ISC expects to see 7,200 international schools teaching over 3.7million students in English in the next year

Standards and practices when using commission-based agents will be scrutinised in the coming year by both educators and agencies, with some innovations occurring as a result of agency-based recruitment.

The landmark NACAC ruling in September, allowing its US institutional members to use commission-based agents to recruit students, stipulated that educators ensure accountability, transparency, and integrity in the interactions. There are predictions that as a result of the decision, the US’s market share will grow in emerging markets, especially Africa.

Fanta Aw, President of NAFSA, sums up the mood: “The issue of the agent debate really needs to be shifting not from ‘is it happening?’– because we know it is – to, in the context of the US, ‘what is it going to take to do it right?’.”

In the UK, a new service is set to launch in early 2014 that aims to protect all stakeholders during the recruitment process, from application to graduation. AMLAPS is a new “ecosystem” designed by an ex-college director determined to safeguard vetted education agents, institutions and students by offering an insurance bond to all those operating within its system.

Agency associations that don’t already have standardisation systems in place will move in that direction in 2014

Zakaria Mahmood’s idea is to link vetted UK institutions with a global network of agencies that have met a kitemark standard and enable joint use of a secure escrow account system. “As an industry we are partly to blame [for mistrust],” he says. “We have to take immigration compliance more seriously.”

Agency associations in Spain, Turkey and China have already taken the initiative to establish regulations and accreditation schemes in order to improve their sector. There’s no doubt that other agency associations that don’t already have standardisation systems in place will move in that direction in 2014.

Next generation education agencies can also look forward to a possible new tech platform for b2b bookings in the language teaching industry. An Australian operator is already raising expectations with his beta-stage Salesforce-backed booking platform. Due to be launched this year, the platform could modernise the industry and be a “win win” for schools and agencies seeking to maximise efficiency. Expect to hear more about this in the coming weeks.