A lot of people are following the current discussion among our American colleagues about the use of agents in the recruitment of international students. The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has charged a special commission with making recommendations about the practice, and as recently reported in the Pie News and Inside Higher Ed, a "pre-release version of the commission report" is having a bit of an each way bet - urging NACAC to lift a ban on the practice, while at the same time discouraging it. The recommended phrase “should not” rather than “may not” is seen as sending a strong message about use of agents, but would not amount to an outright ban. The report states that “best practice” would be for institutions not to use agents, which makes me wonder – best practice in what?

To answer this question we need to go back a step and ask the question “why use agents at all?”. In my view there are two main reasons, equally important.

The first is to enable universities to compete effectively in the global competition to recruit the best possible students. Some of us are lucky enough to work at institutions which through their history, position, reputation and research performance don’t have to do much at all to attract significant interest from prospective international students. Most of us are not. Most institutions need to be more proactive in attracting the type and mix of international students needed to optimise the diversity and size of their on-campus enrolment. IIE tells us that there were a little over 600,000 international undergraduate and graduate students in US higher education institutions in 2012 (Fast Facts), 120,000 of them (or 20%) at just 20 institutions. Based on that concentration of international students in a small number of institutions I would suggest that most American universities have not optimised their on-campus international enrolments to the extent they would like to. Agents provide reach into source countries in ways that most universities cannot otherwise achieve, particularly with limited international office resources. And as NACAC itself admits, about 20% of institutions (those that are prepared to fess up) are already using agents.

The second reason for using student recruitment agents is service provision. I recently submitted an enquiry to Education USA about study opportunities in the US. The automated email response I received (“Dear Connelly?”) included the following FAQ information:

There are so many schools in the U.S. How do I decide which school to apply to?

To research undergraduate study opportunities go to:

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/index.html 

Take the time needed to browse through the different search areas to find schools that match your preferences and needs, choosing locations in the US in which you would like to live and continue your studies. Then go to each university’s website to learn more, research their requirements for application, and check their admission deadlines.

Go to each university’s website? I have just been doing that with my daughter who is researching exchange opportunities. Easier said than done. Even universities with sizeable international student populations have pretty poorly organised websites when it comes to information for prospective international students. The ‘do it yourself’ approach just isn’t going to cut it if American universities want to compete with the more seasoned recruiting countries.

Is using agents to recruit international students risky?

Absolutely. But it is manageable. The NACAC report rightly points out the complexities and challenges of international student recruitment via agents. Jumping in with little or no experience would be a recipe for disaster, and organisations such as the American International Recruitment Council with agent certification, and NAFSA with webinars on approaches to student recruitment, provide evidence of the current efforts in the US to devise a system that works for institutions and for students. NACAC’s Statement of Principles of Good Practice that ethical college admission is a ‘cornerstone’ of the organisation indicates the seriousness of the debate. Domestic student recruitment and international student recruitment are different, but there are ways to ensure that service provision to prospective international students is conducted ethically, and that breaches are punishable.

Within the context of regulatory frameworks, accreditation systems, professional development, benchmarking and institutional accountability it is possible to devise and implement a best practice approach to international student recruitment that serves the dual objectives of institutions seeking to internationalise, and students seeking the best possible study options.

Yesterday here at the NAFSA conference I heard the figure quoted that 2% of higher education students are globally mobile, and we need to do something about the 98% who are not. These figures are misleading in that they do not represent accurately proportions of students who cross borders for part or all of their study experience, and if we want to get serious about measuring impact, we need first to reach agreement on numbers.

I travelled overseas as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student, for a semester each time. It is not comparable to someone who undertakes their entire degree program abroad, but by any other measure, that is a lot of international study experience. I was part of the 98% immobile students in 8 of my 10 semesters, but no one could argue that I did not have meaningful and impactful experiences in the other 2 semesters. The 98% figure is simply misleading, not helpful in assessing the impact or importance of student mobility.

In Australia for some time we have been asking a different question. Not how many students are mobile at any one time, but how many students in a particular cohort had an international study experience as part of their degree program? One of the cohorts we ask this question of is Australian domestic undergraduate students. In a given year around 12% of a graduating cohort of our domestic undergraduate students has had an international study experience as part of their degree program. It is still not a large number, but many if not all Australian universities have as one of their internationalisation objectives the goal of increasing that percentage. If we add to that 12% the number of graduating students in the cohort who are foreign, i.e. who came from overseas but who completed their entire degree program in Australia, suddenly the graduating cohort starts to look very globally mobile. About 20% of higher education undergraduate students in Australia currently are international, so adding these students to the globally mobile domestic undergraduate students means that between a quarter and a third of a graduating cohort at the average Australian university has participated in an international study experience.

That's a very different number from 2%.

