Our co-hosts are then joined by special guests Gordon Scott, the CEO of Successful Graduate, and Sheenu Kathuria, CEO of EduNation Consultants. The group gets into a great discussion around how the employability conversation is unfolding with students and families now, and where expectations and reality around graduate outcomes diverge.

You can listen right now in the player below, and we encourage you to subscribe via your favourite podcast app in order to receive future episodes automatically.

For additional background, please see:

• “The questions families are actually asking: Inside the student advising conversation in 2026“
• “91ɬ��Podcast: ‘Good, steady, and disciplined’: New Zealand’s plan for sustainable international enrolment growth“

The post 91ɬ��Podcast: Beyond the brochure: What employability really looks like for students appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Today the session starts somewhere else. The student still arrives with a list. But the first question now usually comes from the parent, and it is rarely about a university at all. Will this degree pay back the years and the money? Will it still be relevant when my child graduates? Will artificial intelligence make it obsolete before the loan is repaid?

I have heard versions of these three questions in counselling rooms in Chandigarh, Manila, Lagos, and Bogota. They are asked quietly, sometimes almost apologetically, but they are serious questions, and they shape family decisions worth billions of dollars every year. They have also quietly changed what good student advising looks like.

Why the counselling room matters

It is easy to underestimate how much of international education still runs through a single conversation between a family and an adviser. According to the American International Recruitment Council, 44% of international students rely on recruitment agents to help them decide what and where to study. And the reason they are in that room has changed too. Career development is now the number one motivator for studying abroad, cited by 67% of students in IDP’s Emerging Futures research. Students are not just buying an experience any more. They are buying a working future.

That places advisers at a point of real leverage. The counselling conversation is where family hopes meet market reality, often for the first time. When expectations shift, advisers feel it before institutions do, and long before policy makers do. Which is why what we are hearing in those rooms now deserves attention.

From prestige to proof

When we ran the fieldwork for the this year, covering 4,812 agents, students, institution leaders and employers across 25 countries, one pattern came through more strongly than any other: families have stopped asking for prestige and started asking for proof.

In South Asia, 89% of recruitment agents told us their top request from institutions is now skill-mapped programme documentation, not brochures. In North America, agents named post-study visa clarity and programme-level outcome data as the top two concerns students bring to them, at 78% and 71%. Across regions, parents increasingly ask employment questions before they ask admission questions.

The shift makes sense once you see the counselling room from the family’s side. A ranking describes an institution. But a family is not buying an institution. They are buying one specific degree, and they want to know what happens to the people who finish it. Institution-level averages do not answer that. Programme-level outcomes do, and families have worked this out faster than much of the sector has.

The safety net that isn’t there

For a long time, advising had a comfortable answer to the anxiety behind these questions: choose a good university, and if the job market changes, you can always reskill later. Our research suggests that answer no longer holds.

Across OECD countries, only 8% of adults take part in formal, accredited learning in a given year, and the open online courses that were supposed to close the gap complete at a median rate of 12.6%. Meanwhile, 53% of the technical skills a graduate learns in year one are judged obsolete within three years. Skills are going out of date roughly six times faster than the system replaces them. Reskilling after work exists, but as a safety net for an entire generation, it is thin. Families who press on curriculum quality before enrolment, rather than trusting the system to patch things later, are being rational.

What is more encouraging is what employers told us they actually hire on. In our survey, 73% of employers said they hire recent international graduates primarily for durable skills, things like communication, judgment, ethical behaviour, and the ability to work across cultures, rather than for a specific technical stack. Technical tools change. These capabilities compound. For an adviser, that is a genuinely useful message to carry into a conversation with an anxious parent: the degree that protects your child is not the one with the most fashionable specialisation, it is the one that builds the skills that survive the tools.

Will AI make it obsolete?

We put that exact fear under a microscope in this year’s Barometer. Comparing internationally-mobile graduates against domestically-educated peers in the same fields, employers placed 71% of the internationally-mobile group in AI-augmented roles, work where AI expands what one person can do rather than replacing them, against 54% for domestic graduates. Only 6% of the internationally-mobile group sat in roles at material AI-displacement risk. For domestic graduates in the same fields, that figure was 14%, over twice as high. PwC’s analysis of nearly a billion job postings found the same pattern at market scale: workers with AI skills now command a 56% wage premium globally, more than double what it was a year earlier.

