Critics state that professional practice supersedes the regulation and since the federal government has declared that incentive compensation for domestic student recruiting is unlawful, it should be the case for recruiting foreign students. Since US law is bound to US citizens, the counter argument is that imposition of US domestic practice to international markets is paramount to restraint of trade. Back and forth the argument goes which is why NACAC has given the conundrum to a commission to help guide best practice overseas

At the first meeting of this commission, toward the end of a long day of back and forth, point-counterpoint, one member finally proclaimed – “I hear all the arguments, but I just can’t get over the fact that its not OK to do it here, but that we think its OK to do it there.” This apparent loophole is what has a lot of professionals in the practice of college admissions in a quandary, but haven’t they missed something? What about online university degrees, who sells those?

It was about a decade ago, when online degrees offered by for-profit schools started hitting the market, that the Department of Education offered what was called the “12 safe harbors” allowing degrees to be sold by third parties and for those involved to be rewarded based on their success. The Department exempted these organizations from the incentive compensation limitations under a very defined set of parameters as long as those programs did not receive Federal Aid.

In 2008, reauthorization the Higher Education Act removed the “safe harbors” and put these exemptions into formal policy. This endorsed the practice of a growth industry, that of corporate partners that run university online degrees. These partners do everything related to student recruitment and student service while the universities are left to develop the curriculum and teach the program. The corporate partners advertise the programs, they operate call centers to take student inquiries, they manage inquiries in a CRM-style database, they sustain a dialog with these prospective students pushing them toward enrolling in a degree, they then facilitate the completion of that application and submit it to the university for approval. The university reviews the application and renders an admissions decision and the student is notified of their acceptance or denial. This is exactly the model used by overseas recruiters.

In return for this upfront investment, the corporate partner is rewarded with a share of the student tuition. Today that figure can range from 40-60% of the full tuition of the program. This isn’t an isolated program or two operating under the radar, this is a burgeoning industry that employs thousands of workers and enrolls what might be a quarter of a million AMERICAN students. Who are these companies?

• Embanet/Compass
• Bisk Education
• Colloquy
• 2tor
• Learning House
• Deltak
• Academic Partnerships
• Alloy Education
• ESE – Educators Serving Educators

They offer programs from a who’s who of nationally recognized universities such as: Boston University, Brandeis University, George Washington University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, Tulane University, University of Florida, University of Notre Dame, University of San Francisco, University of Southern California, University of Vermont, Vanderbilt University, Villanova University, Wake Forest University, Washington State University, and many more.

So to those who struggle with the rationale of overseas versus domestic policies, I suggest taking a deep breath and looking across their own campus to the partnerships that have evolved in recent years. Title IV’s restrictions on incentive compensation for domestic students has been bridged, and has been bridged in a very pronounced way. The higher education industry has benefited from such domestic partnerships and we expect that robust partnerships with overseas entities will do the same.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

The campus tour starts with the admissions office, which often is defined as a welcome center. At larger schools students assemble in a small theater and sit through elaborate presentations. They then break into small groups and are guided around campus, getting a chance to see facilities and mingle with students on the campus. Upon return from the tour they get a chance to meet with a school admissions officer who conducts a preliminary interview, giving the school a chance to assess the student and giving the student a chance to ask questions and help with their decision making process. The visitors may even be invited to partake in a meal in the school dining halls. All of this is designed to help the school and the student address the idea of fit.

While this practice is common for an American student, it is certainly much harder for a student from overseas. As knowledge of schools and first-hand experience is limited in many places, students and their families are more likely to take the word of professional advisors. Sometimes these advisors work as agents, giving student a professional opinion about where that student may fit. It is important to understand that these advisors are receiving compensation for giving advice and that money comes from the student, or perhaps the school or perhaps even from both. When you receive advice, consider who is paying the advisor and how that may influence the advice that is given.

