A new global organisation has been launched to address growing concerns over compliance and ethical standards in international student recruitment.
The Global Education Recruitment Standards Authority (GERSA), a not-for-profit body, began operations this week following an initial launch in the UK. Its aim is to provide a single, independent audit standard for institutions and education agents involved in cross-border student recruitment.
The formation of GERSA comes amid a wave of regulatory reforms in countries that host large numbers of international students. In recent years, governments in the UK, Canada, Australia, and the United States have all introduced or proposed stricter measures to control student flows and crack down on misuse of visa systems. However, oversight of third-party agents—often central to recruitment—remains inconsistent and duplicated.
Nick Golding, GERSA’s Chief Executive Officer, is expected to outline the organisation’s framework and engage with education stakeholders later next week at the NAFSA 2025 Annual Conference in San Diego.
A Response to Shifting Global Policy
Each of the major destination countries has tightened policy in different ways:
- The UK introduced new legal requirements for institutions and agents, including mandatory participation in the Agent Quality Framework (AQF), but currently lacks an independent system for verifying compliance.
- Canada has imposed a two-year cap on new study permits and plans to establish a federal registry and code of conduct for education agents.
- Australia’s recent legislation gives the government power to limit student numbers by institution or course and holds providers accountable for their agents’ conduct, including financial transparency around commissions.
- The US has increased inspections of employers hosting international students and taken action against fraud in visa appointments, including cancelling thousands of bot-booked interviews.
In all these jurisdictions, institutions are legally responsible for compliance—even when working through agents who operate with minimal oversight.
GERSA’s Proposed Role
GERSA positions itself as a mechanism to help fill this regulatory gap. The organisation will offer a global code of practice, a risk-tiered system of due diligence for agents, and scheduled audits of recruitment practices. Agents and institutions would voluntarily join and undergo review, with a focus on aligning with local laws and identifying risks in high-fraud regions.
A key feature is the sharing of anonymised data—such as visa refusal rates or application outcomes—among members, intended to encourage transparency and evidence-based risk management.
While still in its early stages, GERSA has said it plans to complement, not replace, existing national standards like the UK’s AQF and Australia’s ESOS framework. Governance will reportedly involve input from industry representatives, regulators, and student advocacy groups.
Golding says, “International education thrives on trust. GERSA provides a single yardstick institutions and students can rely on across borders, ensuring genuine students continue to access life-changing opportunities, whilst policy-makers and the public can see that compliance is real.”
The success of the initiative may depend on how widely it is adopted by institutions and agents, and how governments respond to the idea of a third-party compliance mechanism operating across borders. But, in the UK at least, GERSA has already been welcomed by three Government Departments: Department of Business & Trade, Department for Education and UK Visas & Immigration, with the latter wanting to be kept abreast of developments, as an interested parrty, in future discussions around architecture, ongoing process and data sharing. GERSA hopes that this will establish a precedent for engagement with other governments.
International education and student recruitment remain a high focus, both financially and politically, and institutions in many countries face increasing pressure to prove that recruitment is ethical and transparent.
GERSA’s launch signals a broader recognition that the current framework of oversight may no longer be sufficient for a sector that spans the globe.
The Koala wishes it well.