Kofi Annan was yesterday's keynote speaker at the NAFSA conference opening plenary. The roll call of plenary speakers at this and previous conferences is certainly impressive - the former UN Secretary General did not disappoint. A softly spoken and humble man, his address was the perfect embodiment of the conference theme - ideals and impact. While others have chosen to focus on his ear muff story, there was much more substance in the reflections of this alum of Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota. Canvassing such issues as illiteracy, gender inequality, climate change and the current US immigration debate, he also had enough grasp of the complexities of international education to remind us to bring the community into the IE discussion, to broaden both understanding and impact. This is critical - the impact of international education manifests itself on the individual, the institution, on national and global issues, but importantly, also on community. And community can be an important ally in our advocacy of the benefits of international education. 

Annan reminded the audience that international students contribute US$20b annually to the economy, but moved on to the salient lesson of IE - the opportunity to promote dialogue and respect and increase understanding. He made the point that the immigration debate has painted diversity as a weakness, whereas the diversity of immigrant societies and the presence of international students is in fact an opportunity. We need to maximise the benefits of pluralism and build the ethos of global citizenship. Returned international students become leaders in their communities, and those who stay contribute to the community and economy in their host country. 

Two final points important rounded out the plenary address. Annan bemoaned the decline of foreign language studies in developed countries, in my view a new and insidious form of cultural colonialism. He also made the point that this generation of young people (I don't think he meant me) is the first generation of truly global citizens, and we need to understand their perspective, energy and commitment. His initiative of online dialogue with young people ( see the Kofi Annan Dialogues Live http://bit.ly/17rMOtV) is inspired and inspiring. It is idealistic, but it just might have impact.

Arrived in St Louis yesterday and pre-conference activity was already well underway. NAFSANS could be seen networking long into the night, a trend sure to continue. A highlight already this morning was a run down to the St Louis arch www.gatewayarch.com and the banks of the mighty Mississippi river. Not a lot of networking going on before 7am though.

What I'm looking forward to this week:

Kofi Annan's Opening Plenary Address
Seminar - Alternative Futures for Internationalization in the Next Decade
Transnational Education: Models and Measures of Success
Internationalization and Institutional Governance: An Evolving Relationship
3rd Australia Strategy Session: After the Chaney Report – Back to the Future
The Australian Universities Reception

More later.

When we were in NYC in April we saw the Knicks play the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks had been on something of a roll, but after a blistering start found themselves some way behind at half time. During the break the club feted the famous championship team from 1972-73, this being their 40th anniversary. It must have inspired the current players because they came out and shot 42 points in the 3rd quarter, including a 3 point buzzer beater, and eventually won the game pulling up. Our son James walked out with a Knicks cap and commemorative Championship ring, but he was still talking about some guy called James LeBron who plays for the Miami Heat. Next day we stopped in at an NBL store and bought a Miami Heat shirt with James emblazoned on the back. All good, except James our son wore the Knicks cap and the Miami Heat shirt at the same time, which seemed to confuse some of the locals.

Fast forward to last night and the Miami Heat is playing the Indiana Pacers in the first game of the Eastern Conference play offs. The Pacers had previously beaten the Knicks so I was rooting, as they say, for the Heat. The game went into over time, and with 2.2 seconds on the clock the Heat was 1 point behind, but they had possession. What can you do in 2.2 seconds, I was thinking. Quite a lot as it turns out, with this LeBron guy scoring a basket and winning the game. Apparently The Heat are the Yankees of basketball, ie the team everyone loves to hate. I can relate to that, given my AFL allegiance. Turns out also that James LeBron is in fact LeBron James. My son James pointed that out when I skyped him this morning to tell him all about it. 

Memorial Day weekend looms and the play offs are in full swing. It must be NAFSA conference time. 

Just arrived last night in Arlington in preparation for the ISEP board meeting, commencing this afternoon with a strategic planning session. Accompanying me is House of Earth, a Woody Guthrie novel from the 1940s which was never published, until the manuscript was recently discovered. The text dates from the same era as Grapes of Wrath. I'm an habitual reader of books with some connection to where I'm travelling, but this idea was Sandra's, who knows my habits too well. It's a great read, introduction by Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley. I also like to get out and about a bit when I arrive somewhere, so went to a local bar for a (vegie) burger and to watch a bit of baseball last night. I thought the Orioles might get up against the Yankees, but they eventually went down in the 10th inning. And the Red Sox lost so a double blow at the start of this trip. Woke up early this morning and went for a run down to the Arlington cemetery and the Iwo Jima memorial. You can't escape America's war history in this part of the US, and they do the memorials very well. I couldn't help wondering though at the number of headstones in the cemetery. Running back I was obviously distracted by these thoughts and forgot they drive on the right side of the road here. I managed to avoid disaster, but I feel now I have well and truly landed in the US. And I'll stick to pedestrian crossings from now on as well.

I'm looking forward to this year's NAFSA conference. The theme is "Ideals and Impact in International Education." Sometimes when you are head down "doing" international education, you can lose sight of the reason you got into the game in the first place - that international education does make a difference - so it's refreshing to see a conference theme that reminds us of that. Not having an institutional agenda this year should give me an interesting perspective on the form and content of the conference - can't wait!

See you there. You can't miss me - I still have my cowboy hat from last year.

SC