While there are many barriers for the international student to get the same experience as domestic students, it is possible, especially through the web. Most schools provide good web sites that have picture and videos of campus and campus life. Almost every school publishes a student-run newspaper, most are independent and most have online versions of the campus news. If you are interested in a school, reading about news on campus is a great way to get a sense of the culture of the campus and insight about the types of people the student will meet. It will help identify the personality of the campus, especially the op-ed articles and editorial columns written by students. Universities will also produce publications of their own, often publications about academic success and faculty profiles and calendars of official events. These are also great indicators of what campus life is like. Yet another great source of information is the alumni office. Most colleges have and alumni office that communicates with graduates of the school about the school. The alumni office will produce nice magazines and publications, often online that also give prospective students a sense of what to expect after graduation.

If you like what you see, then the Internet also can help you connect with a school. American college recruiters are less likely to travel overseas than recruiters from schools in other countries, but they can be approached. International recruiters can usually be reached by email and there is growing use of video conferencing to bridge the distance. Many admissions counselors will have Skype accounts and can schedule time to conduct interviews.

Not to be left out, many of the premier agents are adding video conferencing capabilities. In a growing number of cases, the agent’s best counselors, experts on fit and matching are also using video conferencing to help students. These virtual counseling sessions are great ways to connect students to expertise. Online tutoring and online education have been strong growth industries in the United States so keep an eye out for an emerging online and video counseling industry.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

First, it is important to recognize the way American’s refer to the term “college” is very different than in other countries. In the United States, college is a post-secondary institution of higher education. University is defined as the same, but depending on the regulations of the state in which the school is located, the term may have a technical difference. For the most part, universities are bigger than colleges. For the most part, colleges focus on undergraduate education while universities have strong graduate schools along with undergraduate education. Dartmouth, Amherst, Carleton, Pomona and Wellesley all have college in their name and among the most elite institutions in the world. In everyday use, the term “college” is a generic term use for “colleges and universities.” An American would go to college the same way an Australia would go to university.

Categories themselves are not universally recognized or widely understood so let’s look at some background. US News, producer of the most popular ranking of American colleges has divided institutions into multiple categories with the following descriptions:

• National Universities – offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master’s, and doctoral degrees. These colleges also are committed to producing ground breaking research.
• National Liberal Arts Colleges – emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study.
• Regional Universities – offer a full range of undergrad programs and some master’s programs but few doctoral programs.
• Regional Colleges – focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.

Beyond this list, there are community colleges and special focus institutions like Art Schools, Engineering Schools, and Medical Schools. One big difference between National and Regional is the geographic diversity of American students at the school. Regional schools have a higher percentage of local students and thus the listings are broken down into geographic regions (North, South, Midwest and West). National colleges and universities draw strongly from all over the country. Many regional institutions are very popular with foreign students.

Going beyond these categories there are other designations put on a school. They are either public or private, the difference being tied to the governance of the school. A unit of government, usually the state, controls public schools. Private schools are independent, regulated by government, but not controlled by them. The quality of an institution cannot be determined by this designation. Public schools will charge a higher tuition for students from outside their area (state). Schools may further define themselves in a category such as Women’s Colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s), other categories of minority serving or a philosophy of teaching like Liberal Arts.

Religion plays a big part in the history of nearly every private U.S. college or university as just about every private college in America was founded by a religious organization. As they have grown, many of these institutions have shifted from their original orientation and become welcoming to all students and educators of many subjects and philosophies. There are only a very few private schools that require students to pledge their faith and these are generally referred to as evangelical schools. For most private schools, even those labeled as religious, students are usually required to take a few religion courses and these courses are often more oriented toward history or philosophy as much as religious study (doctrine). Catholic schools are often cited as examples of religious schools and they themselves are categorized by their founding orders: Jesuit, Christian Brothers, LaSallian, Franciscan, etc.

Another way colleges are categorized is by athletics. Athletic competition is an important part of the social fabric of most colleges. Colleges field teams in many sports and the games/matches are popular activities for students to watch and ways schools compete with each other. The colleges are organized into leagues and these leagues are often an easy way to band similar schools together. These leagues are also referred to as conferences. The most widely known sports league is the Ivy League where 8 of the most elite compete. Teams are divided into Division I, II and III, designations that reflect the amount of financial support schools put into athletic scholarships. Division 1 is the most competitive; Division III does not allow scholarships determined by athletic ability alone.

