The rise of the aggregator and its impact on the SMEs in the international student recruitment

The Higher Education Institutions has been long using the agency model to recruit international students into their institutions. While it is observed that Australian Institutions use agency more than the other countries, institutions in the other parts of the world also are positively inclined towards using the education agency to recruit international students. Often those agencies engage with other business and create a sub-agency network. There are various issues related to this like misleading information or biased advised provided by the agent, they being commission driven, lack of transparency in the sub agency network, difficult to find the source of the student and much more. With technological evolvement, companies that uses technology like CRM Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, Biometric Identification verification has come into the international student recruitment sphere offering their transparent, highly efficient technological solutions in the market. This consulting project is study of three of the top aggregators of the industry – Global Study Partners, ApplyBoard, Adventus to recommend Global Study Partners with necessary strategies to improve its recruitment process and user experience. The study is conducted by performing an in-depth interview with the representative from each company. The interview questions are formulated based on 5 key areas – Accuracy and Correctness, Transparency in the Recruitment Process, Training to Recruitment Partners, Maintaining Ethical Standards, Building Trust. These questions are designed addressing the issues of the agency model presented by various literature and consulting reports as well as reviewing the existing international and national policies, good practices, and code of conducts of various associations and governing bodies. The impact of issues on the aggregator landscape was also studies so that necessary measures can be recommended to Global Study Partners. Based on the interview findings, accessing information in the company’s website, and testing each system along with critical analysis as a user, a comparative analysis is done to find the level of effectiveness. While it was concluded that aggregators have positive impact on the SMEs, various four recommendation for improvement were presented to Global Study Partners.