We just talk about the good stuff

“You either love them or you hate them, but you cannot ignore them,” AIRC‘s president said regarding the use of agents during a recent webinar.

The discussion about the use of international recruitment agents, facilitated by The Chronicle’s Karin Fischer, stakeholders from across the sector debated the benefits and setbacks of incorporating agents in international recruitment strategy. 

Derrick Alex, who is also the University of Houston’s director of international admissions and recruitment, mentioned his own experiences as an international student coming to the US from India.

While he noted wide variations across institutions regarding the use of agents in recent years, he likewise indicated there has been an increase in the implementation of AIRC standards. He nodded to new “guard rails” in place for students working with agents and said many universities have applied additional resources to help identify ethical agencies that can effectively serve the needs of students and institutions.

Eddie West, assistant dean for international strategy and programs at San Diego State University, said most students served by the agents he has worked with have been satisfied with both their agent service and institutional experiences. However, he indicated that over his decades in the field, he is aware of agent misconduct.

West is the co-editor of Student Recruitment Agents in Higher Education: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on Challenges and Best Practices, a forthcoming book on agents that he hopes “contributes to a foundation of knowledge that increases transparency and the overall health of the education agent ecosystem.”

While West agreed about the advances in regulation, he remains “concerned about recent developments in the agent space, specifically with respect to the growing proliferation agent aggregators”. He asserted that this sector under-regulated and has increased risk in the field.

“Agents play a really important role in helping families make good choices”

Brett Berquist, assistant vice chancellor for global engagement at the University of Canterbury spoke about the student experience as well as the conversion rates of direct applications.

“It’s daunting when you’re [a teen]…it’s a bit overwhelming – and students don’t apply to just one institution. So agents play a really important role in helping families make good choices, understanding where they have a good chance of getting in, [and] what they can afford,” he said.

As such, Berquist believes “having an effective management strategy for working with agents, including a clear compliance framework, is “an efficient way of doing business” as it can positively impact transparency and conversion rates.

Ffiona Rees, deputy director of undergraduate admissions at UCLA provided arguments for why agents are not necessary for every institution – including her own, which prohibits the use of agents; school leadership was even unified across the nine schools in the university system on the decision to not to use them.

“We are better off using our staff and our employees so when you have repercussions, there’s control. There’s training. There’s knowledge about the system and about what needs to be done.” She understands that UoC is in the minority but believes in-house recruitment efforts increase trust and transparency.

West noted that academic departments within an institution may elect to use agents, and cautions about the interpretation of survey data regarding agent use at HEIs. “If you’re to phrase the question, ‘Do any academic or other units at your institution work with agents?’ that’s going to be an even higher number,” West noted.

Chronicle editor Ian Wilhelm asked Craig Riggs, editor of The ICEF Monitor, about factors that are driving greater engagement with agents. “One is a real concrete move on the part of many institutions to diversify their international student enrolments,” said Riggs.

“The pandemic drew a very sharp line under the idea that it’s no longer sustainable to rely on a relatively small number of sending markets for one’s international enrolment, and we see institutions recommitting themselves,” he noted.

“We are better off using our staff and our employees so when you have repercussions, there’s control”

Riggs believes agents have an important role to play in accessing new markets and diversifying enrolment. He also underscored the idea of agents as a source of both market intelligence and support for students and families.

West spoke with The PIE News after the event about takeaways from the discussion, “Alongside growing numbers of US institutions working with agents is a hunger for more guidance about how to do that work productively and responsibly. Unlike other countries where agent use is pervasive and longstanding, many US HEIs are still relative newcomers to working with agents.”

He discussed the evolving nature of the university-agent relationship. “Many best practices and regulations in the field are no longer fit for purpose, now that master agent-subagent relationships are proliferating like never before, in large part because of agent aggregators. The lack of transparency in the aggregator space makes it harder for even experienced practitioners to maintain their bearings, much less schools that are just learning how to work with agents.”

“It’s a given agencies are reaching out and sending students…So overall, [working with agents is] something that we cannot deny. They exist. It’s how to utilise [agencies], and how you make the best of it,” Alex summarised.

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February 1 marked the first State of New Hampshire NAFSA Region XI meeting in three years. Meetings were put on hold during the pandemic, and as the group regathered in Concord, NH, for the first time in person this week, there were many new faces around the table.

University representatives included leaders from Dartmouth College, University of New Hampshire, Rivier University, and Franklin Pierce College. The institutional attendees represented multiple areas of the sector, including international student advising, international enrollment and admissions, study abroad, and student affairs.

