The use of paid recruiting agents may be taking a step into the mainstream of international education, as a new nonprofit group, the American International Recruitment Council, adopted on Tuesday new standards of ethical practices and a system for certifying overseas recruiters.
An initial group of eight overseas recruitment agencies will participate in the pilot certification process, which will evaluate them on their financial sustainability and management, the openness of their business practices, and their knowledge of the American education system, among other criteria.
The council, which has been recognized as a standards-development organization by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, announced the certification program at a meeting held to coincide with the annual conference of Nafsa: Association of International Educators.
The international-educators group, which drew more than 7,000 people to its weeklong meeting here, has not taken a position on the use of paid recruiters. The idea of awarding commissions to agents to sign up foreign students has long been controversial in the United States, although the practice is commonplace for universities in countries like Australia and Britain.
Still, firms that specialize in international-student recruitment and overseas marketing are well represented among the 430 exhibitors at the Nafsa conference.
Sherry Dou, a manager with Aoji Education Group, a Chinese agency, was representing her company at a booth in the cavernous exhibit hall on Tuesday. Aoji, which is based in Shanghai and has nearly 30 branch offices across China, has had success in working with universities in Australia and Europe to send students there, said Ms. Dou, as she fielded questions from passers-by and handed out pamphlets detailing the firm’s work. “Now we want to be more in the United States,” she said.
Mitch Leventhal, president of the year-old recruitment council and vice provost of international affairs at the University of Cincinnati, said the only way many American colleges can succeed in recruiting students in increasingly competitive markets like China is by using agencies. He said it is critical to regulate this complex field, as other countries have done.
Agents, he argued, have an edge because they are based in the students’ home countries, understand the language and culture, and can establish long-term relationships. A certification process, Mr. Leventhal said, will recognize the best among the thousands of recruiting agents.
Multifaceted Evaluations
The standards of good practice and certification process were ratified unanimously by the council’s 60 member colleges. The group crafted the new practices in conjunction with the Center for Quality Assurance in International Education, which will also help administer the certification process.
The pilot program, which will begin in June, includes recruitment agencies from Australia, China, India, and the United States, among other countries. The group includes some of the biggest names in the business, like IDP Education, a company that is owned in part by Australian universities. IDP announced on Tuesday that it would begin recruiting students for American, as well as Australian, institutions (see a related article).
As part of the certification process, the recruitment agencies will complete a self-study and will also be appraised by external reviewers, who will do an on-site evaluation of their practices. The council also will contract with an outside firm to examine court documents and foreign-language media to see if any legal action has been brought against the agencies.
The overseas recruiters will foot the application and certification costs, which will run $5,000 or more.
If successful, the certification process will be opened to all international-student recruiters starting in 2010.
Mr. Leventhal said he already has been contacted by an additional 70 recruiting agencies that are interested in going through the certification process. The head of one such agency flew to Los Angeles from the state of Gujarat, in western India, just to learn more about the council’s work. “Professional standards will encourage American universities to work with us,” said the executive, Vijay Tiwari of E Power Overseas. “I think it will benefit us all.”
Sushil Sukhwani, director of Edwise, another agency in India, said the standards are necessary because too many American college administrators “think agents are crooks.”
The resistance to working with agents has hurt American colleges’ competitive position in India, said Mr. Sukhwani, who has worked in international education for 18 years. Other countries, like Australia and Britain, already have regulations governing overseas recruiters, he noted, pointing proudly to the seals of approval from those countries in his company’s recruitment materials.
A Global Race
Indeed, other countries are not standing still in the race to attract foreign students. Education UK, the British Council’s Web site for international students seeking to study in Britain, is working with the Economist Intelligence Unit to improve its foreign-student recruitment strategy through better forecasting of student mobility, country by country.
Australia, which saw a 20-percent increase in foreign-student enrollments this academic year, is concerned enough about the global recession that it began a more-aggressive recruitment campaign for 2010. As part of the campaign, Australian Education International, the international-higher-education arm of the Australian government, and other agencies that promote Australian higher education abroad will bring agents to Australia for additional training.
Still, Nafsa and the other major American higher-education groups have yet to embrace the recruitment council’s mission. None has joined the council as an observer, Mr. Leventhal said.
A few recruiting agents who attended the council’s sessions on Tuesday also questioned whether certification made good business sense for them.
“Will the certification give us more contracts?” asked Abhijit Zaveri, managing director of Career Mosaic, another Indian agency. The recruiters will be asked to bear the outside assessors’ travel costs, he noted. “Only if we can get more students does it make sense for us to participate.”
But some American college officials said having a strategy to recruit overseas makes increasing sense. Susan P. Rosa, director of international-student services at Ashland University, in Ohio, said trustees there recently approved the use of paid recruiting agents. Ms. Rosa, who works with a single administrative assistant, said that without such assistance, her office could not reach out globally.
University leaders at Ashland and elsewhere have begun to recognize foreign students as an important ingredient in internationalizing their campuses and, through the higher tuition rates they often pay, in closing budget gaps.
Because the agents work on a commission, “it’s kind of a no-brainer,” Ms. Rosa said. “If we get students, we pay them. If we don’t, there’s no money lost.”
