There is an experiment underway in USA under AIRC. AIRC (American International Recruitment Council) is attempting at professionalizing the use of education agents by American Universities and is gaining rapid acceptance. AIRC has been led by the Mr Mitch Leventhal who is now the VC at SUNY (State University of New York) and a person who is admired by almost all who know him from close quarters due to the dedication that he has exhibited in his purpose ever since his role at University of Cincinnati. It will be ideal to visit the AIRC website to understand the developments and also to take a peek at the coverage it is receiving in USA today. Several of the presentational are also available for public consumption. Link HERE.
I have attended several sessions with Mitch and at a few of them, have had the privilege of being a co-speaker providing an agent’s perspective. This was when the idea of commission-based recruitment for USA was being discussed and AIRC was being conceived. There were slides in his presentation that always caught the imagination of the audience. I want to share a couple of them here that breaks the biggest myth around Internationalization of American Education and use of Education Agents. (Copyright for this is certainly to Mitch and AIRC alone)
The above are from the presentation made by Mr Mitch Leventhal to the US Department of State Conference in March 2009 and I used some of slides at the Study Conclave organized by British Council last year in Delhi with permission from Mitch. Isn’t it interesting to note the admiration for the Ozzie ESOS from the Americans…
This is not the only myth around American Internationalisation of Education and I will attempt at discussing some others in future blogs.
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The way Asia Pacific region is emerging and being noticed by the west I am not surprised at US,Canada,Uk following the innovations and changes taking place in Australia .AIRC with pioneering efforts by Dr. Mitch Leventhal is timely for the US.
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In 1971, President Nixon took US dollar off the gold standard. In USA, The federal reserve bank has printed more dollars in last 18 months then previous 200 years. Yes, it’s true and the printing presses have worked nonstop till date.
My personal views are also supported by well know author of the book “The Dollar crisis” and a consultant to IMF, Richard Duncan. He has mentioned, “Since 1971, the dollar has lost 95% of it’s value. It will not take another 40 years to lose the remaining 5%. We must take action now.”
Regularizing the International student sector will certainly reduce the American national debt which today is the size of the economy.
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Will need to read THE DOLLAR CRISIS to understand all this…
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This is Venu after 8.00pm.
People do business with people they like.
Sorry, my daughter is asking a question that why does popcorn pop” Guys I will come back to you later.
Bye.
Venu
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slide 1: Limited use of agents in the USA?
Ask yourself, when does someone need an agent?, in todays world when everything is available online?
Either the student is very lazy or if he does not understand the system of applying for an I-20. So, students applying to top universities naturally dont need an agent, and only those universities encourage agents who are looking for students who are unable to do it themselves.
Slide 2:The answer for this slide lies in answer 1.
Slide 3: slow learners?
But we have to learn from them that , fast learners like Australia are facing problems, which America never faced.
Slide 4:Not Illegal?
Nothing is illegal in this world as long as you are not cheating anyone.
Slide 5:Agents are not unethical?
Same answer as before.
Slide 6:Standards are emerging?
I have nothing to say about this.
Slide 7: Legalistic approaches Vs Voluntary standards?
When a system is working effectively and successfully for a century now, why do they need to experiment on a new system called “agents”.
These are my thoguhts only.
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Having said so, Universities that use agents would get better/polished/well aquainted students than students applying on their own.
But, good /top students applying to Top universities should not use agents because its like Plagiarism.
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Venu, I didnot understand the “plagiarism” bit. Are you saying that if US copies the other countries, its plagiarism…
Anyway, It is fact that US needs to do marketing. There was a 25% decline in interest for US last year and I have just done a blog today on this.
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