Over 75% of all international students use education agents to assist them in selecting their course, organising the enrolment paperwork and assisting with the preparation of the student visa.
According to the Australian Department of Education, over 19,400 education agents were involved in the international education enrolments in 2018.
Unfortunately, as with every industry, there are businesses that do the wrong thing. While most international students engage a professional and supportive agent, there have been more and more reports of unscrupulous education agents.
The news below is related to the Canadian international education market. However, it highlights the importance of working with a trustworthy and professional education agent.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, an Indian national based in Canada - Rahul Bhargava from Education and Migration Services was arrested for issuing fake college acceptance letters. It is believed that up 700 Indian international students have been affected. The police are also looking his business partners - Brijesh Mishra and Gurnam Singh, his business partners. When the students arrived in Canada, the agency told them that their colleges were full, thus they had to change institutions.
Please note that it is much more difficult to issue fraudulent Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) documents for Australia, as these are generated by the immigration department directly. Thus, a fraudulent document would be easy to easy to pick up in the visa application process. Canada processes international student enrolments & visas in a different way.
This is not just a problem for Indian students. This is a problem the international education sector is dealing with globally.
Our advice - make sure you trust your education agent. On our website, in the section Education Agency, we explain how education agency system works, and what to look for.