In addition to institutional delegates, numerous government officials and sector partners attended the gathering, including immigration lawyers from Orr and Reno law offices in Concord.

NAFSA NH state representative Lou Greenwald convened and facilitated the meeting. He told The PIE, “It was great to have immigration attorneys on hand to update the group on changes and new regulations that impact different types of international students, such as H1 students and students on optional practical training.”

It was great to have immigration attorneys on hand

The most pressing topic discussed by the group, however, was visa delays and denials, with the predominance of denials coming from Nigeria, Ghana, and certain cities in India, according to the group.

Participants stated the longest backlog of visa appointments have been for F, M, and J visas but also cited long delays for F2-2 (family dependent) visas as well. Greenwald shared that universities can apply to expedite visa appointments with proof of start date of classes for an additional fee.

Attendees also noted the dramatic increase in visa filing fees, indicating certain types have increased from $370 to $650. Greenwald said Form 765 for adjusted status is now $650 with an average processing time of 10 months. Meanwhile, Form 539 for family F-1 (the paper version) was formerly $370 and is now $620, with the electric version costing $525.

Leaders underscored their concerns about visa “shopping.” Greenwald stated, “Some students enter the U.S. on an initial I-20 then transfer out to another school that’s higher ranked or cheaper.”

And while there remained some degree of concern on over-reliance on India, as universities continually seek more diversity, other institutions are seeing an increase in applications from Colombia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Representatives from the NH department of motor vehicles attended the meeting and outlined the process for international students to obtain driver’s licenses, discussing the type of paperwork required and the additional steps students must take in order to drive in the US.

Staffers from congressman Chris Pappas’ office and congresswoman Ann Kuster’s office also attended the meeting to hear concerns voiced by university leaders. A major concern that was prevalent amongst the institutions was staffing. “Staffing is still an issue in admissions and student services,” said Greenwald.

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International education has been no exception to the widely reported layoffs across the technology sector, with a number of digital student recruitment companies and online program management providers cutting staff numbers.

Among technology companies that have reduced staff numbers in the past year are ApplyBoard, which laid off some 6% of its global workforce in late 2022, and Adventus saw almost 40 customer success and admissions, sales, and people & culture staff cut. The company said the cuts were mainly down to “amalgamation of divisions”.

Online education companies, such as D2L, 2U and Coursera, have also seen job losses in the past year.

FutureLearn CEO Andy Hancock said the company said “goodbye to some very talented individuals who have worked so hard making FutureLearn the success it is today” on social media, ahead of the company’s acquisition by GUS late last year.

D2L reduced its staff by 5% in November, shortly before 2U had laid off 20% of its workforce – following its merger with edX in 2021 – and Coursera reduced headcount as a result of “navigating lower growth rates and environmental uncertainty. The company did not say how many staff had been let go, but expected to spend between $10 million and $12 million reducing personnel expenses, including severance and benefit costs, in 2022’s fourth quarter, Higher Ed Dive reported.

upGrad-owned Harappa Education also announced around 60 job losses recently.

India-based Unacademy had three rounds of redundancies in 2022. The first saw up to 1,000 jobs go in April according to media reports, a further 150 losses in June, and a final 350 in November.

Layoff.fyi also identified a number of companies backed by Owl Ventures, that have reduced their workforces. BYJU’s cut 2,500 jobs in October – around 5% of its workforce – while Preply cut 26 positions and Degreed reduced headcount by some 15%, the platform tracking tech layoffs showed.

Tutoring platform GoStudent laid off 100 staff in December, Business Insider revealed.

Financial Times has reported that more than 200,000 posts have been shed over the technology sector over 12 months, with Google parent company, Alphabet, axing 12,000 staff. The New York Times has warned that tech’s dependence on valuation with companies raising money to pour into “risky or unproven assets” has made the sector “stand out”.

Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai suggested that the company’s trimmed workforce would help sharpen the company’s focus, the FT said.

One source that works in the edtech industry suggested companies that have raised capital at “somewhat inflated” valuations in the past five years may be vulnerable, while those that have been planning toward the next fundraise while making heavy losses could struggle. Companies will be very hesitant to do that however.

With valuations falling at some companies, capital may not be available, unless raising a down-round, where shares are sold at lower price than in previous funding rounds.

Companies that have seen their valuations fall recently include BYJU’S, tagged at $5.98 billion, while previously it had been valued at $22bn.

Edtech companies that have raised funding with SaaS valuations but are more service-enabled tech that require large staff numbers to operate will also be under pressure to cut costs. While they may have cash and are not necessarily in trouble financially, redundancies are seen as a good way to remain sustainable.

