A 34% increase in the number of higher education institutions attending the most recent ICEF Higher Education Workshop is testament to the growing interest in building international student recruitment and involving education agents, say the event organisers.
Germany-based ICEF, a networking company for international educators and agents, organises events which allow educators and agencies to connect and work together in international student recruitment. Held just ahead of the EAIE conference in Dublin, the latest ICEF Higher Education event welcomed 75 accredited higher education institutions as well as 104 agents representing 93 agencies from 50 countries.
“This reflects the continued move by higher education institutions towards working with agents and ICEF’s position as the best place to meet them,” said a spokesperson for the company.
Some attendees acknowledged that they were changing their recruitment strategy to incorporate education agencies, which are screened by ICEF. “My institution is in process of moving to a multi-agency recruitment strategy. This workshop has been key to my institution making this change,” said Clayton Smith of the University of Windsor in Canada.
Agencies also said they found the workshop useful to meet new partners and refresh business relations with others. From Mexico, Enrique Efrain Orozco of GDL Travel praised the networking opportunities too. “The evening reception at Trinity College was unforgettable!” he said.
ICEF also runs an Agent Training Course and two attending agencies, Ayman Abdelhafez from Sindibad Education Consultancy in Saudi Arabia and Ivana Tihi from BHV Education in Croatia, joined the roll call of ICEF Trained Agent Counsellors (ITACs), during the event.
