Agents don’t manifest student enrollment. They build on the foundation you create together.
In our last post, we wrote about how to find and evaluate right-fit student recruitment agents including offering you a handy, downloadable evaluation checklist. (If you missed that one, check it out here.)
This week we focus on what comes next: maintaining that highly valuable relationship.
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Sustaining a successful partnership with your agents requires mutual investment, clear and frequent communication, and trust. The most effective agents act as a true extension of your enrollment team. That level of service, however, requires an institutional partner who remains responsive and provides ongoing support all along the way.
Seems obvious. And yet, too many institutions sign the agent contract, hit autopilot, and expect results to roll in. If it were that easy, you wouldn’t need an agent strategy. But you do.
If you want long-term, high-yield recruitment outcomes, keep two systems well-oiled:- Metrics to evaluate education agent performance
- Streamlined internal processes that make your institution easy to represent
An often overlooked and critical element: Who on your university team have you assigned to managing your agent partners? If it is the new, eager staffer in your office with no real international experience (because, how hard can it be?), you are in for lackluster results or worse.
Today we outline how to get this right. Read on…
Maintaining strong education agent partnerships takes more than a contract. Everything we share below assumes that everyone involved (institutions, agents) are approaching the work with integrity. We know there are some out there without this student-first approach and we steer clear of them. AIRC and ICEF provide tools and services to help you find the quality you want as you pursue these business relationships.
Here’s our take.
Evaluating Education Agent Performance
Measuring agent success goes beyond the number of enrolled students. Yes, volume matters (a lot), but we know student longevity and institutional alignment are equally important. Your best agents don’t just bring students. They bring the right students who will succeed at your institution. And they partner for the long haul.
A few tactics we’ve seen work well for tracking and building toward key metric milestones:
- Onboarding Completion: Has the agency fully trained their staff on how to represent your institution? That knowledge transfer is crucial – and bonus-worthy (see our previous post -- link above).
- First Enrolled Student: Celebrate this milestone and use it to encourage fast action and early traction.
- Student Retention: Reward agents based on the volume of students who continue their studies beyond year one. This incentivizes them to recruit for fit, not just volume.
- Multi-Year Performance: Build loyalty and consistency by layering in bonuses for continued success over two, three, or more years.
Of course, these metrics are only as sustainable as your internal systems for supporting agent partners.
Streamlining Internal Agent-Focused Processes
A reliable agent relationship requires operational readiness on your side, including a genuine commitment to helping agents succeed. This commitment requires a range of skills and a designated internal agent manager. Do you have the right person in place?
Your agent manager needs to understand international markets and the differences between them. Issues faced by your agent in Abuja vs. your agent in Hanoi vs. your agent in Hyderabad are things you learn through consistent communication (that includes listening) as well as interactions at ICEF shows, AIRC and NAFSA conversations, as well as international travel (if you can afford it).
Putting a junior staffer with little (or no) international travel experience in the agent manager role is going to annoy your agent partners. Replacing your agent manager every 12 to 18 months similarly is not going to build trusted and effective relationships. Yes, your agent will have staff turnover on their side and there will be need for retraining. Having consistent representation on the institution side will improve results as year to year learnings will be retained and acted upon.
If you are thinking this stuff is just a “nice to have,” you are not going to reap the benefits of this recruiting tactic. Kind of like sending dense, boring emails to your prospective students and thinking that checks the box of “email marketing.” It does not produce results unless you invest the time and energy to do it right, e.g., content and dissemination channels that actually reach and engage your prospective students.
Once you have the right talent in place, ideas they can tap for maintaining strong agent relationships:
- The Fam Tour: Invite your agents to visit your campus, meet your admissions team, and experience your student environment firsthand. These familiarization tours can go a long way in deepening their understanding of your campus and recruitment approach and boosting their confidence in representing your institution. Coordinate these tours with international conference dates when your agents are already in-country and have a shorter distance to travel to get to you.
- Regular Communication: Stay in touch. During peak recruitment periods, weekly check-ins on lead activity, applications, and visa appointments keep things moving. In quieter seasons, monthly or biweekly is often enough.
- Full Financial Transparency: Student tuition payments should go directly to the university, never through the agent. Trusted platforms like Flywire can help facilitate secure transactions and maintain clear separation between student payments and commission structures.
- Prompt Commission Payments: Don’t make your partner chase their money. Once students are fully enrolled and tuition is confirmed, pay commissions promptly. Your agents have offices to run and payrolls to meet. Treat them as the trusted partners they are. Institutions performing poorly here will not get priority treatment from their agent partners down the road. Those performing well will get preferred treatment. Many institutions give this reality short shrift.
- Seek Their Insight: When major world events hit – elections, economic shifts, visa policy changes – your agents are your eyes and ears on the ground. Keep them in the loop and seek their perspective. Their local and regional intel is invaluable.
- Keep Them Updated: Regularly share what’s new on your campus – new academic programs, leadership changes, research wins, student outcomes, corporate partnerships, alumni successes. These updates equip agents with insights that make your university story feel fresh, exciting, relevant.
Agents are critical to maintaining your student pipeline. Finding the right-fit agents is critically important. And so is prioritizing that partnership.
If you did not capture our Agent Evaluation Worksheet from our previous post, here is the opportunity again.
Download Intead’s Agent Evaluation Worksheet
Need help with your agent strategy? We can help. Be in touch. 