Virtual program operator Terra Dotta is one company that is currently hiring and it doesn’t anticipate layoffs in 2023.

“Certainly, the pandemic brought about new opportunities in the edtech market and I think a lot of the layoffs we are seeing are rightsizing to ensure organisations are set up for success,” CEO Anthony Rotoli told The PIE.

“As a 20+ year company, Terra Dotta has endured economic ups and downs in the past and we are proud to have weathered and thrived despite the pandemic and the resulting travel downturn. Terra Dotta is committed to continuing to evolve our solutions to meet the demands of renewed interest in travel and international education.”

In an recent interview with The PIE, CEO of accommodation marketplace HousingAnywhere, Djordy Seelmann, highlighted that the while the 200,000 posts lost in the past year sounds like a lot, “if you look at how many jobs were added in the past two-three years, we’re looking at 10% of what was added”.

“From a HousingAnywhere perspective, we’re not in that situation where we over planned or over hired,” Seelmann said.

“We’ve seen a lot of pressure in the market, especially the last two years, to hire talent not only in but also outside of engineering. On the engineering side, things are starting to normalise, but still in other parts of the jobs market it is very hard to find good, qualified, experienced people.”

“We’ve seen a lot of pressure in the market, especially the last two years”

A new report from Deloitte has suggested that after hiring freezes and layoffs in Q4 2022, leaders “are now aiming to right-size their workforces”.

A survey of more than 100 technology decision-makers in late 2022 found that 58% reported that recruiting talent is a major challenge, and 48% said the same about retaining personnel.

Beyond workforce adjustments, approaches to increase margins and grow revenues “may include making business processes more efficient, relying more heavily on intelligent automation, reducing tech debt by implementing best practices for software development, modernising legacy architectures by migrating to cloud and XaaS, and considering strategic mergers and acquisitions”, the report noted.

“The losses in tech, it’s like crocodile tears to me a bit,” Seelmann continued, referring to big companies such as Google and Meta.

“They overhired, they spent too much money, they now realise that they have to [make profit]… So in that sense, I think it’s good. As a result, what we’re going to see is probably people be more focused and consolidating and creating new things outside of big tech.”

Likewise, the Deloitte paper suggested workforce reductions “may have an upside for smaller, growing tech companies by providing opportunities to acquire newly available talent”.

“I think that’s going to drive more innovation. [Big tech] is known to not be the biggest innovators, right? They have significant positions and they want to consolidate. So I hope it’s going to inspire people to start out on their own or join companies like HousingAnywhere,” Seelmann concluded.

The PIE Chat with Djordy Seelmann will be published in the upcoming weeks.

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The Canadian government will accept Pearson’s new language test as proof of English proficiency, the publishing and assessment company announced today.

Individuals applying for Canadian permanent residency or citizenship are expected to be able to use Pearson’s test in their applications from late 2023.

The organisation said the new exam, PTE Essential, is similar to its existing test, PTE Academic, but has a vocational and real-life focus to meet Canada’s immigration requirements.

“We see every day how English skills can transform lives,”

“At Pearson, we see every day how English skills can transform lives,” said Andy Bird, CEO of Pearson.

“We’ve already seen how PTE Academic can help people take a huge stride towards being themselves in English in whichever country they choose to work or study.”

“I’m delighted PTE Essential is now accepted in Canada for economic visas and proud of the innovation and rigor that sits behind the quick and high-quality experience our test provides to test takers.”

Canada granted a record 437,000 permanent residency permits in 2022, approximately 9% higher than in 2021. The government plans to accept increasing numbers of new permanent residents in the coming years, reaching 500,000 in 2025 alone.

Currently applicants must take the IELTS or CELPIP exams to prove their English proficiency.

PTE Academic is currently accepted by UK, Australian and New Zealand governments for all visa applications, as well as by nearly all universities in those countries, and over 90% of Canadian universities.

Both tests are fully-digital, using AI and voice-recognition technology, and the new exam will be available at Pearson’s global testing centres.

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Studying abroad is becoming less rewarding for Chinese youth, experts warn, as the country’s population falls for the first time in 60 years. 

China’s national birth rate hit a record low in 2022, leaving some universities that heavily rely on fees from international Chinese students reassessing what the future may hold. The PIE News spoke to experts in the sector about their predictions for China’s complex prospects – and just how quickly universities may need to diversify their international student bases.  

