INTO University Partnerships operates 12 joint ventures with universities in the US and UK and annually admits more than 5,000 students to its preparatory study centres. INTO also conducts an annual survey of nearly 700 agents from its global recruitment network. Findings from the most recent survey were recently presented on the INTO blog. We have summarized a few highlights below.

• The influence of both parents and agent counsellors on student choices is greater for younger students but tends to diminish as students get older and as they progress to higher levels of study. The INTO survey found that students were the key decision makers in their study abroad plans 13% of the time for secondary or pathway studies. The percentage of cases in which the student was the key decision maker jumped up to 42% for undergraduate programmes and a whopping 79% for post-graduate studies.

• The survey found that most students have decided on the country in which they plan to study prior to visiting an agent. However, only 12% had also decided on a specific institution before their agent visit. This underscores that agents play a critical role at that point in the decision-making process and are in a position to heavily influence the student's choice of institution as a result.

• Agent counsellors reported that service quality – the responsiveness and effectiveness of the support from educators – is the thing they value most (even more than scholarships or other financial incentives) in their dealings with institutions.

For more on current findings for global agent surveys, please see our earlier report on i-graduate's 2011 Agent Barometer and our recent presentation at the 2012 Languages Canada conference. Source: INTO University Partnerships