Psychic Distance within the Realm of International Student Retention
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Martynova, Yekaterina
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University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
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The major contribution of this paper is a conceptual one. Having studied dozens of
scholarly works about international student recruitment and retention and the concept of psychic
distance, there was not a single article that connected the two together. To converge the two, this
paper attempted applying the concept of psychic distance, which is typically used in international
relationship marketing, to recruitment and retention of international students to US universities.
More specifically, it was used to assist the Office of International Education at UW-Stevens
Point in finding better ways of recruiting and retaining new internationals.
It has long been established that simply offering a product is not enough to run a
successful business. Knowing customers and building long-lasting relationships with them is a
priority for any business venture as it provides for better tailoring of services and fostering brand
loyalty. Recruitment and retention of international students to US educational institutions is a
type of a business relationship that poses additional challenges due to cultural differences as well
as differences in language, economic and political structures, and business practices among
others.
Even though every stage of international student recruitment demands rigorous
communication and establishment of long-lasting relationships, one of the more challenging
stages is the dormant period between a student’s admission and their enrollment. Their physical
absence in the country of their upcoming studies creates additional obstacles to effective
communication, knowledge transfers, and relationship establishment because both parties are not
fully acquainted and there is a lot of uncertainty on both sides. So, knowing and measuring the
ways in which international students differ can help us learn more about them and improve our
ability to foster a close relationship with them. More precisely, it can be done through measuring
levels of psychic distance of newly admitted students in order to adapt the frequency and means
of communication they most expect and/or desire based on their unique cultural backgrounds. Unluckily or not, there is little agreement among scholars and researchers about
operationalizing and measuring psychic distance. This fact provided for an opportunity to
explore its different angles and multiple ways to measure it in an attempt to find the most
suitable way for the purposes of the international office at UWSP. As this attempt is first of its
kind, a comparative analysis of all measures of psychic distance was conducted, the best measure
was chosen, explained, and justified for specific purposes of the OIE.