Of the 25 schools with large international student population, nine are in the Big 10 athletic conference, four in the Ivy League and three in the Pac 12 conference. Nineteen of the 25 play Division 1 football, 24 of 25 play Division I basketball. Other well-known Division 1 conferences are the Big 12, Southeast Conference, Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference. For smaller schools, Athletic conferences are still a good place to find similar schools. The Patriot League has American University, Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette and Lehigh – schools that match well academically as well as on the field. The Midwest conference has Beloit, Carroll, Grinnell, Illinois College, Knox, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Monmouth, Ripon and St. Norbert – schools that rival each other academically as well as on the field.

Students, guidebook authors and others will add further labels to schools. Some are very thought provoking like the “Colleges that Change Lives” others verge on being silly like “America’s Top Party Schools.” The 2010 Kaplan Guides introduced new categories like “Most Service-Minded Schools” and “Most Desirable Suburban Schools” and “Best Schools for Future Power Brokers” and “The New Ivies: 25 Hot Schools.”

For the foreign student, this issue of fit is more complicated. You speak a different native language and you come from a different culture so it is natural that you would think that you are not like the others, and you won’t fit, but you really can. The American population comes from all nations and the country takes great pride in its diversity and you should look for schools where you might fit. Step aside from the rankings, take an assessment of your personality and then take a deeper look at schools and the concept of fit. It is likely that the best friends you will make in your life will be found at college, often you will find a spouse in college so you can see how “fit” is personal and is something to consider.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Students will succeed when they are placed in schools where they fit well. Schools will succeed when they find students who are capable of the work and who can actively participate in campus life. If students are not fully qualified for these schools, they can find plenty of other gateways to success such as intensive English schools, college-prep pathway programs, and community colleges.

Setting the Standards of Transparency

Recruiters overseas are not always concerned with credibility, which challenges families to see through a number of soft claims and sketchy promises. Drive on any major freeway in India and you will see billboards promising admission to leading American schools. Newspapers in countries all over the world are filled with advertisements claiming access to the world’s elite universities. Even the most regulated of expositions will have charlatans operating as if they were an official university representative, with booths full of brochures and promotional material all using university logos, often without the university’s knowledge.

Sometimes, these folks are loosely endorsed by universities who may send an alumni member to an event with a letter of introduction. Working under the local customs, this letter may afford an alliance with a local business that will use this endorsement to gain event entrance and solicit students to sign on with their consultancy. The consultant performs a bait and switch type of swindle by pretending to represent one institution and then drawing students to explore other schools.

The Need for Reliable University Information

It is fair to say that during the search process, every prospective student, both domestic and international, will have visited a university’s web site repeatedly. Schools’ web sites will often include a few pages dedicated to international students. More often than not, these pages focus more on application requirements than on actually promoting the school. Some of the better sites identify staff members who work with international applicants, but often they do not contain international friendly contact information. Email as the only contact form is limiting, international phone calls are too expensive, and unfortunately, very few post a Skype ID. Some of the reasons that many schools use agents are to make up for the lack of staff, promotional material, and contact hours available from the school.

Schools Should Identify Their Agents

Having agents is one thing, but there is a real need for schools to let the markets know who their agents are. With a cloud of confusion around the credibility of schools and their sources of information, schools are encouraged to identify their official representatives. Australia requires that their schools identify their agents on their web site; We believe this should be required in the United States.

Since the majority of overseas students come to Australia through agents, this has proved to be a practice that American universities should follow. Here are a few examples of wording and design from some of Australia’s best-regarded universities:

• University of Melbourne
• University of Sydney
• Australian National University

The recommended best practice for American schools is to offer agents as an option for prospective students. The University of Cincinnati is one of the schools that have most effectively used agents to build international success. Their web site lists contacts in the admissions office, but also suggests agents as an alternative.

Don’t Use Agents? Then Say So.

If a university does not contract with agents then they are best served by stating so. From their international students web page, Penn State University makes it very clear that they do not have overseas representatives.

Be Transparent; Be Vigilant

Schools support transparency, professional practice, and a sense of responsibility to the student when they are definitive in their policies; agents are no exception. If a school uses an agent, they should identify that agent on their website and the agent should do the same. As the AIRC standards detail, agents should not link to schools with which they do not have agreements.

