Education Agents? Find Out If You Need Them!

Posted On 20 Apr 2017

Tag: Diversity, Education agent workshops, international student recruitment, International students, recruitment, student diversity, student recruitment, Student recruitment agents

There are numerous educational institutions all over the world that open their doors to international students, and the numbers keep growing. At the same time, many of those institutions are new to the practice of using education agents for international student recruitment.

Is your institution among those? Have you ever wondered if your school or university should incorporate education agents into its international student recruitment strategy?

student-recruitment-strategy

Education agents: is this the right option for me?

Before you make a choice regarding use of education agents, you have to find out if you actually need them.

Then, here is a simple checklist to help you make sure if you should consider this option:

Have you noticed a recent decline in applications from countries that are usually very active applying to your institution?
Are you planning to diversify your international student portfolio, but have trouble choosing the exact focus region?
Are you uncertain if you should put effort on Vietnam or Nigeria as your new focus area for international student recruitment?
Do you have many ideas on how to improve the work of your international office and your international students’ experience? Do you find the time to implement these ideas or are you always pressed to work on urgent situations in recruiting?
Are the satisfaction surveys you conduct among your international students showing mediocre results?
Do you feel that your prospective, current and former international students are not recommending your programs to their peers? Are you noticing some bad reputation of your institution, both online and offline?

Make sure you answer these questions honestly.

Decision time: YES or NO?

If you can say YES to three or more of these questions, then we would recommend to consider working with a agent. Probably student recruitment agents will help your institution attract the number and type of international students you need. Meanwhile, your international office will be able focus on the needs of your current international students.

So, what ways and methods do you use to find out if your institution should start using student recruitment agents? Let’s discuss in the comments below!