ABSTRACT

There is an increasing reliance on international education agents for student recruitment in Higher Education (HE), but the governance of education agents is under-researched. This study explores contractual governance approaches adopted by HE institutions for managing international education agents in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis of survey data from HE managers was undertaken involving contractual specificity, coordination, within-contract monitoring, relational contractual governance, market power and number of agents used. It produces a typology of four archetypes: strategic hybrids, pragmatic operators, flexible friends and laissez faire operators. The study reveals that, while the laissez faire approach is a path to failure regardless of the number of agents used and market power, there is no ‘one-size fits all’ linear contractual governance solution to agency problems and the achievement of results. The findings enable HE managers to better understand their agent management choices and associated outcomes.

摘要

高等教育 (HE) 学生招生越来越依赖国际教育代理，但对教育代理的治理研究不足。本研究探讨了高等教育机构在美国、英国和澳大利亚管理国际教育代理时采用的合同治理方法。对来自高等教育管理者的调查数据进行了模糊集定性比较分析，涉及合同特异性、协调、合同内监控、关系合同治理、市场力量和使用的代理人数量。它产生了四种原型的类型：战略混合型、务实的经营者、灵活的朋友和自由放任的经营者. 研究表明，尽管无论使用的代理人数量和市场力量如何，自由放任的方法都是一条失败的道路，但对于代理问题和结果的实现，没有“一刀切”的线性合同治理解决方案。调查结果使 HE 经理能够更好地了解他们的代理管理选择和相关结果。