August 18, 2022
Agent Switching Under Scanner After LinkedIn Post Reveals Startling Facts
S Startling information about agent switching was recently revealed in a LinkedIn post. The article generated a stir and sparked conversations about agent switching among Indian education stakeholders. The morality of awarding scholarships to students in the competitive Indian job market was questioned in the LinkedIn post. It asserted that many education agents admitted that other companies had contacted their students.
Agent switching that was unethical was exposed after a post criticising another company for requiring student signatures on authorization letters to transfer agents was published. The agency criticised the other party, accusing it of "misleading students with promises of fake scholarships."
The company in question, Leverage Edu, has defended its conduct, asserting that during the relevant client consultation, a member of its staff made it clear that the scholarship being offered is an additional one provided by Leverage rather than one funded by the university. Leverage Edu offered students the Leverage Edu Scholarship, which has a corpus of about 700,000 GBP and is publicly accessible on our website, according to a company spokesperson.
…we lost 100’s of students in the last intake, all last-minute, to scholarships, sometimes even more than the full commission we receive from universities…
On LinkedIn, Samrat Kar from Leverage Edu stated that at least 7 agencies were employing these strategies. He added, “We lost 100’s of students in the last intake, all last-minute, to scholarships, sometimes even more than the full commission we receive from universities.”
Sources claim that more agencies were harmed by agent switching. In a media appearance, one agent asserted that after learning that the student had accepted a place at a UK university, an unnamed organisation contacted the student and extended additional scholarship offers. Parin Shah, the CEO of the Indian company Back2Study, added that inquiries about additional scholarships for his students had also been made. There were other agencies too that claimed to be victims of agent switching.
The idea that universities shouldn't let students switch agents after the application has been processed was put forth by Abhishek Nakhate of Zoom Abroad. Other agents also believed that institutions of higher learning and authorities needed to do more to prevent agent hopping.
According to news reports, the original social media post that sparked the agent-switching discussion has been taken down while it is still going on.
Posted in News and tagged News, India, Agent Switching, Leverage Edu, Scholarship, Students, Back2Study, Zoom Abroad
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