Access to American Education (AAE), an education consultancy with offices in Vietnam and Philadelphia, was the first AIRC-certified US-owned agency with a brick-and-mortar office in Vietnam. Co-founders Ken Cooper and Jim Barger provide fascinating insight into working in Vietnam and the changing agency landscape.
The PIE: Tell me about the origins of the company.
KC: AAE began operating in November 2008 in Vietnam. We were the first American-owned AIRC-certified agency with an actual office in Ho Chi Min City. In 2009 we opened our office to students and now place about 100 students a year at US colleges and universities.
The PIE: And why did you decide to get into the study abroad game?
KC: Actually I worked for a law firm as a paralegal and we were asked to do some due diligence on an agent in Vietnam. Through our investigation, we discovered that the agent was unethical and charging the Vietnamese students high fees.
So I started doing some internet research about international student recruitment agencies and kept seeing references to a Dr Mitch Leventhal at the University of Cincinnati. Thus, I gave him a call and he agreed to meet with me at the airport in Cleveland, Ohio, where we talked for about eight hours. This was the day that my business partners, Brad Wertheimer Esq., Jim and I hatched a plan to be the first AIRC-certified American agent in the world. And we decided that Vietnam was a good place to do business. So I left the law firm and became a founding member of AAE — and that’s how we got started.
The PIE: And how were things when you started?
KC: Almost impossible. It was very hard and challenging. During our first year, we only identified four Vietnamese students interested in going to the US to study.
“Vietnamese students mainly go to community colleges on the West Coast and in Texas mostly because of price”
The PIE: And how do you recruit Vietnamese students?
KC: Through fairs, seminars, webinars, scholarship interviews, and high school visits. AAE now has 110 US college and university partners. We do a lot of our scholarship interviews through webinars via the internet with our partners and students. We bring around 30 qualified students to one location for interviews with international student coordinators and Vietnamese students currently studying at our partner schools [in the US].
Following the interviews, institutional representatives make appointments to meet potential students at their table during the AAE fair. By the time students attend the fair, they are already familiar with specific institutions and immediately seek them out. Tables are then full of high school kids. It really is a great sight!
The PIE: And Jim how are you involved? You’re based in the States?
JB: I’m based in the States and am actively involved in the day-to-day business. I do recruiting, I deal with universities and I deal with students. I do all the on-shore stuff.
It is really gratifying that we started out basically to do some due diligence, after which we went on to do what was necessary to become an agency, then became AIRC-certified after being in business a few years, and this year were able to send a student to a US university on a full scholarship. It’s the first time this university has given a scholarship of this magnitude to a foreign student in about 30 years. So we’re very proud of our agency’s abilities and successes.
KC: This was La Salle University and their first full ride ever to a student from Vietnam. The scholarship is 100% including housing and everything. La Salle University is an AAE partner and has made a major commitment to our organization; we’re working with them now also as an in-country representative.
“La Salle University is an AAE partner and has made a major commitment to our organisation”
The PIE: Do you find that most students want to study in America? And if so, is it usually West Coast/East Coast?
KC: It’s complicated and often depends on financial resources. The first location choices are usually Houston or California, but if students are less economically restricted then he or she wants to go to a school of choice that fits their needs, rather than to a specific destination.
Vietnamese students mainly go to community colleges on the West Coast and in Texas, mostly because of price. It’s important in this market to acknowledge that the Vietnamese are very price-conscious. Scholarships are a badge of honour in Vietnam, so institutions wanting to get into the Vietnam market need to have scholarships of one kind or another.
JB: And climate has a lot to do in the decision-making process.
The PIE: And you have an office in the US as well?
KC: We have an office in Philadelphia and we have an office in Ho Chi Minh.
The PIE: And how does that help your students having an office on-shore in the US as well?
KC: Student services are key, If a student gets sick or needs to find the police station or closest hospital, or if a parent wants someone to call and talk with, we are immediately there to help. Our students are our clients.
We fight for them from the day we recruit them until the moment they go back to their home country. Some day, I hope that one of these students becomes the President of Vietnam and says that I started my US higher education experience because of AAE! That’s my dream.
“Starting this May, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training began setting up certification requirements”
The PIE: What about the general agency scene in Vietnam? You said that you dealt with one agent that wasn’t ethical. Is there a big problem with unethical agencies?
KC: Things are beginning to clean up. Starting this May, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training began setting up certification requirements: Agencies must put US$25,000 in an escrow account to show financial stability; agents are required to take a 40-hour course on International student recruitment and ethics. Agents must speak English, have a Bachelors degree to become a counsellor, and be bilingual to own an agency.
The PIE: In terms of scale and growth what do you think you can achieve at AAE?
KC: Although recruiting international students to US institutions can be challenging and is certainly a time-consuming process, AAE is committed to expanding our operations both in Vietnam and elsewhere. Because of AIRC’s certification process and the NACAC decision last September, we believe the international student recruitment industry will grow and we plan on being part of that growth.
The US will now have the opportunity to better compete with Great Britain and Australia—countries that have increased their international student population exponentially through agency-based recruitment.
The PIE: And have you seen a tangible difference already?
KC: Absolutely. 100%.
The PIE: Do you think you would open another office?
KC: We hope to be in Hanoi some day and have a business plan for Indonesia. But it’s baby steps one step at a time.
“I would like to think the students are smart enough to know we’re there to help them go to a college or university in the United States but they have to follow the rules”
The PIE: And do you ever have problems with bogus students who are trying to go through the backdoor into the US?
KC: AAE has developed ways to vet a student in-house to avoid responses that could be faked in a formal process. We want to be absolutely certain that the students we work with don’t flunk the visa interview. That would be a waste of both our time and the student’s time.
I believe we haven’t seen many phony papers because students know AAE is American-owned with a big red, white and blue office in Vietnam. I would like to think the students are smart enough to know we’re there to help them go to a college or university in the United States but they have to follow the rules.
