Some 2,000 education agencies across 125 countries have now been vetted through ICEF’s Agency Status program.
The program, which aims to provide a global benchmark of education agency quality, prides itself on its “rigorous vetting process” which includes reference checks and annual reassessment, which the organisation said “has the rigour to give governments, educators, and students confidence in the quality of an agency”.
Each successful agency applicant receives a unique ID and QR code that can be instantly verified from anywhere in the world.
They are also listed in an online agency directory and signed up to ICEF’s code of conduct, which was developed in close consultation with key stakeholders from across the industry and introduced in late 2023.
Our goal is to ensure the integrity of the international student recruitment industry
Nick Golding, ICEF
“Our goal is to ensure the integrity of the international student recruitment industry, and we have used our 30 years of experience in supporting educators and agents to create the ICEF Agency Status accreditation program,” said Nick Golding, ICEF’s VP government relations and strategic partnerships, speaking on the program’s progression.
Meanwhile, an ICEF spokesperson said in a statement that “as we reach this milestone of 2,000 accredited agencies, we are joined in our mission to raise professional standards across the sector by a fast-growing body of early adopters”.
The spokesperson highlighted key players such as Global University Systems, Oxford International Education Group, INTO University Partnerships, Kings Education, Navitas and QA Higher Education as those “already recommending IAS to their agency portfolio.”
ICEF said it plans to have accredited “the majority of the industry’s leading agencies over the next few years”, and said that some 1,000 agencies are going through the accreditation process, with ICEF investing in additional staff and technology to support this growth.
Golding predicts some 5,000 agencies will be accredited by the year-end, and up to 10,000 by the end of 2025.
ICEF CEO Markus Badde previously explained that agents within the IAS program who have been found not to have respected quality standards are sanctioned in a given market, and can no longer pop up in a new market and continue to do business there.
“If an agent breaks any IAS rules they are effectively no longer part of the global agent/educator networking ecosystem that is ICEF,” said Badde.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the UK are bracing for tighter agent regulation to be introduced following the Migration Advisory Committee’s response to its government-commissioned review into the Graduate Route.
The MAC review, released on May 14, found no “significant abuse” of the visa route but raised concerns about recruitment agents providing “misleading information” to students, sparking speculation that further agent regulations will be announced by the government in due course.
The committee recognised the work of the UK sector’s independent Agent Quality Framework – which has 23,000 registered agents, and 8,703 certified – but the review recommended that this be replaced by a mandatory government registration system for international agents and subagents.
