Managing International Student Recruitment Agents
Approaches, Benefits and Challenges
By Vincenzo Raimo, Christine Humfrey and Iona Yuelu Huang

Despite the estimated more than £60 million in annual commission spend by UK universities very little professional advice and support on working with agents exists.  With the support of The British Council and the collaboration of a representative group of universities, in-depth interviews, data collection and analysis of university-agent relationships, from the university perspective, were undertaken to help better inform the sector’s use of agents and to  share good practice.

This research provides a framework for measuring an institution’s relationships with agents and ideas for improving the effectiveness of the agent channel.