None of this makes the advantage automatic. It is built on the durable skills, the cross-cultural fluency and the sequenced curriculum design that produced it in the first place. But it does mean an adviser can answer a parent’s hardest question with a number instead of a reassurance.

What good advising looks like now

None of this requires advisers to become labour economists. In our work with counselling teams, the practices that are working are simple ones.

The first is to ask institutions for programme-level employment data, in writing, rather than settling for institution-level claims. Institutions that have this data increasingly share it, and the act of asking signals what families now expect.

The second is to talk to parents about durable skills directly. Parents understand instinctively that communication, adaptability and integrity matter at work. Naming them as the core of a degree’s value, with evidence, answers the AI question far better than reassurance does.

The third is to screen recommended programmes for work-integrated learning and international cohorts. Internships, placements and genuinely mixed classrooms are where durable skills form, and they show up later in employment outcomes. Arizona State University’s National Work-Integrated Learning Accelerator now generates 1.8 million experiential-learning hours per student cohort. In the Netherlands, international graduates who complete structured cross-cultural programmes actually out-earn their domestic peers, 48% of them clear €55,000 a year against 44% of domestic graduates in the same bracket. Programmes built this way are not hard to find once an adviser starts asking for them by name.

The fourth is simply to keep the post-study visa picture current for every destination, because in several markets it has become the first question, not the last.

Advising as trust infrastructure

There is one more finding from our study worth sitting with. Among UK-bound students we surveyed, 64% said they would still choose the UK despite recent visa changes, provided programme-level employment data was transparent. Read that carefully: even in a market facing policy headwinds, transparency holds demand. Families are not asking for perfect conditions. They are asking to see the evidence and decide for themselves.

That, to me, is the real story of how counselling is changing. The adviser’s role is shifting from gatekeeper of options to interpreter of evidence. It is less glamorous than selling dreams, and considerably more valuable. Students get decisions they can defend at the kitchen table. Institutions that publish honest outcomes get rewarded for it. And the sector gets something it badly needs, which is trust built one family conversation at a time.

The questions parents ask in counselling rooms are harder than they were five years ago. That is not a problem to be managed. It is the clearest sign we have that families are taking the decision seriously, and the sector should answer them in kind.

– Dr Priya Ranganathan is research director at MSM Unify, where she leads the company’s global research programme, including the annual MSM Unify Global Skills Barometer, a study of agents, students, institution leaders and employers across 25 countries. MSM Unify is a global education platform supporting institutions, students, and channel partners across international education markets. MSM Unify helps institutions strengthen student recruitment, enrolment management, and education delivery through technology, services, and global market expertise.

For additional background, please see:

• Readers who want to explore contemporary counselling issues more closely should consider , newly released by 91ɬ��Academy in partnership with Successful Graduate
• “Global agent survey reveals international students’ top concerns are visa uncertainty and affordability“
• “What students want: The top decision factors for study abroad“

The post The questions families are actually asking: Inside the student advising conversation in 2026 appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

• Anxious, including about AI’s impact on their career;
• Considering a wider range of study abroad options, and carefully evaluating risk and reward.

The survey for the report was completed by 870 education agents across 64 countries in May 2026.

What are the issues?

The last time international students felt this stressed about their education was arguably during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study plans were disrupted; isolation was the norm; and worries about personal health and family members’ health was intense.

Students’ concerns are different today. Many of them stem from an uncertainty about how to make wise decisions about what to study and where to study.

Surveyed agents said that students are most concerned about (1) the risk of sudden changes to visa rules and (2) cost of living pressures. Agents have to advise students about whether a Big Four destination (i.e., Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US) has changed its immigration settings yet again.

The continued narrowing of visa and immigration rights – with new rules often announced without warning – provides ample evidence that there is more risk to choosing these destinations than in the past.

Significant proportions of agents also said that students are worried about safety and security, exchange rate volatility, risk of travel disruption, increased cost of air travel, breakdown in country-to-country relations, and rising fuel and energy costs.

Students need more support

More than half of agents said that compared with 12 months ago, students are more likely to face financial strain (54%), need more academic support (78%), and need more mental and social support (82%). All of these percentages increased markedly since the previous survey in 2025.