Schools can then become vigilant in protecting their brands and their reputations in local markets. Their contracts with agents should stipulate that the contract is with the agent and that the agent cannot sub-contract recruitment. Agents under contract should not pass along their authority to represent the school and schools should be wary of unauthorized representation. This issue of transparency and sub agency will be of particular interest in the great agent debate.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

This is one of the primary worries of overseas parents. In the debate over the use of agents in recruiting students, we often forget this concern. With our rich tradition of high school advisors and overall sense of what makes a quality school, this seems to be a minor concern in the United States. Overseas, however, it isn’t. To be successful at recruiting students overseas, schools must realize that the environment will differ greatly from the one at home. Traditional schools must also realize that they are competing in a very commercial arena.

In the United States, education has become big business. American ideals such as Capitalism and Free Enterprise have brought great amounts of investment and innovation to higher education and opened doors to millions of students who, in the resource-constrained public education sector, may not have had such opportunities. A number of for-profit companies have been formed to serve as universities, some operating nationally. These companies have begun serving the adult student sector, created a vibrant online model for higher education, and started to look toward extending their success internationally.

Who Regulates Schools?

School regulation in the United States is a complex subject, as there is no constitutional right to an education, thus education laws have come from fifty separate state governments. To provide consistency across the country, the schools themselves have built a rich history of self-governance through the process of accreditation and professional standards. In recent years, the role of the United States federal government has grown. The Department of Education continues to put regulations in effect that, in essence, become the law of the land, though large gaps still exist and leave the system open to exploitation.

Substandard Universities

One of these levels of exploitation comes from the Diploma Mills that have plagued the American higher education system for years. With a growing number of international students, lack of regulation poses a threat to unsuspecting foreign students. Substandard schools are able to operate, as many states do not require inspections and operational reviews before issuing licenses. Once these schools are legally licensed to operate, the federal government allows issuance of student visas. Substandard schools often form their own accrediting bodies to avoid the scrutiny of regional accreditation, the highest level of accreditation, which has enabled a number of bogus accreditors to operate over the years.

Imagine you are a foreign student, browsing the Internet for schools, and you discover this – “The University of Northern Virginia is certified to operate in Virginia by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). UNVA is authorized by the United States Government to enroll non-immigrant alien students.” With the very desirable location “Northern Virginia” and the well-respected moniker “university,” you naturally might be inclined to consider this school. This could lead to an unfortunate experience, as The University of Northern Virginia has been described as a “sham university,” though this institution continues to operate and accept government-approved student visas. The University of Northern Virginia seems to be the worst of the for-profit sector, operating in between the gaps in the American regulatory system and making millions off foreign students.

From the consumer perspective, the United States government has taken little or no interest in The University of Northern Virginia. No federal money goes to this school; no taxpayer money is at risk. As long as the University of Northern Virginia follows state laws, immigration officials will remain uninvolved unless they detect risk of a migration scam and the free enterprise advocates in the government’s commercial service will resist any restraint of the institution. In a previous article, AAE called on schools to only work with certified agents. We also call on our fellow agents to only work with credible, accredited (certified) schools, and for the United States government to only allow legitimately accredited schools to issue I-20′s (the documents that lead to student visas).

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Agents Operate under Local License

While agents operate overseas and serve colleges and universities in multiple countries, there is a lack of unified standards and regulation of the industry. There is, however, a host of local laws. In China, for example, each agent must be licensed, though they only grant 400 of these top-level licenses. Newcomers to the field must operate under a sub-license. Regulations in China extend further, requiring that any student who uses an agent must sign a nationally registered contract. There is only one contract per student, and these strictly enforced contracts detail the terms of the engagement and include a price for services. From a consumer standpoint, China’s regulations are perhaps the strongest in the world.

In numerous other countries, agents have to abide by local licensing and answer to local regulators regarding consumer complaints. An agent can sometimes be vague and difficult to define, as families often pay for services that prepare their child for consideration, while universities pay for services that help recruit desirable students. Sometimes described as “double dipping” or “taking two bites of the cherry,” representing both of these sides can be considered negative. While this issue may be clear to locals, it is very complex to outsiders.

