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[chicago_48]

College controversy: Recruiters get paid for foreign students

Bob Linder / The News-Leader via AP
Wang Chengdong, a Chinese student in the Executive MBA program at Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., studies at a library on June 28.
By Alan Scher Zagier, Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Missouri -- As American universities welcome ever-greater numbers of international students, some professors and admissions counselors are questioning the motives of the very professionals who have helped attract so many foreign scholars to their campuses.
Higher education recruiters are under fire from detractors who say they put profit ahead of students' best interests. Critics accuse them of sending thousands of unqualified applicants to the U.S. every year, sometimes allowing students to skip basic English tests and falsify applications to make a quick commission.
"The student is best served by having the widest range of information available about what might be the best fit," said Peggy Blumenthal, an executive vice president at the not-for-profit Institute of International Education, which monitors and promotes study abroad programs. Recruiting agents "have a very large incentive to deliver a student who may not be the best fit."

[pigou]

Same problem as with mortgage originators: they get paid when the agreement is signed, not when the loan matures (i.e. the student graduates). If these recruiters work for universities, it's unclear to me why the latter would not pay only part of the commission upfront and the rest as the student makes progress toward the degree.

Of course there's the very real possibility that many universities are just fine with this, as long as they get to cash the tuition check. But then it's not so much a problem with the recruiter as it is with the university.