The 6 types of education agents

Education agents play an important role as drivers of international student recruitment. The term ‘education agent’ is used generally to describe a business that supports international students to enrol at an educational institution. But there are at six different types of education agents, each with quite different characteristics. For universities, colleges and schools who are working with education agents, understanding the differences will support the success of your education agent strategy.

In late March 2021 the British Universities’ International Liaison Association released a report: “A Partnership for Quality: A route to a UK Quality Framework with Education Agents”. Done in partnership with the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), and produced by Edified, the report contains a ton of facts and insights on the role of education agents in the UK international student market.

The report included an interesting section listing and profiling the six main types of education agents working with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK.

1. The Sole Trader

20% of education agents working with UK HEIs are Sole Traders

Usually small family-run (Mum & Dad / Mom & Pop) businesses.
Do not have sophisticated systems or marketing.
Rely on word-of-mouth referrals.
Provide a highly personalised service.

Offices/Staff

One office.
Most have less than 10 staff. 50% of these agencies have just one person.

Clients

Often work as sub-agents to other, larger agencies (i.e. Market Specialists, Multi-Nationals, and Education Giants)

Students

Typically recruit less than 40 students per year.

2. The SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise)

60% of education agents working with UK HEIs are SMEs

Offices/Staff

Often have more than one office, but usually only in one country (i.e. multiple cities in one country)
Usually have between 6-50 staff.

Clients

Will usually represent between 10-80 HEIs.
Some SMEs work as sub-agents to other, larger agencies (i.e. Market Specialists, Multi-Nationals, and Education Giants)

Students

Typically recruits between 20-200 students per year.

3. The Market Specialist

5% of education agents working with UK HEIs are Market Specialists

Offices/Staff

Usually operate in one country or region.
Have strong systems.
Typically use a fully-owned offices model, with multiple offices in different cities in a single country.
Most (91%) have over 50 staff.

Clients

Will usually represent over 80 UK HEIs.

Students

Recruit over 1,000 students per year.

4. The Multi-National

10% of education agents working with UK HEIs are Multi-Nationals

Offices/Staff

Operates in multiple countries, with multiple offices.
Most have over 50 staff.
Have a strong brand and systems.

Clients

Represent over 100 UK HEIs.

Students

Recruits over 1,000 students per year.

5. The Specialist/Innovator/Online

Education agents in the Specialist/Innovator/Online category are usually Sole Traders or SMEs. However they have unique characteristics, for example:

they may specialise in a particular study discipline, or type of institution
they may be purely an online education agent that does not have physical offices, but does have well developed digital tools and systems applied.
they may be embedded in an school or HEI.

Offices/Staff

See above for Sole Trader/SME.

Clients

See above for Sole Trader/SME.

Students

See above for Sole Trader/SME.

6. The Education Giant

There are a very small number of ‘Education Giants’ that have an education agency arm as one business line in a much larger suite of horizontal services in the international education market.

Working with education education agents?

AgentBee’s education agent due diligence solution supports educational institutions to implement best practice education agent due diligence processes.

Educational institutions can use it to:

protect students – conduct initial and ongoing due diligence checks on education agents.
protect your brand – detect cases of unauthorised agents using your institution’s name, logo or other IP without permission.