Agents are Accountable to University Regulations

Destination countries also have a significant role in the regulation of the industry. Australia has long been the leader in this field. Through legislation under the ESOS Act (Education Services for Overseas Students) and subsequent regulation and revisions, Australia has sought to protect overseas students inbound on student visas, and has set out clear roles and responsibilities for education institutions wanting to teach foreign students. These laws make the universities fully accountable for the actions of their agents and provide harsh penalties on violation of their “National Code.” Though Australia’s system is not perfect and there have been well-publicized breakdowns in the regulation and enforcement of these laws, their education industry adapts, adjusts, and continues to move forward.

Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyers Beware

In the United States, where use of agents has only recently become widely accepted, efforts to regulate the industry have been voluntary. The university community established The American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) to provide a set of best practice standards for recruiting foreign students. Through a detailed review process designed to improve professional practice, agents are certified as compliant. Families seeking advice on American Higher Education should look for AIRC certified agents.

Schools are encouraged to work only with AIRC certified agents, as they will create pressure to operate under admissions and enrollment standards that professional associations and accreditors in the United States have endorsed.

Transparency is the common thread in these attempts to guide the industry. The consumer should get what he or she sees, which is the primary intent of regulators worldwide and a continuing trend as demand for international education continues to grow. An estimated 3.5 million students currently study outside their home country. Though individual markets fluctuate in volume, the average growth rate worldwide has remained a fairly steady 5%. Regulation of the agents is one tactic to better protect the consumers of this product (education), and as we’ve seen in Australia, regulation of the schools is another.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

From the American viewpoint, what happens in the classroom is only a part the college experience. The academics may be the most important part of the university experience, but the entire experience of being away from home, becoming socially skilled, becoming emotionally mature and self-assured are also very important. This is why the concept of “fit” is important and why the admissions process becomes dependent on multiple components, not just a test score like it is in the student’s home country. It surprises many overseas students that there is no standard high school board exam in the United States – no A Level or Gaokao. University bound prospective undergraduate students should take the SAT or the ACT to be considered for admission, but increasingly these tests are not required. Essays, personal statements, letters of recommendations and extra curricular activities all impact the admissions process and thus we state the process is subjective, it’s about the right fit.

Subjective Admissions mean Subjective Rankings

Since there is no standard test and no standard ranking of students, the ranking of schools also becomes hugely subjective. Rankings seek to identify schools that are the best, but the underlying question is the best at what? Most rankings seek to assess the quality of a school based upon its reputation. So much is put on reputation, but is that something that can be measured? Even if it could, is this a stereotype that can ever be changed? Oxford and Cambridge were some of the world’s first major universities, garnered great respect centuries ago and carry that respect today. Harvard, Yale, Princeton were some of America’s first and foremost universities and have kept that impression today.

What isn’t displayed in many rankings is how close the ranking scores are. In the US News national university category, two schools are tied for #1 and five schools are tied for #5. That means the #10 school may be just a fraction of a point away from #5 status. Four schools in the Top 50 group are tied for #38 position and five schools are tied for #45.

The Business of University Rankings

To understand rankings better, it is good to look at why there are rankings. For the most part, rankings are a business whose output is designed as a product for consumers. US News is a magazine and their Best Colleges edition is one of their best sellers. It is such a best seller that they’ve expanded it into other sectors and now publish editions with Best Graduate School and Best Business schools. They even combine these into a book and sell these along with something called “My fit engine” a personal ranking tool. One is produced by the Times of London (newspaper) and as you can imagine, it is designed to sell ads, web visits and newspapers.

Skeptics of rankings point out that the rankings business only works for publishers when there is change in the ranking order, so the proprietors of rankings are always altering or “improving” their methodology. This improvement is designed to create change in the rank order so that people will be drawn to next year’s edition.

The publishers of university rankings will argue that modest annual changes are designed to reflect changes in the student’s expectations and to counter school’s possible “gaming” of the university rankings. The bottom line is that rankings are a business and that they should be viewed as only part of a student’s criteria in looking for a school.