A growing body of US, UK, and global shows that large proportions of youth believe that AI is a threat to their job prospects. This is reinforced in the Navitas survey: 75% of agents said that students are concerned about the impact of AI on their careers.

Visa acceptance rates are deterring even the strongest students

In emerging markets, students are well aware that visa rejection rates are high in the Big Four. Agents said this awareness is reducing applications even from top students with a good chance of being approved (80%). Another 76% said that students with strong academic and financial profiles are more likely to choose alternative destinations with higher visa certainty.

Increased interest in alternative destinations, more questions about the value of study abroad

International students are reacting in a variety of ways to the more uncertain climate around study abroad and to affordability pressures:

• 82% of agents said applicants are applying to more destination countries than in the past;
• 85% said they are applying to more institutions within each destination country;
• 77% said they are increasingly applying to study in alternative destinations;
• 72% said they are more likely to have a back-up plan to study in their home country;
• And 68% said that they are more likely to give up on study abroad due to lack of affordability

Study at home is increasingly an option

Close to half of agents said that there is now a perception that universities or branch campuses in their country are providing an equal quality of education as institutions overseas. Among students who decide to stay home, affordability is by far the top reason (87%).

Destination trends

Perceptions of top anglophone destinations have stabilised for Australia, picked up for Canada, and are continuing to slide in the UK. New Zealand is by far outperforming the Big Four in terms of positive perceptions, while the US has the poorest image.

AI is not displacing agents

AI may be changing the nature of student–agent interactions, but it is not substituting for agents’ skills and human assistance. Students are consulting AI when researching study abroad and then going to agents to validate/interpret the information. Over 4 in 10 agents said that students are relying on them more despite AI, and 3 in 10 said there has been no change.

In the foreword to the survey report, Scott Jones, group CEO of Navitas, contextualised the findings and the importance of hearing from agents:

“Once again, the results offer compelling data that both confirms the behaviours we are seeing, and sheds light on how the international education landscape continues to evolve in the current economic and geopolitical environment.”

There is clearly a new competitive advantage for destinations and institutions that can access it: certainty. Communicating stable visa policies, strong student supports, programme strengths, and in-study and post-study work opportunities can go a long way toward emphasising this advantage.

For additional background, please see:

• “91ɬ��Podcast: Student flows are shifting. Are agencies following suit?”
• “Visa delays and policy uncertainty projected to reduce foreign enrolment in the US by more than 100,000 students this fall”

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The “” is interesting in part because it is the fourth such effort to build a picture of industry practices around managing education agency partnerships, following earlier survey cycles in 2018, 2023, and 2025.

AIRC reports that, across all four surveys, US educators’ engagement with agencies has increased (from 62% in 2018 to 75% this year). The survey also found that US institutions and schools are moving away from commissions based on gross tuitions in favour of agreements based on net tuitions or fixed referral fees.

More specifically, the most common commission structure among this year’s respondents is a fixed post-enrolment fee (48%), whereas nearly four in ten responding institutions (39%) said they relied on a commission calculated as a percentage of net tuition. (In such cases, net tuition reflects the gross tuition adjusted for scholarships and grants.) As of this year’s survey, only 6% of responding institutions said that they still base commissions on gross tuition.

In terms of the actual commissions paid:

• For institutions that pay based on gross tuition, the most frequently reported commission rate was 15%;

• For institutions relying on net tuition, most reported commission rates of 10%–15%;

• For those that pay a fixed-rate commission, most reported per-capita payments of $2,000–$3,500.

AIRC adds: “Several institutions utilise tiered models, where the percentage changes based on volume, student type, or year of enrollment. For example, one institution pays 15% for the first 30 students and 20% for students 31+, with two agencies starting at 20% and escalating to 25%. Several institutions pay a higher rate for the first year (e.g., 10% or 12% for year 1) and a reduced rate for subsequent years (e.g., 5% for year 2 and beyond, or 8% for year 2, 4% for year 3, and 2% for year 4).”

The survey also highlights that two-thirds of respondents (67%) do not issue commission payments until all tuition and other fees have been received. Another 21% will process commissions once all tuition fees have been received (excluding housing or any other fees).

Just over half (51%) indicated that they provide commissions for the first two semesters of enrolment. Nearly one in five (18%) pay commissions on the first semester only; and another 13% said that they pay commissions on the first three or four semesters. The remaining 18% said that they pay for more than four semesters.

