Government of Punjab to become an education agency

The Government of Punjab is getting into the education agency business. It will set up a ‘special cell’ for students who want to study abroad to support them and enroll them in foreign universities.

The move came following regular student complaints of fraud by education agents. Charanjit Singh Channi, the Minister of Technical Educational & industrial Training in the Punjab Government said:

There is no doubt that youngsters are being duped and to end this loot, the government itself is coming up as a player. It will have a tie-up with foreign institutes. This will not only save students from frauds but also help them financially as the commission which foreign institutes pay to the agents would be returned to them.
Charanjit Singh Channi

The Minister then provided further detail on the key elements of the proposed business model:

How will the Government of Punjab work with educational institutions?

The Minister said:

We will try to tie-up with foreign public universities which offer education at reasonable rates. A thorough verification of foreign universities will be done before putting their names on our portal.

What about commission payments?

Here’s where it gets even more interesting.

Minister Channi noted that the average tuition fee for a Punjabi student to study abroad is about 1,400,000 Indian rupees, and in some cases agents can receive up to 30% commission (Note: AgentBee thinks that estimate is on the high side, at least for reputable universities in the main destination markets). He then promised:

We will give this commission back to students

On that basis it appears the plan is that the Government of Punjab will invoice an educational institution for the agreed commission when a student is enrolled. Once the commission is paid by the institution, the Government will return it to the student or their family.

Working with education agents? Manage the risk.

The Government of Punjab’s new initiative is driven by dishonest conduct by education agents. When education agents behave badly, students are harmed and the reputation of the institution takes a hit.

Our database of education agent alerts shows the damage caused when agents are unprofessional, unethical or dishonest.

It is critical that you manage the risk effectively by implementing a best practice education agent recruitment, monitoring and management system. The protection of your institution and international students depends on it.

AgentBee offers a solution that will hugely improve your approach to education agent recruitment, monitoring and risk management.