Understanding What University Rankings are Really Ranking

It is also important to look at what is being ranked. Schools in the heralded “National Universities” category are in this category because they offer a wide breadth of graduate programs and participate heavily in the research enterprise that is so well regarded in American higher education. If you are an undergraduate student, the research success of a school is secondary to your education, you will most likely want to be in a setting where your professors are great teachers, not great researchers. That means you might look to regional universities that focus more on undergraduate education or Liberal Arts institutions that have very little research in their operations.

If I am a student interested in performing arts, would the world renowned Harvard University be a good choice for me, or would I do better under the close attention and care of a faculty at a Liberal Arts college that has a strong tradition in performing arts? That’s the type of thing to consider when looking into the best fit, especially since there is no definitive ranking of performing art schools.

If you are student interested in earning a graduate degree later in your career, you should consider the paths into graduate school as compared to job/industry placement. It is a common misconception that the best way to get into an elite graduate school is through that school’s undergraduate division, in fact the opposite is generally true. The elite schools like a diversity of thought and look to draw students from a variety of sources and a variety of perspectives. An example of this is the College of Wooster, a well-regarded liberal arts college who ranks #7 (out of 914 private, bachelor granting schools) in the number of their students who go onto a Ph.D. in Chemistry. If you think that someday you will want a Ph.D. in Chemistry, you should really consider College of Wooster for your bachelor’s degree.

Rankings and reputations should also be viewed by discipline and tailored to your eventual goal. Some very well regarded schools have departments or programs that perform far worse than others at that school. Other, less renowned schools have standout programs and very caring, very connected and very powerful faculty. So when you look to use rankings, you should look deep into what is being ranked and how that affects your future. Hopefully students and their parents can use rankings as an indicator of quality, not a measurement of quality. Nobody can guarantee a student’s success based on a certain degree – it depends.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Due to these absolutely objective measures, there is no notion of “reach schools” or “safety schools.” Students don’t visit schools to see if they fit, the test score tells them if they’ll fit. The American philosophy of subjective admissions is truly foreign to these students, their parents and teachers and that’s where they look for external advice. Application components like personal statements, extracurricular activities and essays are not part of the domestic college search process and thus need explanation and interpretation, as is the most confusing thing of all – “test optional.” Students wonder, “If a standardized test is required for domestic admissions, what does it mean to have an optional admissions test?” And, “why don’t the American schools accept my board score for admission?”

The confusion doesn’t stop there. Additional confusion comes from the loose way American’s use the term “college.” For most countries, “college” is a pre-university path, a 13th year program designed to bridge gaps in the student’s past experiences and to help a student gain entry into the more respected university. It is a path similar to American community colleges, but what is hard to understand is the way the term “college” is associated with a well-respected 4-year or even graduate school experience.

Another baffling aspect of the US landscape is the subjective role of rankings. By nature of the domestic admissions, schools are ranked based on entrance level board scores, very objective. In the US, rankings are very subjective, based heavily on measures of reputation and not based on board scores. US News, the king of the American rankings has defined categories of schools as “national”, “regional” and “liberal arts,” not necessarily official terms. American schools often discuss Liberal Arts as a focus or philosophy, but in a world focused on entry into the workforce and professional, marketable skills, the concept of Liberal Arts is also foreign.

Somebody is needed to help students and their parents understand these differences and add some clarity and credibility to the process. Because such knowledge and expertise in not housed in public schools and many of the private schools, families need to find this advise from the private sector. Private counseling does exist, but for most families this priced out of reach, so the educational agent has become the primary source of this type of information.

Agents are typically local business people who for years have maintained a storefront or office locations, serving the local population. They are respected members of the local community, often having western degrees themselves or having staff with western degrees. They have frequently travelled to visit universities and provide first-hand accounts of the university environment to families who will most likely never see the campus before their student enrolls. Their offices are tangible reassurance that the student is in good hands and the agent is a person to go in case of trouble while the student is away. The agent is bi-lingual, has business licenses and is invested in the proper treatment of the students. The agent has convenient hours, can be easily reached by phone and is often referred by satisfied neighbors and friends. The agent is a trusted resource in the search for schools.