Although China’s population is declining, the UN forecasts that the number of 20-24 year olds will fall by 6% between 2020 and 2030. This is not “an especially sharp decrease,” said Jazreel Goh, Malaysia director at the British Council, adding that the number of 15-19 year olds is forecast to increase in the same decade. “In a nutshell, HE attainment rates will likely continue to grow,” Goh said. 

But analysts predict that the total number of Chinese students in overseas higher education specifically will peak within five years and then stagnate or decline, in part because the ‘rewards’ of an expensive education abroad are lessening. 

The wage premium – how much more individuals who have studied abroad earn than those who haven’t – is shrinking in China, according to consultancy company Oliver Wyman. 

“A lot of the demand for overseas higher education is overflow”

At the same time, access to higher education in China is growing. As China’s youth population shrinks, there will be less demand for more places. “A lot of the demand for overseas higher education is ‘overflow’,” said Goh. “Many Chinese students would actually prefer to and have options to study in a top university locally.”

“The expansion of domestic places, especially for master’s courses, and improving standards in Chinese HEIs” will create “increasing options at home for Chinese students,” Goh added.  

Susan Fang, co-founder and CEO of OxBridge Holdings, points out that this is only unlikely to make an immediate difference. “At least for the next decade, as students born between 2005 and 2015 enter the higher-ed stage, the number of Chinese students pursuing an overseas degree will continue,” she said. 

For now, it is still “relatively easier for Chinese students to enter a well-ranked university in the UK than a top university in China” at postgraduate level, write UK-based researchers in a new paper on how push and pull factors have changed for Chinese graduate students since 2000. 

The study found that the UK universities could be repelling Chinese families by accepting increasing numbers of students into postgraduate programs, thus damaging their reputations as high quality, selective providers. But Chinese students do see master’s programs in the UK as “a shorter, easier and less expensive way to meet the Chinese job market demand”, according to  the research, which interviewed 20 graduates. 

In particular, “Chinese graduates from Russell Group universities find it easier to have access to the job market in China because of the ranking associated reputation,” said Cheryl Yu, one of the academics behind the research. 

The other remaining push factor is affordability, according to Claudia Wang, partner at Oliver Wyman, referring to China’s growing middle- and upper-classes. But “not all the middle-class can afford to send their children to top overseas destinations,” she said. 

“Economic growth rates will inevitably slow in the coming years”

Economic uncertainty in China could further impact student behaviour. “Economic growth rates will inevitably slow in the coming years, even if 2023 growth will be quite strong,” said Goh. “This will limit demand for overseas study as we often see in maturing economies.”

“We do believe that the majority of the students going abroad were, are, and will still be from middle and upper class families,” added Wang. “We are concerned that some of their wealth will significantly be impacted should the economy go down, and this will exert a negative impact on the demand. Of course, some students may opt for lower-cost destinations instead.” 

Chinese students will “increasingly look to stay within the region,” the British Council predicted in a recent report. “Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia will benefit.” 

“More Chinese students will choose to study abroad in general, but they are looking at Europe, Asia, Middle East as their destinations,” agreed Yu. 

For universities and colleges, Wang said that students from emerging countries such as India and Vietnam will “effectively offset the potential loss in students’ numbers”, but that they will be looking for different things than ‘traditional’ Chinese students.  

“The South Asia and South East Asia students are probably more price-sensitive than Chinese students,” Wang said. “If we talk about post-graduate programs, many will opt for the one-year program and they would be more migration driven. So in short, we think other countries’ students may largely compensate for the potential enrolment loss but maybe not be equally profitable on a per-student basis for the universities.” 

Higher education institutions are already beginning to think differently about recruiting Chinese students and they will likely have to continue to adapt to new markets and demographics.  

“The long term trend will be a gradual decline in Chinese student intake in the traditional sense. As China’s population ages and prospers, could there be a new generation of mature Chinese students looking to study abroad?” Fang asks. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.”

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UK universities face rising competition when recruiting students from East Asia as multi-destination applicants become more popular, warns a new report from the British Council.

One agent survey referenced in the report found that the number of Chinese students applying to UK programs as well as institutions in other countries has nearly doubled from 20% in 2019 to 36.5% in 2022.

Despite the decrease in outbound students from East Asia, the UK fared better than other destinations but in the report 5 Trends to Watch in 2023 East Asia Edition, the British Council states that there is greater competition from “other major host markets as well as regional rivals”.

Closer locations, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, pose a greater threat to the UK when it comes to attracting East Asian students, as institutions in these regions can offer quality, affordable education closer to home. 

Meanwhile, Canada and Australia are “more favourable destinations for emigration and post-study work rights”, according to the report.

