Perceptions of value: assessing the agent/commission model of UK higher education recruitment in Africa

The UK’s higher education relationship with Africa has changed in recent years. Past associations of developmental cooperation have been superseded by market-based student recruitment seeking income for UK universities. This paper is about assessing a form of recruitment that helps underpin this new...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAfrica review (New Delhi) Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 105 - 120
Main Authors Thomson, Alex, Hulme, Rob, Hulme, Moira, Doughty, Guy
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published The Netherlands Brill 01.01.2014
Routledge
Subjects
Africa
agents
Associations
Benefits
Colleges & universities
Colleges and universities
Credit
Foreign students
Free enterprise
Higher education
higher education recruitment
Income
internationalisation
Learning
Neoliberalism
Perception
Perceptions
Recruitment
student mobility
Students
United Kingdom
United Kingdom > UK
Africa
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Summary:The UK’s higher education relationship with Africa has changed in recent years. Past associations of developmental cooperation have been superseded by market-based student recruitment seeking income for UK universities. This paper is about assessing a form of recruitment that helps underpin this new relationship: the agent/commission model. It identifies the nature of this approach to recruitment, and the processes involved. The paper also asks who benefits from the agent/commission model. The research captured a ‘snapshot’ of opinion within a case study UK university, seeking the views of agents themselves and their service users. It was found that all these actors considered the work of agents to be of value. There are certainly flaws in the agent/commission model, and wider societal implications for African states and economies, but it is suggested that agents should be given more credit for the work that they do than is presently reflected in the current literature.
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ISSN:0974-4053
0974-4061
DOI:10.1080/09744053.2014.914638