AI Training for Higher Education Promotion Professionals

Background

In June 2025, Campus France, on behalf of the European Commission, organised a two-day training in Paris for internationalisation and marketing staff from European higher education institutions, as part of the Study in Europe initiative. The training focused on the practical use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in international student recruitment and institutional promotion. 

EduEnable’s Managing Partner, Raul Ranne, was invited in his capacity as Senior Advisor to the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) which is partner in the initiative, to assist in designing the programme and to lead core components of the training. Similar AI-focused trainings had previously been delivered to other international stakeholders, including the Swiss national agency Movetia and EPITA, a French engineering school. 

Objectives

The training was designed to help European higher education institutions: 

• Understand the strategic implications of AI for international marketing and outreach; 

• Gain familiarity with concrete tools and use cases relevant to recruitment, targeting, and engagement; 

• Build internal capacity for responsible, effective AI adoption. 

EduEnable’s Role 

Raul Ranne led three training segments during the event: 

Strategic Framing: The Role of AI in Higher Education Marketing –A plenary to set the context, highlighting how AI is reshaping the international education landscape and what that means for institutional strategy. 

Tool Overview: What’s Available and What’s Useful – A session providing a curated overview of available generative AI tools (text, visual, data) and their potential application in higher education recruitment and promotion. 

Thematic Session: AI for Data Analysis and Targeting – a practical session focused on how institutions can use AI to improve audience segmentation, personalise outreach, and interpret large volumes of marketing data. 

The sessions combined live tool demonstrations, discussion of real-world examples, and guided prompts to help participants connect the tools to their own contexts. 

Audience and Format 

The training brought together participants from across Europe, with a strong representation from southern Europe and France. The audience included communications staff, international officers, and programme managers from both universities and national agencies. The format was interactive, with emphasis on peer exchange and applicability to daily tasks. 

Outcomes 

The training strengthened participants’ ability to critically engage with AI tools and assess their relevance to real-world institutional challenges. Several institutions expressed interest in exploring follow-up sessions or integrating AI capacity building into their staff development agendas. The event also highlighted the need for continued peer exchange across Europe on responsible and effective AI adoption in higher education.