Jazreel Goh, director of Malaysia and East Asia insights at the British Council, advised that UK HEIs need to highlight their competitive advantages to attract East Asian students and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

“World-class HEIs, graduate employability opportunities and strong alumni networks, all at a reasonable cost”

“World-class HEIs, graduate employability opportunities and strong alumni networks, all at a reasonable cost,” said Goh, listing elements of UK HEIs that should be leveraged during the enrolment processes in order to compete.

As the number of international students in the UK grows, reaching 680,000 in the 2021/22 academic year, the report highlights concerns about the quality of these enrolments. 

Goh said that UK universities will be selected over local education markets if they shift their strategic approach “from finding the most students to finding the best students”. This involves, according to the British Council report, moving from a recruitment-based mentality to “a selection-based one.” 

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US institutions need to do more to protect their largest cohort of international students – those coming from China – a researcher has urged.

Jing Yu’s study on Chinese International Students’ Experiences of Racism in Times of Crisis found that Asian students are missing in racial discourse in the US, and that Covid-19, geopolitical tensions with China and anti-Asian racism has put them in a vulnerable situation.

Participants in the survey reported issues from explicit racism, racial ignorance and double alienation, where they face discrimination due to their race as well as their nationality.

“Although the US now is a focused on equity, diversity and inclusion, most of the time EDI does not include international student population,” Yu said in a recent webinar.

In her research, Yu sought to expand the scope and include international students in discussions on these issues, she explained.

Through interviews with 21 Chinese international undergraduates in the US, Yu also identified that prior to coming to the US, Chinese students held contrasting views on race and racism, than when compared with when leaving the country.

Experiences Chinese students lived in the US “dramatically shifted their conceptualisation of race from a nationality-based identity to the phenotype-based imposed category of ‘Asian’”, the research said.

The feeling among students that they are revenue generator for institutions resulted in students feeling both welcome and unwelcome, Yu suggested during the session.

She described an interview with one student from Shanghai who said awareness of being an economic contribution is a “pathetic truth”.

“US institutions like us because of money, which makes me really sad”

“[US institutions] like us because of money which makes me really sad. You will find it’s not a thing that you will be proud of,” the student had told her.

“International students are welcome at US universities based not solely on their academic merit, but also on their ability to pay,” she said the student had suggested.

Feelings of invalidation and marginalisation increase self-criticism among students, leading to fear, anger, sadness and the mental health concerns, Yu indicated.

“Chronic exposure to racial ignorance causes racial battle fatigue and undermines students psychological wellbeing,” she said.

In Canada, University of Ottawa researcher Karine Coen-Sanchez has also called for EDI policies to be more inclusive for international students.

Yu also spoke of Asian Americans and Chinese students.

“Asian international students share overlapping stereotypes with Asian Americans such as the ‘model minority’ [concept]. At the same time, [the students interviewed] confirmed the new stereotypes, such as academic dishonesty and being cash cows,” she said.

“International students may face discrimination not only because of their race, but also from their nationality. Another example is international students as economically privileged migrants are simultaneously as racialised other and economic elites. These inconsistent social statuses will strongly influence their identity construction and how they perceive race, racism and the racial justice movements.”

While stop Asian hate movements across the US helped to raise awareness of racism, slogans had “driven a wedge between the Asian Americans and the non Americans Asians”, the researcher continued.

“The slogan such as Asian-Americans are Americans implies that ‘I was born in this country, so I shouldn’t be treated as a foreigner on outsider’. However, the deracialized form Western nationalism is counterproductive because, after all, the majority of anti-Asian racist incidents are based on superficial phenotypic characteristics rather than the birthplace or nationality.

“International students may face discrimination not only because of their race, but also from their nationality”

“Such framing also excludes the Asian international students, allies of the movement, who are not born here, who do not hold a US passport, but are victimised by the same type of anti-Asian racism and the violence.”

Yu also said that statements in favour of international students following, for example, the Trump administration executive order requiring students to attend in-person classes during the height of Covid-19, or face deportation, were problematic.

“Many international higher education organisations such as American Council on Education immediately issued a public statement pushing back against this discriminatory policy,” she said.

“However, the statement only emphasised international students economic contribution, which is a type of nationalistic and a protectionist argument to sustain the global white supremacy,” she said.

“Under the socio-political context of US/China geopolitical tensions, Covid-19, anti-Asian Racism, Chinese international students have been particularly vulnerable,” Yu concluding, particularly impacting their mental health.

“US institutions should take actions to protect this largest international student group,” she said.

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