Attracting students to UK universities through “fake promises” from employment agents

Ajit left his village in southern India to Oxford in the hope of getting better opportunities. But within days of arrival in 2022, he discovered the employee who found a course that he sold “fake promises”.

The 27 -year -old said that a UK study agent in Tamil Nadu told him that Oxford Brooks was part of the University of Oxford and that it was an automatic extension of his work visa after studying.

“Tell me, I will stay for five years, and then I can go directly to” unlimited leave to survive, “a fake promise,” Agit told the Financial Times.

He was the son of a policeman and a home wife, working in long supermarkets alongside the study. Two years later, Ajit returned to his debts with debts, and got the degree of digital marketing that has not yet led to a job.

Cash UK universities In recent years, it has become highly dependent on international students who do not have their arsenal. But as higher education institutions compete for this profitable flow of income abroad, stories like AJIT became more common, says education and immigration experts.

Universities use employment agents to find international students for their courses, and pay millions of pounds annually in commission.

ENROLY, a platform used by international students to enrollment management, is estimated at two thirds of foreign students to UK universities through agents. Oxford University is among the few institutions that do not use agents.

The agents’ rates were historically between 10 and 30 percent for each study fees for the first year, according to experts, which could range up to 60,000 pounds annually depending on the course and institution.

The agents sometimes receive fixed fees for students for assistance in selecting universities, accommodation and visas. Experts say that there is little practical asylum for students who are assembled by misleading information by brokers or are encouraged in inappropriate courses.

“We have reached the armament race from the higher commission levels to persuade students to choose my university on another university, instead of their most appropriate,” said Vinsenzo Rimo, International Higher Education Adviser.

Ajit, who asked not to publish his real name, said he used a study, previously called SI-UK, to apply to seven British universities, and to pay small processing fees after securing an unconditional offer from Oxford Brooks. The tuition fees were about 16,000 pounds per year.

Founded in 2006, the study of 210,000 UK University’s request by foreign students in the year until March 2025. The headquarters of Consulting is located in London but has 100 offices in 45 countries.

“All of our agents must go through the process of issuing the British Council’s certificate and studying its own rules of behavior on the move,” said CEO Rob Gremcho.

Grimshaw, the former administrative director of FT, added that there are “many ways” for students who raise complaints and employees, “to engage quickly and in.

“We will follow this issue incredibly because we never want to advise and wrong guidance to the student.”

Ajit’s story reflects broader concerns about the student employment system through brokers. Last year, independent government immigration consultants Problems that have been marked with agents Give “misleading information”.

The Consultative Committee for Migration called for the mandatory disclosure of the amount of universities spending on agents and the number of students who register them every year.

Natasha Fernandez, an Indian tourism student at the University of Birmingham, said that she faced two agents who refused to help her apply to some universities of the United Kingdom, and raised her doubts about the commission bias “because their benefits are more than my advantages in that entire deal.”

Fernandez said that the agents suggested that she would “find” immediately “a part -time work to start paying her loan of 14,400 pounds for tuition fees and visa fees along with her course. Instead, the 27 -year -old found that she needed to take a break from her studies to work, almost doubled her degree.

“You are doing everything to meet their needs … but you are unable to meet these expectations,” she said.

After re -submitting the graduate road visa in the United Kingdom in July 2021, the arrival of Indian -Quartet students from 34261 in 2019 increased to 139,539 in 2022, while China decreased in that period. Last year, the government imposed a ProhibitPay numbers down.

Some Indian students come to the United Kingdom although they do not suit courses, “said Tripti Maheshwari, co -founder of Circus, who helps international students find jobs.

“We have asked customers to present sessions in Indian because students are not very comfortable with the English language,” Mahaishwari added. “People will put their homes on loan to get money for student fee and obtain a visa. Universities and agents must recover students responsibly.”

“Some agents in South Asia are not only selling education but work and a way to the unlimited leave for survival,” said Luiz Nicole, International Higher Education expert and founder of the Asian Group of Professional in Malaysia.

“They promise them: you can stabilize and live forever in Kent paper … but this is not the truth of what is available to many international students.”

Vegikomar Bidi, head of the media at the Indian National Student Association in the United Kingdom, said that agents often tell Indian customers that the success rate of foreign graduates who get a sponsorship job is more than 60 percent, when he has 10 percent in his experience.

British agent’s market is unorganized, and there is little supervision on whether the students who returned the customer succeeded at the university. But by summer, the names of the agents are expected to appear on “confirmation of admission” for students – the documents required for visa applications – in a move aimed at increasing transparency.

The higher education sector was introduced in 2023 the framework of the agent’s quality, which includes the practice code for agents and the online certificate program organized by the British Council.

“This practice blog for the first time is really noting what is expected professional standards and behaviors from agents,” said Charlie Robinson, the leadership of university students in the United Kingdom. She described it as a “big step forward”.

But some are skeptical. Nicole said: “It provides a credible interface without checks or actual balance,” Nicole said. “The problem is that we do not know what the agents say to students – I don’t think universities know them either.”

“We have participated in the framework of the quality of the UK’s agent when it was launched, which indicates our commitment to the agents’ retention of the highest level as possible,” said Oxford Brocks.

He added that students who have concerns about the actions of the agents must inform them of the university in order to be accurately investigated.

The Ministry of the Interior said that it appreciates the students “the important contribution” that has been presented to the United Kingdom, and will continue to “implement measures to ensure them, the institutions they attend and the immigration system is protected from those who wish to use it.”