University recruiters on the other hand are seen as opportunistic, choosing to pay very brief visits to communities, often only at a fair or expo. They often don’t speak the native language and come without knowledge of the local cultures or traditions. They struggle to recognize local transcripts and academic records, often pushing students to third-party credential evaluators. American schools have the added disadvantage of operating through documents that are use “standard” size 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper as opposed to the metric (A4) paper used outside North America.

For undergraduate students, parents play a very important role in the decision making process when it comes to where/what their children will study overseas and parents are generally the ones who fund the whole process. A purely on-line process, or talking to foreign counselors overseas, is not desirable for most parents, many of whom prefer to discuss their children’s study options at length, face to face, with a specialist, preferably one who speaks their language. Brochures and web site are far too general and do not provide a true picture of the institution, nor do they provide enough specific information.

The agent becomes a place for the parents to validate what the student has discovered online or through interaction with their friends. They want some level of assurance that the student will get accepted, especially in light of all the subjective measured used in the admissions process. Parents want someone to provide oversight in the many complex and often confusing aspects of the admissions and enrollment process. EducationUSA and other collective information sources can be helpful in this process, but they are never committal and they never make recommendations. Families want reassurance and they want someone to make promises and agents are the ones a majority of families trust.

This bears repeating, families trust their agents. It is the same kind of trust that a real estate agent or an insurance agent brings to a product. In America, the vast majority of consumers goes to a real estate agent to buy a house or goes to an insurance agent for protection, so it should not be hard to understand how someone half way around the world would want to go to a local business person to help them purchase a higher education degree for their child.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Officially, the use of agents for foreign students is allowed and for domestic students it is not allowed. The governing law of the land is Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which defines regulations around Federal funding of student aid programs. Title IV states that its jurisdiction covers only domestic students and thus all regulations tied to incentive compensation and student eligibility are for domestic students only.

Violation of Title IV puts a school at risk of loosing its federal funding and for its students not to receive the benefits of federal programs such as subsidized student loans, federal work-study grants and Pell tuition grants. As long as all of the federal programs cover only domestic students, the federal regulations will exempt foreign students.

The Higher Education Act does expire and thus a reauthorization process has happened multiple times since 1965. After repeated extensions and much political wrangling, the act was reauthorized in 2008. This eliminated the twelve “safe harbors” dealing with Internet recruiting, adult education and online program marketing, but there were no changes in the domestic student limitations of federal programs and the foreign exemptions were restated and reinforced.

Counselors against Agents?

NACAC, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling has taken a stand against the use of agents, arguing that what is proper practice for domestic students should be proper practice for all students. Through their professional standards efforts, NACAC has defined certain recruiting practices as “ethical” and uses its market clout to enforce these standards. NACAC operates the National College Fairs, a major domestic high school recruiting platform and they also control the undergraduate Common Application (Common App). NACAC’s “Statement of Principles of Good Practice” requires mandatory compliance by its members, violations can lead to sanctions that include a ban from the organization for both the individual and in extreme cases the institution. Only NACAC members can participate in NACAC programs like the National College Fairs and the Common App, thus failure to comply with the SPGP puts an institutions participation in these lucrative domestic programs at risk.

The agent “industry” has taken exception with NACAC and has debated the differences of international and domestic practice across many forums. NACAC took the agents’ perspective into consideration but in the summer of 2011, the National Admissions Practices Committee put forth a recommendation that the use of commission-based recruiters be banned. The recommendation was to be voted upon by the membership at NACAC’s 2011 Annual Conference, but the NACAC board stepped in and delayed formal action for two years. Citing pressure from university presidents and organizations such as APLU, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU Expresses Concern About Possible Ban of Agents in International Recruiting )

Rationale for Using Agents

While NACAC and APLU form a committee to explore the broader issues relating to international recruiting, it bears repeating some of the rationale of using agents. In most parts of the world, public schools do not offer assistance in the search for colleges, so all counseling is done in the private sector. It is the worldwide standard to have the fees for such service paid for by the service providers (schools), just as it is done in the insurance, real estate, travel and employee search industries. Since the practice is so widespread, the best way today for American universities to compete overseas today is to conform to the worldwide norm and use agents. Agents give schools a local physical presence; they have staff that speaks the native language, operate during the same hours as the families and have ties to the local community. In most cases, agents are respected members of the community, working with schools and families to build a reputable local business.

