Supplementary written evidence submitted
by English UK (SV17a)
Here is some background for the Committee as requested
on our Partner Agency scheme. In effect this is a form of accreditation
based upon a) track record of being a reliable, efficient and
honest agent (attested by references from a minimum of five member
centres, plus our own database records) and b) a certain amount
of "knowledge" through the training scheme run by the
British Council, with material we have provided covering English
language courses. Agents have to sign up to a code of practice
covering ethical business practices. The first document has a
chart which shows the number of agencies which have so far been
awarded Partner Agency status. There is more demand than we can
at present accommodate for this, and it is clearly fulfilling
a need.
We would comment that it is in some ways easier for
an association like ourselves to set up a scheme of this kind
because it is our members who work with agents on a day to day
basis, and know which ones are excellent and which merely adequate.
Also since the whole visa system became "high stakes",
centres have to monitor their agents' performance very carefully,
since they are in effect delegating their sponsor licence status
to the agents—and if the agents send bogus or poor quality
students, a centre might well lose its sponsor licence, and in
many if not all cases that would lead swiftly to bankruptcy or
closure since it would no longer be able to recruit and enrol
visa-national Tier 4 students.
We believe that the government and the British Council
have given some consideration to "licensing" agents,
but have decided that they are not minded to pursue this because
in some countries it would be regarded as the British Government
interfering in the internal business affairs of other countries
and might lead to accusations of a form of "imperialism".
If agents in a number of countries were prevented by their governments
from being licensed by the British Government or an agency such
as the BC, this would make it impossible to have a globally-accessible
scheme which all agents could participate in on a level footing.
We understand the concerns and the reluctance to proceed is one
reason why we have taken the initiative of the Partner Agency
scheme.
February 2011
|