Beyond commissions

“Institutions are investing more in agency relationships through webinars/training (72%), application support (66%), in-country visits (64%), and recruitment event participation (62%),” adds AIRC.

“When asked about new and creative initiatives that institutions have implemented to effectively work with their agency partners, the majority of institutions focus on enhanced communication and engagement, incentives and structure, and operational streamlining. Efforts include frequent, direct communication with agency partners, regular in-country visits, tiered commission structures, or granting agents limited access to the institution’s CRM.”

The survey findings otherwise make it clear that most institutions are actively exploring ways to strengthen their agency partnerships, including more frequent communication, and plans to add staff to build and support agent relationships.

For additional background, please see:

• “Updated: US Department of Homeland Security publishes rule to end Duration of Status for international students“
• “Decline in Indian demand a major factor in softer outlook for foreign enrolment in US higher education in 2026/27“

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The scrutiny is coming from more than one direction. Admissions offices are tightening their own checks on the authenticity and consistency of English-language evidence, in response to well-documented fraud vulnerabilities and inconsistent evidence standards across the sector.

At the same time, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) now runs an annual Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) for every institution holding a student sponsor licence, scoring them on visa refusal rates, enrolment rates, and course completion rates. Falling short on any one of those metrics can strip an institution of the right to self-assess a student’s English ability altogether, forcing a shift to mandatory secure testing across the board. Further, a new Agent Quality Framework is being extended so institutions can no longer treat agent-sourced evidence as somebody else’s responsibility. In short: the English-language evidence an agent helps assemble now feeds directly into a compliance metric that determines whether an institution can keep recruiting internationally at all.

That’s the backdrop and it’s also the opportunity. Agents who understand this chain of evidence, and can speak to it confidently, become more valuable partners to the institutions they work with, and better advisers to the students who trust them.

Academic readiness is the cornerstone of student success

Academic readiness is the strongest predictor of first-year performance, progression, retention, and completion. When students arrive without sufficient English proficiency, the impact is immediate: difficulty engaging in seminars and group work, falling behind in reading-intensive modules, rising stress, and a higher likelihood of assessment failure or withdrawal.

Meeting a minimum entry requirement isn’t the same as being ready to perform at it. A student who scrapes the headline overall score with a weak reading or writing subscore is often the one who struggles most in postgraduate, research-intensive programmes, where extended reading and academic writing carry most of the assessment weight.

In practice, that means: looking with the student beyond the single overall band to the subscore breakdown; recommending a margin above the minimum particularly in speaking and writing wherever a programme is writing- or seminar-heavy; and encouraging an early retake where subscores are borderline, rather than waiting until an offer is at risk. Agents who steer students toward the cheapest or fastest route to a passing score to obtain a visa rather than genuine readiness, aren’t doing anyone any favours: those are the students most likely to need extra support, delay progression, or withdraw outcomes now visible to institutions through the BCA’s own completion-rate metric.

The growing scrutiny of MOI

Medium of Instruction (MOI) evidence is under sustained scrutiny, and institutions increasingly treat it as a case-by-case judgement rather than a standard alternative to testing. Practice varies widely: some institutions require MOI letters to be corroborated by transcripts, curriculum details, or interview; others have withdrawn MOI acceptance for certain markets or programmes altogether, following BCA findings that linked MOI-based admissions to weaker completion or higher visa refusal rates.

For agents, that means treating an MOI recommendation as a considered call each time, not a default and being able to talk a student through the reasoning.

Three questions are worth working through together: First, does the receiving institution’s current policy actually support MOI for this student’s country, subject, and level of study? Policies here shift often, so this is worth checking fresh for each application rather than assumed from a previous case. Second, was the student’s prior study substantively delivered and assessed in English not just described as such on paper in a way that plausibly matches the demands of postgraduate or research-intensive study in the UK? Third, is an MOI-based application more likely to trigger additional verification, delay an offer, or be queried at visa stage for this particular market?

Where any of these three is uncertain, recommending secure testing alongside or instead of MOI is the safer, more defensible choice for the student’s academic readiness, and for the agent’s credibility with the institutions they work with.

