00:21:18 · Shawn Silverstone
[00:21:18] S1: The agents are then able to kind of like prescreen the applicants, ensure they really meet all the custodianship and program requirements, and they're advising families on how to present a compelling study plan that clearly demonstrates the student's intent to study and return home. And they're helping them with the documentation accuracy, really ensuring that all necessary paperwork, the code readership agreements, the school acceptance letters is properly completed, and they're tracking, you know, visa refusal trends and adapting strategies to meet, you know, changing IRCC requirements and providing timely updates on changes in visa policies as well to ensure families really remain well informed. And for us, this closer collaboration really looks in practice like we're going and we're doing regular training sessions with these agents to keep them updated on evolving visa requirements and developing standardized documentation checklists that ensure families submit strong applications. And we're sharing our data on visa trends to refine application strategies. And we're really encouraging early submission of applicants to avoid delays and last minute issues. And so by leveraging, you know, our agent expertise, you know, the schools, we can really increase their visa approval rates and help build a greater trust with these international families.
00:22:34 · Martijn van de Veen
[00:22:34] S3: Right. So you're looking at the, you know, the necessary paperwork you mentioned. You're looking at the the school accept... Acceptance letters there, of course, very important. So it's probably more work to improve these letters, to improve the the the paperwork or to be part of that. What is it? A 38% in the case of Canada. I guess it's very similar to to Australia, Michal.
00:22:55 · Michal Sestak
[00:22:55] S0: It is. Yeah. The main issue we have in Australia is that education agents are not allowed... Or not education agents. Anybody who doesn't have a license as a migration agent or lawyer is not allowed to provide any advice on any basis. So that obviously puts the education agents in a very, very tight spot, because on one hand, they do want to help the students, but on the other hand, they may be crossing they may be crossing the line where the law is. So as much as we are... As much as, for example, as as part of ICEF, we run training for agents, and we're trying to train the agents in understanding certain aspects of the student visa programme, but we have to be very careful how far we're going to push it. In Australia, pretty much the student visa is decided based on one document called the GS, the genuine student requirement. That's submission, which a student needs to write, file some evidence, etcetera. It's a bit of an art and I do train a lot of schools. A lot of schools hiring me to train their staff who are actually assessing those letters prior visa lodgement. I've recently run a webinar under ICEF for education agents. There was about a 100 agents attended the webinar. So we are really trying as much as we can, but we have to understand that government sees those agents, as I mentioned, as salesmen. They don't see them as any profession. They don't see them as people with certain qualifications, with certain degrees. So it is a very tricky situation. There's also very high staff turnover in those agencies. So I guess Shawn may confirm that or not, at least in Australia, it's the case. So it's a constant rotation of staff. So you have a council who's trained and he or she leaves, and then new one comes in, has no idea. And it is hard. So what are we trying to do and achieve in some way is for the government to recognize education agents as being more than just salesmen. And I guess self regulated industry with mandatory training and recognition would probably be one of the way forward. That's what ICEF is trying to push really.
00:25:08 · Martijn van de Veen
[00:25:08] S3: Yeah. Yeah. Craig, would you agree that governments tend to see agents as a salesman, as commercial entities, and that that causes an problem in the visa application process?
00:25:20 · Craig Riggs
[00:25:20] S4: Yeah, I think it's an issue. I think that as we go around the world in different destinations, I think it would be fair to say that for the most part, governments are not very engaged with agents at all. There's not a lot in the way of formal regulatory requirements around agencies for understandable reasons. It's hard for any one national government to regulate or enforce regulations organizations, private organizations of all size that operating in foreign jurisdictions. So there's a lot of practical constraints on where the role the government regulation can play here. I think that Michal makes an important point that the solution is therefore best to come from within the industry itself in the form of self regulation. And certainly, we've seen a lot of different mechanisms and movements in that respect in terms of agent training for Australia, for Canada, for other major destinations. There are an accumulating inventory of professional qualifications that agents can pursue across demonstrate the competence and qualifications of their staff and their organization. There are increasingly codes of conduct that are in place, some of which are enshrined in regulations in different countries, but many of which are essentially voluntary self regulating mechanisms within the industry. And then finally, there are also accreditation schemes for agencies. Basically, there are only a couple of these. ICEF offers one, the ICEF agency status. There is the AIRC accreditation program in The US. Those are examples of schemes that make an effort to evaluate and certify, essentially, the professional agencies in the market. And so we see that there is... If you add all up... That all up together, it is essentially a framework of different types of self regulatory mechanisms across the industry, but, and we see a lot of effort and increasing focus in those areas, but there's a lot of work still to be I think it would be fair to say.
00:27:26 · Martijn van de Veen, Shawn Silverstone
[00:27:26] S3: A lot of work has already started, right? You mentioned the self regulation, the agent trainings, the professional qualifications, the you know, codes of conduct that are in place, I think these are really good starting points for us as a sector to showcase our, you know, the trust that people can place in the work of the agencies and the professionals that they are. But Shawn, how can the international education sector work together also to advocate for more transparent and consistent visa policies across major study destinations? [00:27:57] S1: It's a very good question. You know, in k to 12, international students are a critical part of Canada's education pipeline, and current visa policies are really damaging the sector's long term sustainability. So some of the recommendations I'd give for policy improvement is is really a greater transparency and consistency in visa decisions to really restore confidence and faster processing for K-twelve students to avoid enrollment disruptions and really clear guidelines for custodianship approvals to prevent unnecessary refusal. So without these changes, Canada really risks losing its competitive edge to countries with more predictable and student friendly policies. And we're seeing that firsthand, I'm hearing it at a lot of these events that I've been attending recently. [00:28:44] S3: Now I can imagine. And and the same same question for you, Michal. What do you think the international education sector can do to work together and advocate for for more transparent and consistent visa policies?