Hamid Gharda: rethinking agent partnerships in UK higher education
In the brisk autumn light, across the UK higher-education landscape, one stubborn truth is now impossible to ignore: for many institutions, the management of international-recruitment agents remains messy, fragmented and far from strategic.
Despite the clamour for joined-up data, digital tools, and genuinely collaborative partnerships, the typical process still resembles a patchwork of spreadsheets, subjective reviews, and one-off meetings.
When we gathered at the recent Beyond Compliance conference, colleagues from Sheffield to Leicester to London shared the same refrain: “We know agents matter. We just don’t know how well we know them.”
The challenge is not recruitment volume but recruitment quality – not simply whether agents deliver numbers, but whether they represent institutional values, provide transparent data and contribute to genuine student success.
From compliance to collaboration
The era of compliance checklists and reactive audits is no longer sufficient. In a world where visa integrity, student welfare, market reputation and digital-first operations converge, agent-management must evolve from procurement to partnership.
That shift requires three interlocking changes.
In a world where visa integrity, student welfare, market reputation and digital-first operations converge, agent-management must evolve from procurement to partnership
First: unified, reliable data
Too many institutions run agent networks in silos – recruitment teams hold one list, compliance another, finance a third. Without a single source of truth, decision-making remains vulnerable to bias and blind spots. Aligning onboarding, conversion, trip reports and student-outcome data gives universities real line-of-sight on which agents consistently deliver value.
Second: operational embedding
It’s not enough to deploy a dashboard or hold an annual review. Teams across recruitment, admissions, compliance and finance must use the same agent-performance tool under shared governance and workflows. This discipline closes the gap between what we think we know and what the data shows.
Third: strategic narrative
If agent quality is truly a strategic priority, it must be visible at the senior-leadership level – in metrics, dashboards and sector conversations. The louder universities become about transparent, evidence-based agent management, the faster best practice becomes the norm.
Digital transformation in action
At SAMS Global, we’re seeing universities link recruitment-agent data from their CRM with performance-analytics platforms such as SAMS Manage.
The result: a move from transactional relationships – “agent delivered X students” – to performance-centred partnerships – “agent delivered Y students who progressed, succeeded and became alumni ambassadors.”
By giving multiple departments the autonomy and permissions to contribute directly, universities are unifying their view of agent quality and freeing staff time for strategy rather than spreadsheets.
Looking ahead
The new academic year presents a pivotal moment. With markets shifting and student expectations evolving, universities that elevate agent-management now will be best placed for the next wave of global mobility.
It’s time to move from volume to value, from spreadsheets to dashboards, and from compliance to confidence.
Because in an era of complexity and competition, the institutions that truly understand who their agents are, how they act and why they deliver will lead — not just in recruitment, but in student success.
About the author: Hamid Gharda is director of business development at SAMS Global, specialising in digital solutions for international-student recruitment, agent management and higher-education market strategy. He works closely with UK universities to design tools and frameworks that drive agent performance, compliance and strategic growth, and is a regular speaker at international-education events including the Beyond Compliance conference.
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