Secure testing as a strategic enabler

Secure English language testing is worth repositioning, in conversations with students, as more than an entry hurdle. It supports identity validation, demonstrates genuine academic readiness, reduces institutional exposure, and gives students greater confidence going into study. Viewing testing as an unnecessary cost is short-sighted: the real cost is poor preparation academic, financial, and emotional. Framing testing as an investment in a student’s own success, rather than a bureaucratic step, tends to land better with students and parents alike and it happens to be true.

BCA reviews are raising the bar

The Basic Compliance Assessment is an annual Home Office review of how well a sponsoring institution is managing its international student population against three metrics: visa refusal rates, enrolment rates, and course completion rates. Institutions rated amber or red face restrictions including, in some cases, losing the right to self-assess English-language ability, which pushes their entire cohort toward mandatory secure testing. As English-language evidence sits upstream of all three metrics a student who was never really ready for the course is more likely to be refused a visa, to under-enrol, or to withdraw, institutions are having to demonstrate, more rigorously than before, how that evidence was gathered, verified, and judged sufficient at the point of offer, both to their own compliance teams and to UKVI itself.

Agent-sourced evidence is now squarely inside that chain of justification. As regulatory attention on institutions increases, so does attention on the English-language guidance and evidence that agents provide upstream of the admissions decision. Weak guidance creates a vulnerability that traces all the way back to an agent’s file; strong guidance protects the student, the institution’s compliance record, and the agent’s own standing with institutional partners.

Defining practice that works for students and agents

A forward-looking standard is emerging, and it rewards informed, student-centred practice, which includes:

• Recommending the right test for the destination and programme, factoring in university acceptance, subject demands, security requirements, and timing
• Where subscores are borderline, especially speaking and writing for postgraduate, research-intensive courses, advising testing to a margin above the stated minimum, and supporting an early retake rather than a late one
• Treating MOI as a case-by-case judgement using the three questions above, not a standard substitute for testing
• Communicating secure testing to students as an investment in their own progression, not a hurdle to clear
• Keeping documentation authentic, consistent, and aligned with each institution’s current expectations, since these shift
• Engaging admissions teams early to confirm current requirements and reduce delays

These aren’t extra burdens layered on top of an agent’s advising role they’re the parts of that role now most visible to institutions, most consequential for students, and most likely to distinguish the agents that institutions want to keep working with.

The role of agents in a changing landscape

Agents are often a student’s first trusted adviser. Their guidance shapes not just admission outcomes but a student’s confidence, performance, and ultimately their success once they arrive. Getting the English-language piece right is one of the clearest, most immediate ways an agent can add value to that relationship and one of the clearest ways to build a track record that institutions notice.

How ELSAA supports the sector

ELSAA is the English Language Standard Advisory Authority [link to https://englishlsa.com]. Our mission is to strengthen standards, improve transparency, and support risk-aware decision-making across the English-language ecosystem. We work with agents and institutions to:

• Interpret emerging regulatory and compliance expectations
• Identify appropriate English-language pathways
• Reduce institutional and agent risk
• Improve student progression and retention
• Build trusted, future-ready recruitment practices

Agents who build this expertise put students at the centre of every decision and in doing so, strengthen their own standing with the institutions they work with. Strong English-language guidance isn’t an extra step; it’s the advantage.

The English Language Standard Advisory Authority (ELSAA) is an independent organisation dedicated to improving transparency, understanding, and informed decision-making in high-stakes English language testing. Through independent test reviews, comparative analysis, training, and advisory services, ELSAA supports universities, professional bodies, employers, and policymakers in evaluating and using English language assessments with confidence.

For additional background, please see:

• “Study highlights gaps between English standards set by test developers and those used by universities and professional bodies“
• “Narrowing bands of compliance: How the UK’s new RAG system will impact international student recruitment“

The post Why sharper English-language guidance is becoming an agent’s sharpest tool for student success appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

There is some overlap between the two in that they jointly regulate institutions that provide programming across higher education and VET, and they share jurisdiction over CRICOS-registered providers (the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students) delivering courses to international students.

The interests of the two regulators are naturally aligned in some ways, but TEQSA and ASQA rarely issue joint statements. However, earlier this month, they did just that, that they are watching how providers and agents are behaving with regards to onshore student transfers.

The joint message says:

“TEQSA and ASQA are aware of concerns that some advertising by registered providers appears inconsistent with the intent of the ban on the payment of education agent commissions in relation to onshore transfers.

