Six Australian education providers have joined a new initiative designed to measure how international students experience education agents, with the aim of strengthening partnerships, recognising good practice and improving accountability.
Education agents play a significant role in international education, but how much do institutions really know about the quality of the advice students receive before they arrive?
A new initiative from miXabroad aims to provide some answers, using independent student feedback to benchmark the performance of education agents and give institutions a more consistent way to assess the support they provide.
Called miXagent, the initiative will track student experiences from their initial decisions about studying overseas through to enrolment and arrival. Edith Cowan University, Griffith University, Monash University, Navitas, UNSW Sydney and the University of Sydney have signed on as inaugural institutional partners.
The idea is to move beyond anecdotal evidence and individual institutional assessments towards a shared picture of how students experience agent support, where it works well and where improvements might be needed.
It is a potentially useful addition to an industry where agents help students navigate everything from course selection and institutional choices to the practicalities of moving overseas. Their advice can influence decisions with significant financial, academic and personal consequences, yet comparable evidence of how students experience that advice has been limited.
For a sector that regularly debates agent quality, ethical recruitment and student protection, better evidence of the student experience could help shift the conversation from assumptions about agent performance to a more informed assessment of what actually happens.
Emily O’Callaghan, CEO and co-founder of miXabroad, said the initiative would help institutions make better decisions while providing stronger evidence of the contribution education agents make to international education.
“Education agents make an enormous contribution to international education, and we need better evidence to demonstrate that value to governments, policymakers and the broader community,” O’Callaghan said.
By bringing the student voice into the conversation, she said, the sector could develop a stronger understanding of the impact agents have on student decision-making, preparedness and early experiences.
From agent quality to measurable outcomes
The development of miXagent has involved consultation with education providers and industry experts, including an Advisory Council with experience in agent quality, governance, ethical recruitment and student experience.
It also builds on work undertaken through the International Education Association of Australia’s (IEAA) Agent Quality Research Project, drawing on contributions from people involved in its Steering Committee.
The initiative is intended to complement existing efforts to strengthen agent quality and governance by introducing a consistent measure of how students themselves experience the advice and support they receive.
That distinction matters. Institutions can assess agent performance against contractual requirements, recruitment targets and compliance expectations, but those measures do not necessarily reveal whether students felt well informed, properly prepared or adequately supported.
Student feedback offers another perspective. It could help identify agents whose practices consistently deliver positive experiences, as well as gaps between institutional expectations and what students report receiving.
The challenge will be ensuring that the feedback is sufficiently robust and comparable to support meaningful conclusions. Student experiences can vary considerably depending on their circumstances, destination, course and the stage at which they engage with an agent. The value of benchmarking will ultimately depend on how those differences are accounted for and how the findings are used.
For agents, the initiative could provide a way to demonstrate the quality of their work beyond recruitment volumes. For institutions, it could offer a stronger evidence base for partnership decisions and quality improvement.
Jon Chew, chief insights officer at Navitas, said agents often support students long before they arrive on campus, with their advice and reassurance having a lasting influence on confidence and experience.
Chew said miXagent would help institutions recognise good work across their agent networks while identifying opportunities to share best practice.
Tim Field, director of international at the University of Sydney, said comparable insights could help institutions improve their partnerships collectively rather than working in isolation.
He pointed to trust, shared expectations and a commitment to student success as foundations of strong agent relationships.
Putting students at the centre of agent oversight
The initiative has also attracted support from specialists in international education governance and quality assurance.
Danielle Hartridge, a member of the miXagent Advisory Council and co-founder and principal at IES Advisory, said student experience should be a foundation of agent governance rather than an afterthought.
Her argument gets to the heart of the initiative. If the industry wants to demonstrate that education agents contribute to positive student outcomes, it needs a credible way to hear from the students who rely on their advice.
There is also a broader opportunity here. International education providers face ongoing scrutiny over recruitment practices, student preparedness and the quality of support offered before and after arrival. Evidence that connects agent activity with the student experience could help institutions identify risks earlier and make more informed decisions about their recruitment networks.
However, benchmarking is only part of the equation. The real test will be whether institutions use the findings to improve practice, whether agents receive useful feedback and whether students can see their experiences translating into better support.
A benchmark that simply measures performance will have limited value if it does not lead to action. Equally, a credible, independent process could help distinguish responsible recruitment practices from those that leave students poorly prepared for the realities of studying abroad.
For now, miXagent is establishing a common framework across six institutional partners. Its longer-term significance will depend on the quality of the evidence it produces and the willingness of the sector to act on it.
The message is straightforward: if education agents are expected to demonstrate their value to international education, the experience of the students they support is a logical place to start.
More information is available at miXabroad’s miXagent website.
