so rigid that they must, the criteria to get through the process is one option, each step is one option, that's one of the biggest barriers to keeping students from engaging with an institution." International students in particular encounter enrollment workflows built around domestic applicant assumptions. If every step has only one acceptable answer, you're screening out qualified students before they ever speak to an advisor. Review your process from an international student's perspective and identify where flexibility could be added without compromising compliance.

Start global partnerships with values alignment, not operational logistics
SNHU's partnerships in Vietnam, Malaysia, Latin America, India, and refugee camps in Africa and the Middle East didn't begin with capacity or fee structures. They began with shared mission. Institutions chasing scale through global partnerships often get the relationship backwards, spending time on logistics before confirming whether both organizations actually believe in the same things. Dr. Mask argues that when values match, the operational details become solvable. When they don't, no contract makes up for it.

Replace passive programming with active listening to retain international students
Hosting a cultural event isn't the same as making a student feel seen. Dr. Mask draws a clear line between institutions that schedule programming for international students and those that actively listen to what those students need. The distinction matters for retention: students who feel understood are far more likely to stay enrolled and recommend the institution. This means building feedback mechanisms into advising workflows and training student-facing staff to ask better questions, not just answer them.

Treat AI as a literacy challenge, not a policy problem
Dr. Mask's position on AI: "It's not something to fight, it's something to understand, utilize, educate our students on, educate our faculty on." Institutions developing AI policy in isolation from their international programs are missing the point. In emerging markets, acceptance of online learning and AI tools is arriving at the same time, with no prior separation between the two. Recruitment and enrollment teams serving these markets need to get ahead of AI literacy as a student support issue, not just an academic integrity question.

Watch regional study abroad as a recruitment channel, not just an outbound program
The rise of Asia-to-Asia student mobility is an underexamined trend with direct implications for international recruitment pipelines. Dr. Mask flags this as a shift worth paying attention to over the next five years. Institutions that build regional partnerships within Asia, rather than focusing exclusively on Asia-to-Western-institution flows, are positioning themselves for a sourcing channel that most competitors haven't prioritized yet. It's worth tracking now, before it becomes obvious.

Social capital is something you build through intentionality, not proximity
Dr. Mask's book Social Capital 2.0 reframes social capital as potential rather than a fixed asset: every relationship carries possibility, but only if the effort is there. "The intentionality of creating deep, meaningful relationships is worth something. And I don't know how, but I feel like in certain ways, we've kind of lost that along the way." For enrollment and partnerships teams, this is a reminder that volume of connections doesn't substitute for quality. Fewer, better relationships tend to produce better outcomes than broad, shallow networks."