“Both agencies view any attempts by providers or education agents to bypass this restriction as unacceptable and providers who are not adequately managing these risks or not meeting the relevant Standards may be subject to a compliance assessment and/or regulatory action.”

The caution speaks directly to a new rule that was introduced in January 2026, and that came into force on 31 March 2026. Under the new rule, education agents are no longer permitted to receive commissions from Australian schools and universities when an international student already in Australia (an “onshore student”) transfers from one institution to another without having completed their course with the previous provider.

The rule appears in revisions to the National Code of Practice – formally, – and it was part of a package of amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act (ESOS) passed in November 2025.

The joint TEQSA-ASQA alert goes on to say that the two regulators have specific concerns in the following areas:

• Recruitment or incentive arrangements that preserve commission-based behaviour (for onshore transfers);
• Practices that encourage and facilitate unnecessary transfers of students from other providers;
• Insufficient provider oversight of education agents;
• Providers failing to declare their arrangements with third parties facilitating student transfers;
• Improper management of data around agent activities and student enrolment, including inaccurate or delayed reporting;
• Weak governance, controls, monitoring or record-keeping practices around recruitment and student enrolment;
• Providers with poor risk management practices in respect of accepting higher risk students who have transferred from another provider and do not appear to be academically prepared for their new course.

The alert then outlines the compliance expectations the regulators have for providers working with agents on onshore transfers:

“Providers need to be able to demonstrate, through robust governance oversight, that their arrangements, practices and controls are consistent with the recent changes to the National Code preventing the payment of education agent commissions in relation to onshore overseas student transfers.”

TEQSA and ASQA expect all providers to undertake a check of their current processes and practices, including:

• Reviewing agreements with education agents and other third parties;
• Checking what education agents are promoting in-market;
• Reviewing admissions and transfer practices to ensure they do not contravene the ban on onshore transfers;
• Demonstrating compliance through clear policies, monitoring, and record-keeping.

The instruction concludes with a more specific warning: “Providers who are not adequately managing these risks or not meeting the relevant Standards may be subject to a compliance assessment and/or regulatory action.”

The joint alert makes it clear that TEQSA and ASQA are concerned about onshore transfers; that they expect providers to take any actions needed to address these concerns; and that they may ramp up compliance checks or other interventions going forward.

Regular readers will appreciate that this is not strictly an Australian story. Rather, the direction of travel is clear across destinations: providers should expect greater scrutiny of their international recruitment activities by governments and regulators. Implementing effective quality checks and oversight of recruitment programmes is key to compliance.

For additional background, please see:

• “Australia introduces new rules restricting agent commissions for onshore student transfers“
• “Narrowing bands of compliance: How the UK’s new RAG system will impact international student recruitment“
• “Who decides about quality? Education agents and the question of increased regulation“

The post Joint sector alert sends a clear compliance message to Australian higher education and VET providers appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Understanding this context is important for institutions establishing a presence in Colombia, where competition for students is intensifying. There are now about 75,000 Colombians studying overseas, and it is now common for up to 80 foreign universities and schools to be at Colombian education fairs promoting their programmes.

Rafael Minauro, senior partner manager at EdCo LATAM, notes:

“Institutions cannot rely on their websites to attract Colombian students. The focus should be on developing interpersonal relationships, speaking the same language, understanding unique needs, sharing experiences, highlighting graduate success stories, and developing confidence. This all takes time, but it really pays off in the long run when student enrolments consistently start to escalate.”

A growing market

A greater proportion of Colombian students can now afford study abroad than in the past. The economy has grown by an average of +3.5% a year for the past 15 years, helping to alleviate poverty and bring more of the population into the middle class.

Still, income equalities remain and are often pronounced along regional lines, making geographical segmentation essential. The report breaks down the industrial characteristics of each region to highlight which programmes may be especially interesting for students living there. For example:

“Students from Bogotá and Medellín may be more interested in technology, business and politics-related programmes, while students from Colombia’s Caribbean region may be drawn towards international trade, logistics, and commerce programmes.”

Demand for study abroad is strong in part because domestic higher education capacity is low and tuition at the highest quality Colombian universities is sometimes as expensive as tuition at well-ranked foreign universities.

There is ongoing demand for English-language studies, and growing interest in degree studies abroad.

