At ApplyBoard, our mission to educate the world is built into everything we do. It underpins our conversations with partner institutions, our product innovations, and of course, the guidance we offer to students. Since 2015, we’ve helped more than 1.5 million students from over 180 countries pursue an education at one of our 1,500+ partner institutions.

None of this would be possible without our network of qualified international education advisors.

This diverse network, spread across 110 countries, plays a key role in helping our partner institutions recruit the world’s brightest students. As these students and institutions place their trust in us, it’s critical that ApplyBoard carefully vets advisors, conducts regular audits, and ensures every member of our network meets our quality standards.

Strengthening the Sector

Within our Strengthening the Sector article series, we’ll explore some of the ways that ApplyBoard advances the international education sector forward. 

Below, we’ll look at how international education advisors become ApplyBoard partners, and the strict vetting process they undergo before they can access our platform. 

Read the other articles in this series as they’re published:

• Application Pre-Screening
• Ongoing Performance Monitoring
• Sector Training
• Document Authentication

Protecting the Quality of Our Network

As the needs of international students evolve, so do the requirements we set for our advisors. Despite the size of our network, we’re selective about who we partner with to protect our platform against bad actors. While some agents have been known to ignore best recruitment practices, or give students inaccurate advice, our vetting process safeguards our users, partner institutions, and proprietary technology. 

ApplyBoard’s vetting process ultimately filters out around 24% of the businesses that approach us about partnership.

We lean on a host of data points and specific checks to help us assess the fit of potential partners. And to ensure consistent quality, we continuously evolve our vetting process, tailoring it for different geographic areas. This way, partner institutions can be certain their campuses and programs are being represented accurately to students.

ApplyBoard’s Advisor Vetting Process

Here’s an overview of our advisor application and vetting process:

1. Initial Outreach

The recruiter or advisor finds us online, or is referred by a partner institution or someone else in the sector. In some cases, ApplyBoard contacts the recruiter directly.

2. Candidate Registration 

The candidate signs up to join our platform, and agrees to our general Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

3. Candidate Risk and Compliance Screening

Candidate advisors must provide several pieces of information, including photo ID and business registration. They are then audited by ApplyBoard. We also look into their commitment to recruitment best practices. Our process includes the following steps:

1. • Complete a business registration review (against national or regional databases)
   • Complete a licensing or regulatory body certificate check (as applicable)
   • Check against internal and industry blocklists
   • Check against international sanctions and watchlists
   • Check information against Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) databases and high-risk or restricted organization databases
   • Check public databases of certified agents and advisors
   • Verify the new account doesn’t overlap or duplicate an existing account
   • Complete a website and social media audit
   • Share feedback with the applicant

ApplyBoard completes a comprehensive review which goes beyond professional documents to the advisor’s full online and business presence. We check to make sure the applicant is certified, that they aren’t on our (or any external) blocklists, and that they have a good public reputation. We even check their website and social media to evaluate for professionalism.

4. Registration is Approved or Rejected

5. In-Person Visit

In certain jurisdictions, an ApplyBoard account manager will evaluate professionalism and conduct by visiting the candidate’s office in person.

6. Candidate Agrees to ApplyBoard’s Essential Terms, and our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

7. Partnership Decision is Made

Advisors don’t get full access to the ApplyBoard platform until the vetting process is complete.

What Our Partner Institutions Have to Say

ApplyBoard’s commitment to working with the best international education advisors, and providing the highest quality of service, is critical to driving success for our partners at academic institutions. 

Here are some testimonials from our partner institutions about the importance of quality and consistency when working with education advisors:

“When you ask representatives from international recruitment offices to evaluate the success (or not) of their various recruitment channels—agents and recruitment partners, institutional partnerships, etc.—most simply default to a cursory assessment of success as defined by student numbers. Others add another layer and look at conversion rates.

“Now, if I consider these two metrics, ApplyBoard performs very well. Overall student numbers have been strong and, as mentioned before, conversion rates are exceptional. At the University of the Fraser Valley, we’ve added a few additional metrics to try and get a better picture of how these various recruitment channels are performing.

“Those are (1) the average GPA of students sent during a particular period, and (2) the percentage of students on (or not on) academic warning. This gives a much fuller picture of the quality of a recruitment partner. And this is where ApplyBoard shines. They are the only partner to excel in all four metrics.”

“Students from ApplyBoard are well informed about the program they’ve applied to and are committed to their studies. They’ve usually been provided with realistic information about our campuses and communities. ApplyBoard has helped us increase overall international numbers, as well as the diversity of our international students.”²

Ongoing Monitoring

ApplyBoard’s initial vetting process is where accountability starts, but not where it ends. Once an individual or organization joins our advisor network, they’re monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure they continue to comply with ApplyBoard’s quality standards. 

How exactly does that ongoing monitoring work? We’ll break it down in our next Strengthening the Sector feature. As the international education sector evolves, defining these processes is more important than ever, for the sake of trust, transparency, and accountability. 

Stay informed about sector updates by subscribing to ApplyInsights.

About the ApplyInsights Team

FOOTNOTES:

1. All data courtesy of ApplyBoard unless otherwise stated.

2. While Gordon Shuster retired from Okanagan College in 2024, this quotation was sourced when the article was originally published (and he was still employed by OC) in 2023.