Australian universities back student-feedback benchmark for education agents

Australian universities and education providers have backed a new initiative aimed at making the quality of education agents more measurable through feedback from international students.

Called miXagent, the benchmarking initiative has been developed by the team behind miXabroad. It will collect independent and comparable feedback from international students about their experiences with education agents, covering the process from deciding to study overseas through enrolment and arrival in the destination country.

The six inaugural institutional partners are Edith Cowan University, Griffith University, Monash University, Navitas, UNSW Sydney and the University of Sydney.

The initiative seeks to address a gap in the international education sector, where institutions have limited independent and comparable evidence of how students assess the advice and support provided by recruitment agents.

Student feedback to inform agent quality

Education agents often help prospective international students understand study options, navigate application procedures and prepare for moving abroad. However, the quality of this support can be difficult to compare across institutions and recruitment partners.

Emily O’Callaghan, chief executive and co-founder of miXabroad, said the sector needed stronger evidence of the contribution made by education agents to demonstrate their value to governments, policymakers and the wider community.

The initiative aims to provide institutions with a more consistent basis for understanding student experiences, identifying areas for improvement and recognising agents that deliver strong support.

Jon Chew, chief insights officer at Navitas, said agents could influence students’ confidence and experiences well before they arrived on campus. He said miXagent could help institutions recognise good practices within their agent networks and identify opportunities to improve their partnerships.

Tim Field, director of international at the University of Sydney, said comparable insights could help institutions learn from one another rather than assess agent performance in isolation.

Initiative builds on existing quality research

MiXagent has been developed in consultation with education institutions and industry experts, including an advisory council with experience in agent quality, governance and student experience.

Its development has also drawn on input from people involved in the International Education Association of Australia’s (IEAA) Agent Quality Research Project.

The new initiative comes amid wider efforts to strengthen oversight of education agents and improve accountability in international student recruitment.

An IEAA report published in March 2026 outlined options for improving agent quality and governance in Australia, highlighting concerns about uneven enforcement and limited visibility of agent performance.

MiXagent is intended to complement existing governance and quality-assurance arrangements by adding an independent student perspective to institutional decision-making.

For participating institutions, the aim is to establish comparable measures that can help assess agent-supported student experiences and inform continuous improvement.

The initiative's longer-term contribution will depend on the evidence collected and how institutions use the findings to improve recruitment practices and student support.