Professional vs Ethical in Student Recruitment

Matthew Ulmer (Manager of Communications for IDP Education)
A goal of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) in the US is to ensure principled conduct among professionals in the recruitment of students. In support of this, and as more of their members enlist the services of international student recruiters, the association is currently considering revising and updating its Statement of Principles of Good Practice, or SPGP, in regard to agent use.
IDP Education supports such a revision. Specifically, we call for the association to acknowledge the role of officially recognised and contracted agencies, to affirm that their form of compensation is legal, and to provide colleges and universities the opportunity to define the practice as 'professional' versus 'ethical'.
For prospective students, the primary function of an agent is to serve as a guidance counsellor. Agents are typically university graduates who have built their reputations in the local markets by delivering good service.
They are counsellors in every sense and fill a market niche, as the admissions process overseas is often vastly different from the US model, and public high schools overseas provide little or no college counselling. These types of agents should therefore be viewed like independent counsellors and fall under NACAC's SPGP.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0155, 23 January 2011