The German outbound study travel market remained steady last year, according to an annual agency survey, which shows that the number of students going abroad for language study fell by just under 2%.

Manoeuvring through the student visa application process can be a trying experience and the rules constantly evolve as immigration policies change to suit the political climate. Sara Custer spoke with 20 major education agencies about the visa journey and charted their insight into the pros and cons of systems in top study destinations.

Pro Linguis, one of Switzerland’s oldest and largest education agencies which went into liquidation last month, is being acquired by StudyLingua AG, another Swiss language travel agency based in St Gallen.

Speaking with The PIE News , educators, agents and accreditation bodies have said the arrests of 21 education counsellors for visa fraud earlier this month highlights the need for due diligence on both sides of the recruitment process.

A concern over education agencies selling language school courses "based on what makes us the same, not what makes us different", was a standpoint pitched against a process of standardisation in the Big Debate at the IALC Workshop last week in Leeds and York.

Speaking with The PIE News, agents in Brazil have voiced their concern following the announcement of a new tax on overseas payments that will include tuition and accommodation fees, which they say will raise the cost of study abroad for Brazilian students.

Canada-based education provider KGIC – formerly Loyalist Group – has sold its two recently-acquired agency divisions, Uhak.com and Kim Okran, marking its exit from the agency space.

Reputation and consultant qualifications outstrip cost as the biggest deciding factors for Chinese students when selecting a study abroad agent, but most are sceptical of profit motivated advice a survey of 22,000 parents and students has shown.