Notably, the US market falls short when it comes to establishing cross border university partnerships and profiting from mature agent-institution relationships, he said.

“The British and the Australians are 10 to 15 years ahead in terms of sophistication of the staff and the leadership of universities,” Leventhal told delegates at the British Universities International Liaison Association (BUILA) 10th annual conference last week.

“There are opportunities for institutions to work together to provide combined programmes and to jointly market and then share the pie”

Among his recommendations, Leventhal said double-degree programmes between nations, such as that of his own University at Albany SUNY and Edinburgh Napier University, could “soften the blow of competitors” for institutions in and out of the US.

“There are opportunities for institutions to work together to provide combined programmes and to jointly market and then share the pie,” said Leventhal.

And almost a year after the groundbreaking NACAC decision condoning commission-based agent use for its 13,000 members, Leventhal predicted the use of agents in the USA will become widespread over the next three years.

But, he underlined that the US still needs to make up ground to improve consistency of quality standards in order to compete with other destinations.

For example, compared with Australia where there is cohesion across the university sector among agency contracts, Leventhal describes agent contracts in the USA as “all over the place”.

“Unlike Australia where commission levels are similar across all institutions, the US has a wide variation and that means the possibility of agents steering a student based on the fee is greater in the US than say in Australia,” Leventhal noted.

“This lack of convergence on standards is also going to slow down America’s ability to really be an effective recruiter,” he warned.

Founded in 2008, AIRC has been instrumental in bringing together US higher education institutions and education agents to establish quality standards for international recruitment.