Why do students use education agencies? Our survey results…

Surveying 568 international students from 66 countries, studying at a huge range of institutions and on varying course types, it is clear that education agencies remain highly relevant to the recruitment process within international education, according to our global survey (undertaken for The PIE Review).

Of the international students that we surveyed, 50% indicated that they would definitely use their agency again, while a further 35% said they might.

“I don’t think I would have made it on my own. They made it all so much easier!” said a Norwegian respondent.

Discussing the counselling service that they received, nearly 69% of students said everything about their study abroad experience was as they had been counselled.

Considering their general satisfaction, 44% of respondents indicated the service received was very good and another third of all respondents deemed the service quite good.

Summing up one of the many reasons given for choosing an education agency, a Bulgarian student studying an undergraduate degree in the UK explained, “It provided valuable advice about different courses and university opportunities, helped with the application process and made it less time-consuming and stressful for me and my family.”

And from a Chinese English language student in Canada: “The agency has lots of resources and successful experience to help students.”

About the respondents

A huge range of students took part in our survey, which was distributed by institutions and industry associations around the world. Students polled represented 66 countries; the largest student majorities were Brazil (12%), Japan (11%) and China (9%).

In terms of types of courses that our respondents were enrolled on, 34% were on language courses of 16 weeks and longer, while 21% were studying a language course of between 8-16 weeks and 15% were enrolled on an undergraduate degree programme. Other categories of study included shorter-term language courses, pathway programmes, postgraduate study and high school.

30% of our cohort were aged between 19 and 22; 22% were aged 23-25 and 21% were 26-30.

Regarding the countries that they were studying in, we had a fantastic response from students in Australia: 41% of all respondents were studying there. Canada was the second best represented in our survey with 20% of the cohort in the competitive North American country and 14% of respondents were in the UK. But our survey was far-flung. In total, 35 different study destinations were represented, also including Malaysia, France, Germany and Turkey.

And some of the students included appeared to already be in Australia but had used an education agency to book a new course of study nevertheless.

About the agency that they used

Recommendation by a friend is the clear breakaway influencer on international students wondering about how to plan their education overseas. Close to 48% of those polled said that they chose the agency because it was recommended to them by a friend.

Courtesy of the PIE news.