“According to Broitman, the economics of the system reveal a fundamental truth: a student who walks into an agent’s shop is not the client—they’re the product.

If an agent is getting commissions from an unremarkable community college in rural Ontario, then their only motivation is to get every teenager who walks through their door, no matter how brilliant or hopeless, to enroll in that one college. ‘That’s how the business works,’ says Broitman. “You just direct people to where your bread is buttered.’

In this single, powerful quote, Mel Broitman sums up the fatal flaw of commission-based international student recruitment.

This is an issue I’ve written and spoken about extensively over the years. Have a look at this page to see most of the articles I’ve written or co-authored.

Follow this link to read the article in its entirety. At nearly 7,500 words, it’s not a short read, but well worth it. Kudos to Nicholas Hune-Brown for researching and writing it, and thanks to the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) for publishing it in its fall 2021 issue of Academic Matters.  

Shalom (שלום), MAA