Monitoring of Education Agents Engaged in International Student Recruitment: Perspectives from Agency Theory

Abstract

This article examines the monitoring of third-party education agents employed in international student recruitment. Agency theory identifies comprehensive monitoring as one way to ensure that agents work in the principal’s best interest. By analyzing best practice guidelines, this article investigates the monitoring mechanisms proposed for education providers to mitigate information asymmetry in their education agent relationships. The findings from the analysis suggest that following the existing guidelines would only allow client institutions to partially observe the behavior of their agents. Hence, education providers should be not only guided toward more intensive use of the existing techniques but also encouraged to adopt new techniques, such as mystery shopping, to better determine education agents’ true behavior.