November 20, 2022
International Education: Agents Fed Up with Deferrals and Refunds
A According to news reports, disgruntled stakeholders have expressed concerns about institutions' recruitment forecasting after students' applications were rejected at the last minute ahead of the autumn intake this year. Insiders have said that a large number of students applied for 2022, according to university admissions teams, with a number of these students failing to meet the university's internal requirements for issuing a CAS. Despite the fact that many of the applicants had already paid an advance deposit, passed a credibility interview, or provided proof of a secure English language certificate, this is the case.
Thousands of students have reportedly been deferred by some institutions, raising further concerns about ethical recruitment practices. "It is very disappointing to be requesting student refunds given the time and effort we have put into recruiting for our institutional partners," said Vikas Muralidhara, founder and CEO of Uniabroad, which is based in Bangalore, India. “We are left standing with no results and the students are devastated, all while I see the same universities [who claim to be full] continuing to advertise courses on social media. We had 48 student refunds to request which were totally unexpected from our point of view.” he added.
…over accepting deposits and then deferring or refunding students at the last minute has become a strategy employed by institutions that are suddenly anticipating oversubscribed courses...
As a result of the pandemic and subsequent rise in demand distorting conversion metrics, institutions continue to struggle with predictive analysis of expected enrolments. Over accepting deposits and then deferring or refunding students at the last minute has become a strategy employed by institutions that are suddenly anticipating oversubscribed courses.
Saniya Saman, a prospective business studies student, explained the importance of receiving a prompt refund, which she has now received. "Because the university cancelled my September 2022 intake CAS, I had to accept another university offer for January 2023." As far as I know, the refund was sent to me after a month, and a few other students [I know] received their refunds in November.
Because agents work directly with students and families, they are frequently called upon to explain a university decision to reject or defer the student. When even approved recruitment partners cannot predict the likelihood of acceptance when demand is high, managing student expectations becomes impossible.
Varrtika Mudaliaar, founder of career coaching service Penned Perfections, also expressed her support, saying that study abroad agents "get a lot of flak for things that aren't their fault at all."
Agents, for their part, constantly monitor capacity and actively avoid requesting deposits from students until later in the application process, once all conditions have been met and we know there is space, reducing the volume of refund requests and the financial burden on students.
Posted in News and tagged News, International Education, Deferrals, Refunds, CAS, Uniabroad
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