The report notes that prospective undergraduate and graduate students tend to be quite different:

• Undergraduate-level Colombians tend to be younger than their peers in other countries due to the structure of their high-school system. They are often under the age of 18, and so need more care and support. Their parents are heavily involved in decision-making.

• By contrast, postgraduate-level students often have years of work experience and make more independent choices.

Overall, there is a significant base of potential students from which to recruit: 26% of the 53.5 million-person-strong population is between the ages of 14 and 28.

La Familia

Simon Terrigton, director and co-founder of EdCo LATAM Consulting, uses a personal anecdote to reinforce the dominant cultural feature of Colombia:

“’La Familia,” which means ‘Family’ in Spanish, is something I have been thinking about recently. This weekend, my daughter and I made a Colombian Coffee mug at pottery and wrote ‘La Familia’ on the mug as it perfectly sums up how Colombia and other LATAM countries prioritise family over everything else. I was surprised when in Colombia I had fixed plans (or so I thought) which were then changed due to a distant aunt’s birthday or similar event!”

The report emphasises that including parents in campaigns, webinars, discussions, etc. is as important as marketing directed at students themselves. “You have to sell your UG programmes to parents, not students,” says account manager Maria Elisa Rodriguez Cardazo. Maria continues:

“Parents always want to take care of us and when we’re oceans away, it can be tough for them. Universities should therefore involve parents and family friends from the beginning of the decision-making process.”

Beyond parents, there is another important advantage to keeping “La Familia” in mind when recruiting in Colombia: “Providing a high-quality experience for one Colombian student often secures the future enrolment of siblings, cousins, extended family and friends.”

Representing current Colombian students on the institutional website through testimonials and a student ambassador option is also key. The report notes:

“Colombian students naturally gravitate towards existing Latin American cohorts on international campuses. By building a critical mass of LATAM students, you create a cultural gravity that makes your campus the default choice for others in the region. The bottom line is that success breeds scale.”

An agent-driven market

Approximately 60% of Colombian overseas enrolments came through agents, making Colombia the most agent-dependent market in Latin America. Comparatively, 47% and 46% of Brazilian and Mexican students, respectively, are enrolled through agents.

Which destinations are popular?

While the US higher education system boasts the most Colombian students (just over 10,200 in 2024/25), growth has stalled, with the number of students increasing by only +0.9% from 2023/24 to 2024/25. The Trump administration’s immigration policies have had a major deterrent effect. found that nine out of ten ICE arrests in the first six months of Trump’s second administration were Latinos. While Colombians are not among the most targeted of Latinos, the overall trend is naturally worrisome.

Despite �䲹�Բ��岹’s enduring popularity among Colombian students, visa policies are making it difficult for Colombians to make it to Canada for studies. Only about 5,800 study permits were issued to Colombians in 2025, down from just over 10,400 in 2023.

Australia is a top destination for Colombia’s English-language students, but it is also attractive for higher education, especially for master’s studies. In 2025, more than 2,300 Colombian students were enrolled in Australian universities. However, Australia’s higher education system is quite dependent on its ELICOS (English-language training) sector for international enrolments, and that system is under immense pressure due to government policies. Fully 38% of Colombians begin in an ELICOS course before progressing to an Australian university programme.

The UK has a real opportunity right now. There were only 935 Colombian students in UK universities in 2024/25 (80% at the postgraduate level), but this was up +15% over the previous year, faster growth than from Mexico and Brazil.

Spain remains a favoured study destination, hosting more than 23,600 Colombian students in 2022/23. A primary driver of demand is the common language (Spanish). Mobility is also being spurred by between the Colombian and Spanish governments for the mutual recognition of degrees, diplomas, certificates, and tests allowing Colombians access to Spanish universities and vice versa.

The report notes that France and Germany are steadily gaining traction, enrolling about 4,000 Colombian students each.

For additional background, please see:

• “Market Snapshot: International student recruitment in Colombia”
• “Are you paying enough attention to parents in your recruitment marketing?”

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The Brazilian Educational & Language Travel Association (BELTA) administered two online surveys from February to April of 2026. Respondents to the first survey included over 2,200 students from all over Brazil who had already studied abroad or who were interested in doing so. The second survey included representatives in various positions at 74 education agencies. More than half of agents were owners of their business.

