Key Issues and “Push/Pull” Messaging on South East Asian Education Agency Websites

Abstract

As more students from South Asia seek to study at overseas universities, they increasingly contract the services of local education agencies to facilitate their choice of institutions and their application process. This study seeks to better understand the nature of the relationship between South Asian education agencies and students who wish to study abroad. By using qualitative content analysis of education agency websites from five South Asian countries, this study identifies key issues of potentially unethical practices committed by these agencies. It also identifies the most prevalent “push/pull” factors that South Asian agencies use to encourage students to study overseas as well as the most common services that agencies use to support students. The findings indicate that there are widespread ethical issues amongst education agencies and that students are most motivated to study abroad for quality education that may lead to emigration. The implications of this study are then discussed.