Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits and disbenefits for (a) prospective and (b) current students of international student recruitment agencies operating in the UK.

The government welcomes international students, who enrich our university campuses, forge lifelong friendships with our domestic students and make a significant economic contribution to the UK.

Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous institutions, which have the choice to use education recruitment agents when recruiting international students. Agents provide valuable services including marketing, promotion and support in identifying qualified students.

The department is working with the Home Office to ensure that education recruitment agents meet the needs of prospective and current international students. This will include requiring HE providers who use them to adhere to the stringent Agent Quality Framework, a code of practice developed by the HE sector which sets out overarching principles for how providers should manage their commercial arrangements with agents.