Study abroad is common, especially for short programmes

Most surveyed Brazilian students had already had at least one international education-related experience (85%). Top languages for study are English (68%), with Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German rounding out the top five.

Nearly half of respondents studied abroad for less than three months (49%), while 26% were in exchanges of four–seven months and 24% were abroad for more than eight months.

Demand is strong, especially for language learning

91ɬ�� 70% of students are interested in going abroad to study in the future. 91ɬ�� 4 in 10 are planning to go in the first or second semester of 2027, while another 3 in 10 are aiming for 2028 or later.

The preferred programme type for Brazilian students is language learning (46%), especially when a language course allows for temporary work (26%). 91ɬ�� a quarter are interested in degree studies, with equal interest for postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

How students research and organise study abroad

The main channel on which students research study abroad options is Instagram (24%), with smaller percentages choosing YouTube, Facebook, or TikTok.

In terms of in-person resources, students turn first to agents (15%) followed by education fairs (9%).

When selecting an agency, students are first and foremost looking for someone who can help them find trustworthy study abroad experiences (22%). Students also value agents being easy to contact (16%), offering personalised service (13%), and being compatible with their budget (11%).

Most agents place language students and high school students

The top five programme types that surveyed agents place students into are language courses, summer/winter holiday courses for teens, high school exchanges, language courses with a work component, and shorter sub-degree programmes. Undergraduate and graduate programmes followed in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

Agents said that most students aren’t just interested in studying: they want to travel, work, learn a new language, and experience a different culture. A primary goal of obtaining an international qualification or career is less common.

Traditional destinations are still the most popular

Agents put Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, and Malta as the top five destinations for students, which makes sense given that English remains the preferred language to study. Spain is also popular among the significant segment of students looking to study in Spanish.

The mood is optimistic

Most surveyed agents had a good year in 2025. More than half of agents (53%) said they sent more students abroad than in 2024. Another 17% sent about the same number, while 30% sent fewer. The average growth in placements from 2024 to 2025 was 9.5%.

Close to three-quarters (73%) of agents expect to send more students in 2026, a far greater proportion than those who expect the same or lower volume (17% and 10%, respectively).

“We see the Brazilizian market remaining strong and mature, selling all programmes and all destinations with good numbers,” says BELTA President Alexandre Argenta. “Higher education programmes look like the programmes with more increasing figures than before.”

But much will depend on certain factors

Agents said that currency fluctuations can either make a deal … or break it. A favourable final currency exchange rate was the most cited reason for a sale, and a currency devaluation was the main reason for a sale being made difficult or impossible.

Affordability is overall a major issue for students. Alongside currency devaluation, a reduction in a student’s purchasing power, an exchange rate increase, an increase in the cost of living in a destination country, and an increase in flight costs are all among the top 10 factors that can persuade a student not to follow through on a placement.

The economic impact of the Middle East conflict on Brazil’s economy

The Brazilian real has recently weakened against the US dollar amidst ongoing fighting between the US-Isreal against Iran-Hezbollah in the Middle East. If this currency devaluation persists, it will naturally be more difficult for Brazilian students to go abroad in 2027.

Other economic impacts of the widespread Middle Eastern conflict on Brazil are both positive and negative. Brazil’s crude oil exports are increasing, especially to China and India, as the Strait of Hormuz remains a dangerous crossing for Gulf-based oil companies. Additional oil revenue is helping the Brazilian government to minimise the conflict’s impact on domestic food and fuel prices.

However, Brazil also imports 25% of its diesel, and it is the world’s biggest importer of fertilizers. Most of these imports come from Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz. With diesel imports restricted, transportation and airfare costs are rising. With fertilizer imports limited, two of Brazil’s top exports – soybeans and meat – are in jeopardy. 

In Brazil, as in most other countries, the Strait’s reopening cannot come soon enough.

Even so, Mr Argenta adds that, “Our currency is about 5% stronger this first semester comparing to the average exchange rates in 2025. We may see some devaluation in the second semester mainly due to our Presidential election, which usually bring some friction to the market, but economic expecations are similar to last year, so this should not affect much our market in 2026.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Market snapshot: A guide to international student recruitment in Brazil”
• “Brazilian agents reporting strong growth this year with many exceeding pre-pandemic volumes”

The post Brazil: New surveys show strong, but price-sensitive, demand for study abroad appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.