Category Archives: Australia

February 15, 2012, 11:57 am

Getting to Go

Last week Monash and Warwick launched an attempt, unique so far as I know, to build a globally networked university through cooperation as well as organic growth. It is early days, of course, but the omens are good.

Why so? Because both partners are whole-hearted. We realized early on that what counted in forming an alliance was that the cultures of both universities had to be similar. Without that precondition, nothing else would happen. And both universities are similar in that they are both children of the 1960s who have had to do it pretty much for themselves without benefit of large endowments or similar forms of largess.

The process is premised on specific assumptions about the shape of global higher education in 20 years time. It could be argued that there will be four chief models of university around the world by then. First, there will be the 30 or so institutions with…

September 1, 2011, 4:22 pm

5 Lessons From Australia on International Agents

By Guest Writer

The following is a guest post by Gavin Moodie, a higher-education policy analyst at RMIT University, in Australia.

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In view of the debate about paying agents commissions for recruiting international students, it may be useful to give a perspective from Australian universities, which have long paid agents a commission for each student they recruit.

One of the reasons Australian institutions are comfortable with commission-based agents is because they established one of the biggest, IDP, in 1969. Originally known as the International Development Program, most Australian universities have been closely involved in its development.

But while commission-based agents aren’t contentious in Australia, they aren’t necessarily problem free. Here are five lessons Australia has learned from its experience with agents over the…