This is an exchange of comments that appeared in response to a late July article entitled SUNY Bets Big on Agents that appeared in Inside Higher Ed.  The article is about “an ambitious agency-based recruitment strategy, with the goal of increasing its total foreign student enrollment by more than 13,000 over five years. A portion of new tuition revenue would be used for funding internationalization initiatives – including 3,400 scholarships for study abroad and 125 grants for faculty. “ 

 Point:  Enforcing the impossible; there are alternatives  

Posted by Marty Bennett , Marketing Coordinator at EducationUSA on July 26, 2011 at 2:15pm EDT

In the end, there is a clear alternative to agents: EducationUSA, the U.S. Department of State’s network of 400 advising centers in 170 countries, serving as the official source on U.S. higher education for students in those countries. This professionally trained group of advisers serve as what we would call in the U.S. college guidance counselors for all the students who don’t have them in their schools (which is the greater majority). In all their training their mission is to provide accurate, unbiased, comprehensive, objective and timely information about accredited educational institutions in the United States and guidance to qualified individuals on how best to access those opportunities. I encourage all U.S. institutional admissions representatives to explore the ways EducationUSA can assist you in your recruitment of international students before opening Pandora’s Box of agents.

If Only It Were That Simple (aka The Other Shoe Drops)

Posted by Mark Ashwill , Managing Director at Capstone Vietnam on September 4, 2011 at 6:30am EDT

Mr. Bennett begins his comment (“Enforcing the impossible; there are alternatives”) with this bold but unsupported assertion: “In the end, there is a clear alternative to agents: EducationUSA.” If only it were that simple. Anyone who works in this field knows that EducationUSA is a bit player in most countries, one of many options available to “consumers” of US higher education.

As much as I admire the work of EducationUSA advisers, the number of people they serve is relatively small, the resources they command are extremely limited and the services they provide are very basic. Vietnam is an excellent case in point. There’s only so much that one adviser in the Embassy (Hanoi) and two in the Consulate General (Ho Chi Minh City) can do in a country of 90 million that suffers from an incurable case of study abroad fever and where the US is the preferred overseas study destination.

Most young people planning to study overseas engage the services of an agent – some reputable, others not (hence the need to professionalize the industry). A growing number simply apply on their own with the help of friends, student organizations (e.g., VietAbroader) and/or US institutions.

As others have noted, in order to be successful in recruiting students, US schools must make recruitment a key component of their internationalization strategies and adopt diversified approaches that could include the judicious use of agents (passive), marketing (proactive) and, yes, taking advantage of the services offered by EducationUSA.  To put all of their eggs in one basket would be pure folly.

Mark A. Ashwill
Hanoi, Vietnam
Blog:  https://markashwill.wordpress.com/