International Education Agents: Selling the Overseas Experience

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of the international student mobility literature. This research has often been written from the perspective of the students themselves, focusing on their motivations for overseas study. It has been acknowledged that these can range from the economic, including their job prospects on graduation to the more recent focus of the potential social and cultural capital which develops from their experiences away from home. This expansion goes hand-in-hand with the unprecedented growth in international student numbers over the last two decades in particular, which has led to the creation of extensive international knowledge networks offering prospective students the opportunity to study (almost) anywhere they wish, provided they have the capital to do so. These international students can contribute significantly to the local economy, as well as offering an additional funding source for the universities themselves (see Brown et al. 2010; Madge et al. 2009; Gribble 2008). Competition for their recruitment is therefore a big business and yet, there has been little research conducted into the role of international education agents in promoting overseas education and encouraging international students in the selection of their universities. This paper seeks to redress this balance, investigating the preliminary findings from interviews conducted with education agents and how they mobilise their geographies to develop prospective international students’ understandings of place.