For the longest time, the international student recruitment industry has been held back by the bureaucracy brought on by the traditional commission model.
Most recruiters are forced to split their commission with intermediaries. Institutions are overwhelmed with low-quality applications in an effort by recruiters to secure the partial commission for a placement. And students are in the centre, unsure if the options presented to them are right for them.
The industry needs to provide a neutral environment, better rewards, and greater opportunities. So everyone can succeed.
This is why giving recruiters access to 100% commission is key to revolutionising the industry.
Our co-founder Victor Rajeevan recalls one of the stark impressions he had of the market when Adventus.io first started.
“When we were pitching Adventus.io to potential partners, we found the conversation revolved around the general lack of trust within the supply chain,” he says. “And a lot of it was about the lack of transparency around the commission within the industry.”
A master agent tells their sub-agent they get 70-80% commission. And yet the latter doesn’t believe the listed price is right. This distrust is something that’s unfortunately far too common in the industry.
“One of our values is radical transparency. And so, if we were to apply that to this industry, what would that look like?”
That radical transparency is letting recruiters access 100% of the commission when they successfully recruit a student. Adventus.io only facilitates the connection between recruiters and institutions by providing a platform where data-driven insights are readily available.
To foster that transparency and trust, it is crucial for Adventus.io to enter the market as an ally, rather than as a direct competitor to recruiters.
If allocating millions to their marketing budget is any indication, the university’s priority is being top of mind of students. And their network of recruiters is part of their arsenal to achieve this. With the ability to access 100% commission, recruiters will be less biased towards only a handful of institutions, placing them at an advantageous position.
Victor offers some insight to the scope of the market.
“Last year, our recruiter network placed more than 3 billion dollars worth of tuition to universities globally.”
“So we need to make sure the universities are optimised and are in front of the right recruiters who have the exact students that universities are seeking.”
And when it’s time to review applicants, institutions have an extra layer of certainty. The platform verifies these students through quality assurance and validation processes.
This means universities spend less time checking their cohorts’ suitability, and more time on actually enrolling students.
The 100% commission model benefits the ultimate customer in this industry—the students.
Facilitating this model reduces bias, because recruiters no longer limit course options to those that offer them the highest commissions. This is good news for universities vying for students’ attention, but it revolutionises the students’ opportunity.
Victor explains: “At the end of the day, who’s the actual customer? It’s the students. It’s someone’s daughter, or someone’s son, making one of the biggest decisions of their lives.”
“This is an opportunity to level the playing field and enable the recruiters to really excel.”
“They’re not limited by what they can offer the student anymore.”
The 100% commission model essentially provides a neutral ground for students to make a sound, life-changing decision, free from the interest of anyone else but themselves.