Ethical international student recruitment
Designed to protect institutions
Agreements, protocols and standards to protect all parties with well informed students who can make the grade.
How we work
Our Placement Promise and Briefing Protocol combined with best practice standards give all concerned peace of mind.
Because our recruitment service is designed from the top down to suit institution's risk management requirements rather than bottom up 'commission farming' we offer unusually beneficial features that you may not be used to. Please therefore feel free to ask more about how it works.
Standards
Preserving reputations
Our standard terms incorporate the London Statement, British Council Guide to Good Practice for Education Agents and UKCISA Code of Ethics. As an extra layer of protection they also include our unique 30 Point Placement Promise and 59 point Student Briefing Protocol. Furthermore about half our students are lecturers looking to relaunch their career via the UK.
Our ability to recruit higher education professionals depends on them knowing that our advice is beyond reproach and that their qualification will never be undermined by the college's or awarding body's reputation. This is why we have to vet colleges so strictly using data from regulators, inspectors, students, whistleblowers and our own mystery shoppers. Examples of reasons for blacklisting are fraud, outlier grade inflation, terms requiring less than best advice to students, withholding information needed for student briefing and Tier 4 sponsor enforcement by the Home Office. Our findings are part of the advice we give students regardless of who who have an agency with.
"In our view, we fill the knowledge gap between students and institutions. Students don’t feel confident to choose courses, get a visa and find accommodation on the one hand. On the other hand institutions can’t access the whole market of students no matter how much they spend on advertising and chasing alumni. Our task is to intermediate by bringing suitable and informed students to institutions."
Daryl Peagram, Placement director
FAQs
Commonly asked questions by institutions interested in becoming a You Imagine preferred college.
Where are we based?
We work from Southend on Sea, Essex, England. We have introducers and an interview suite in Sri Lanka, but no sub-agents so we maintain control of representations made in the UK. Students engage with us in video chats.
Which countries do we serve?
We exclusively bring Sri Lankans to the UK, using our competitive advantage with access to Sri Lankan universities and our inhouse expertise in UK immigration law.
Who are we run by?
Our placement director Daryl Peagram is an immigration paralegal who spent four years as an adviser to the Home Office. Our recruitment director Chamila Peagram is a former psychology lecturer in Sri Lanka who came to the UK to gain an MBA.
What is our market?
We specialise in bringing lecturers and students from Sri Lankan universities to the UK for postgrad courses. However, we will help anyone who wants to reboot their career, from further education upwards all the way up to professors who want a UK conversion course to increase their marketability.
How do we ensure transparency?
We tell each party who is paying whom to do what. We give evidenced best advice to students regardless of which institutions we have agencies with, although students tend to prefer colleges we have relationships with.
How do we stay up to date?
Our standard terms require institutions to train us in their processes, academic matters such as content, industry connection and required experience, accommodation matters such as deposits and guarantors, and employability matters such as market supply, careers service and visa rules. We are registered with the British Council for any eligible training that comes up from time to time, and we undergo all eligible training for education agents from UKCISA, NUS, HELOA, ACA, QAA, NARIC and UCAS. We monitor hundreds of news streams from government, regulators, inspectors, colleges, trade bodies and consultants, including those in our twitter lists.
How do we safeguard vulnerable persons?
We do not represent minors.
Who is our typical student?
About half our students are lecturers. Overall the typical student is a female graduate in her late thirties. Most are mature students from age 25-45.
How do we vet students?
We sift out questionable visa and course applications through questionnaire and interview; likewise we steer students towards only what they have the money, English skills and academic ability to succeed in. We thus minimise the risk of reputational damage to us and institutions, avoid us being downgraded from gold to silver, and avoid institutions having their sponsor licence put at risk on enrollment, attendance and pass statistics.
How do we look after students?
As well as guiding students through their move to the UK we have a student counsellor who offers a pastoral helpline and visits. Another staff member is trained by MIND in mental health first aid to spot issues arising. Some parents want students to have a lot of support from us or even to live near us, in which case we warn them we need to maintain a professional distance to avoid undue influence. Such is our confidence that our students will be happy, we invite institutions to appoint an outreach manager to whom they can take any concerns.
How do we stay in our sphere of competence?
We have referral arrangements in place to send students to specialist immigration advisers, counsellors or other agents if they need something outside our norm.
How do we factor in different cultures?
We are ideally placed to help students integrate from Sri Lanka as our placement director spent six years in higher education in the UK and our recruitment director is Sri Lankan, multilingual including Sinhalese, and went through the same transition when she came to the UK for her MBA.
How do we prevent students getting wrong information?
We communicate with you in writing to avoid misunderstandings and only use the information colleges provide when briefing students on processes. We request campus visits so that we can promote institutions from first hand experience and we can even stream photos, video and reports to our website, facebook, twitter and instagram. We tell students that we are introducers not agents so we cannot bind institutions. We warn students that courses do not guarantee entry to their profession in their country, nor employment or residency in the UK
How do we work with institutions?
Colleges have a range of formality and we are happy to be relationship managed with tiers, reviews and meetings. Whilst we promote all courses, we advise colleges not to skew demand with differing requirements that would put off Sri Lankan students. Whereas in many countries contracts are seen as an optional indulgence, we are run in the UK by a paralegal who sees contracts as the service specification. We provide 24 hour response and are contactable via phone, text, email and social media, plus we can attend a sensible number of relationship management meetings. We also recommend that institutions interview agents and give us an appointment certificate to confirm we are an introducer and have authority to help students with applications.
How do we brief students?
We walk students through recruitment, admission, joining instructions, orientation and academic induction.
The recruitment briefing includes UK HE, institution profile, agent details and service standard, entry requirements, acceptance conditions, payment deadlines, deposits required and refund policies, estimated cost of living, study costs, programme details, scholarships, student support and employability.
The admissions briefing includes policies and processes, deadlines, student fee classification, fees, visas advice sources, enquiry contact, Home Office requirements exceeding institution requirements, pre-sessional courses, decision making time and contact for equivalent accreditation credit transfer.
The joining instructions briefing includes arrival protocol, safety, emergency contacts, emergency money, communications home, meet n greet, immigration control, accommodation, enrollment, induction programme, support services, banking, law, healthcare, life in the uk sources and academic preparation sources.
The orientation briefing includes settling in, campus societies, culture shock, welfare services, buddying, academic support and immigration signposting.
The academic induction, like some of the other stages, is often handled by the institution, but we expect it to include learning and teaching methods, assessment methods, criteria for assessment, grading and classification, feedback on assessment, academic practice and malpractice, expectations as active and independent learners, tutors and tutorials, rules and regulations, complaints and appeals procedures, and opportunities for student representation and feedback.
We are always happy to discuss or meet to explore how our unique service works.