As agency practices and ethics come under renewed scrutiny in a number of key destinations, ICEF is pleased to announce another major milestone in ensuring quality, transparency, and accountability across the international education recruitment process with the accreditation of our 2,000th agency.

ICEF Agency Status (IAS)

There are now 2,000 education agencies in 125 countries that have been vetted through the IAS programme, the largest network of accredited agencies in the industry and the de facto global standard for agency recognition and quality assurance. Based on a rigorous vetting process, including reference checks and annual reassessment, IAS has the rigour to give governments, educators, and students confidence in the quality of an agency. Each successful agency applicant receives a unique ID and QR code that can be instantly verified from anywhere in the world. They are also listed in an online agency directory and sign up to our comprehensive Code of Conduct, developed in close consultation with key stakeholders from across the industry.

Commenting on the programme, Nick Golding, ICEF’s VP Government Relations and Strategic Partnerships, said: “ICEF is truly the only international and market-neutral organisation with the global apparatus, experience, and reputation within the industry to create and maintain a robust worldwide standard. Our goal is to ensure the integrity of the international student recruitment industry, and we have used our 30 years of experience in supporting educators and agents to create the ICEF Agency Status accreditation programme.”

Skills and training

In addition to the agency accreditation process, ICEF delivers training and certification for individual counsellors via ICEF Academy. With courses supporting professional  development, including counsellor compliance and the sharing of best practice, ICEF Academy has enrolled more than 127,000 counsellors from around the world and provided 19,000+ in 130 countries with an industry-recognised certification. These figures establish ICEF as one of the world’s leading providers of training and certification in international education.

Industry self-regulation gathers pace

As we reach this milestone of 2,000 accredited agencies, we are joined in our mission to raise professional standards across the sector by a fast-growing body of early adopters. With Global University Systems (GUS), Oxford International Education Group (OIEG), INTO University Partnerships, Kings Education, Navitas, and QA Higher Education already recommending IAS to their agency portfolio, more are joining daily, making IAS agency accreditation the global benchmark of quality. ICEF plans to have accredited the majority of the industry's leading agencies over the next few years and, with a further 1,000 agencies currently in the accreditation process, is investing in additional staff and technology to support this exceptional growth.

The largest and only international accreditation programme to date, ICEF Agency Status has become the global standard for agency quality in international student mobility, ensuring the integrity, sustainability, and growth of the international student recruitment market.