Beyond the Surface: International Students’ Perspectives on Education Agents

24th September 2025 (Wednesday)
13:00 PM BST – 14:30 PM BST (time zone converter)
Online Via Zoom (registration required)

This webinar explores research on international students’ perceptions of education agents. Education agents, who act as intermediaries between students and educational institutions, play a key role in facilitating international student mobility in the current global landscape. However, their influence raises a variety of concerns, including the quality of advice and service provided, conflicts of interest, and limited transparency. Research also shows how student experiences with agents are not unilateral in nature. This panel highlights the plurality of experiences, as well as the agency prospective students may or may not have in relation to their use of agent services. Finally, the panel examines the methodological limitations associated with assessing agent quality from the student’s perspective, taking into account information asymmetries and other relevant issues. The panel will conclude with a discussion on the benefits and complexities of concluding the effectiveness of agents based on student views. 

About the Speaker(s):

Pii-Tuulia Nikula is an Associate Professor at the Eastern Institute of Technology, where she teaches under- and postgraduate-level courses in research methods and organisational sustainability. Pii-Tuulia’s research explores international education through a critical lens, including the impact of education agents in facilitating international student mobility. Pii-Tuulia has published several articles on agents and co-edited a book ‘Student Recruitment Agents in International Higher Education’.

Rica Agnes Castaneda (PhD candidate, Policy Studies/ TMU) is a researcher at the CERC in Migration in Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University. She completed her Masters in International Studies at the National University of Singapore under the ASEAN Graduate Scholarship, and later on received an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to attend the University of Amsterdam and the University of Deusto in Bilbao. Her work revolves around migration decision making within Canada’s international student space, having conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with international students from India and the Philippines, and international education stakeholders.

Ying Yang is a postdoctoral fellow at the Education University of Hong Kong, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, and a WG2 Co-stakeholder Advisor of COST Action ENIS Network. Her research interests include education agents, access to international higher education, international student recruitment and application, and longitudinal qualitative research methods.