The growth and maturity of the industry continues. AIRC, the American International Recruitment Council continues to see substantial growth in university membership and has increased the number of agencies it has certified. American universities are expanding their use of agents as witnessed by the expansion efforts of firms like Access American Education , IDP Education and EduGlobal . Also in the news lately, China’s biggest agent firm EIC has opened a US office in California and the mega education company Pearson has purchased an English language teaching firm in China that has an agent subsidiary.

Fueled by a strong desire by American universities to recruit overseas, we can expect that a lot of growth in the agent industry will happen over the next two years, making US schools much more dependent on this channel and making it much more entrenched in standard university practice. From my perspective, now is a very good time for universities to consider starting with or expanding their agent representation. Agents are not oversubscribed (they have capacity) and they are eager to build alliances and invest in bringing on new clients. Agent’s business is booming as interest in studying overseas is growing is most countries and student interest in coming to the United States remains very strong worldwide.

• For further reading, NACAC president Jim Miller comments on agents
• Join AIRC and the quality assurance in international student recruitment

About the Author

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE.

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Drill down a little further and you’ll see that 50% of the international students in the USA are at over 125 schools and 80% are at just over 350 schools. You can call these the sweatshirt schools, the ones that you see logos emblazoned on in Starbucks and malls and tourist hotspots worldwide.

If you are a school in the top 25, then life from an international brand perspective is great. Sports Channels put your school’s name and logo across the world and big events like bowl games and March Madness get you fans in all corners of the globe. Even if you are in the top 125, life is still very good because you have regional cache and good brand recognition. It certainly helps if your school is named after a prominent city or state.

For the rest, it’s trouble. There are over 2,400 colleges and universities and if you count trade schools, that number grows to over 4,000, all trying to grow their international presence and their international enrollments. How do the overcome the overseas brand dilemma – a brand will get you students and without students, you don’t have a brand.

The 4 P’s of International Student Recruitment

Perhaps the best was to think about building your international brand is through the “4 P’s” a marketing philosophy long popular with the advertising industry. This is a marketing mix of Product, Price, Promotion and Place. For a US college wanting a brand overseas, “The 4 P’s of International Student Recruitment” are:

• PRODUCT – What is it you are selling: your school, your segment/category, a US degree or an American educational experience? Think about this in terms of your domestic advertising slogans, often viewed as clever plays on the history of mission of a school. How do these relate to an international student? One college has a slogan of “Your revolution starts here?” How will that play in China or the Middle East today?
• PRICE – It’s not just the sticker price, it is cost of living, cost of travel and in today’s volatile currency market, the cost IN LOCAL CURRENCY. Where do you sit competitively, not only in against other American colleges and universities, but against foreign colleges and universities?
• PROMOTION – If you get past the above two hurdles, now you need to need to spread the word. Do you advertise and promote it yourself, or through others? Do you rely on existing outlets like EducationUSA, Commerce Department fairs and trade tours, private tours, overseas fairs and international education expositions? Do you take advantage of the work of your faculty when they travel overseas? Do you leverage your study abroad students while they are in country? Where do you advertise?
• PLACE – Often the most confusing P, place is about getting it into the hands of the consumer, making it accessible. Who guides students through the complexities of international communication? Where and when do they do this? What do things like “test optional”, “official transcript” and “personal statement” really mean?

For those who know the business, the 4 P’s are clear, and they are clear for each of their primary source countries. What works with one country or culture will not necessarily work for others, so your 4 P’s then get multiplied by the number of target markets and become a complex marketing plan.

This takes time, money and expertise. Local expertise it critical, something an agent can help you with. If you don’t have a physical presence in country, your agent can be the PLACE. They can help you with your PROMOTION – think about co-branded advertising where the two of you split the cost or having them attend fairs in your place. The agent can help you with building a successful marketing message that will localize the PRICE and PRODUCT branding. If you have not cracked the Top 125, you can still win with a solid marketing mix and the right international partners; it’s an investment in the future of your institution.

About the Author

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE.

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.