International Education Agents 101

Converting foreign currency online and sending money to someone on the other side of the world can now be as easy as buying a morning coffee with a wave of your watch or phone. Transactions like these have become simple and routine thanks to developments in financial technology (fintech) – and are being used by education agents to streamline what can be complex transactions among the students and universities they serve. “Fintech” refers to innovative digital technologies that aim to optimize financial services and banking. Their impact can be felt in all sectors, including the education sector, particularly in terms of the way payers expect to be able to pay; expectations that have a significant impact on the overall student experience.

Leading education agents are prioritizing investments in payments-related technologies to better serve students and universities, and optimize their own businesses in a competitive environment. But navigating it all can be difficult.

To stay on the pulse of innovation, here’s how some of the biggest fintech trends are affecting education agents, and what you need to know to stay ahead.

22,000 agents globally

Trend 1: Payments are moving online

APAC, a big market for international student recruitment, is a leader in digital payments adoption and is on track to represent over 50% of global non-cash transactions by 2025, according to Capgemini’s World Payments Report. Other regions are also seeing significant payments innovation. Cross-border e-commerce and mobile payment transactions in Europe will grow 13% year over year. In the Middle East and Africa 95% of people are considering using emerging options such as wearables, biometrics, and wallets. And in LatAm, one of the fastest growing mobile markets globally where 70% of the population are underbanked, we are seeing digital payments play a big role in closing the region’s financial inclusion gap.

With the dramatic growth in awareness and use of digital payments, it’s no surprise that students and families expect convenient digital methods to pay for applications, tuition, and school expenses. According to PYMTNS.com, only 5% of millennials use paper checks to pay for education related expenses, instead preferring more digitally-focused alternatives.

For education agents and schools, adopting digital payments will help improve conversion at a crucial stage in the recruitment funnel, increasing the speed of the enrollment process whilst cutting associated costs, improving student satisfaction and the overall enrollment experience. In fact, 77% of students surveyed in our Pulse on Payments survey said that a simplified payment process would improve their higher education experience.

Digital payments also deliver important internal benefits to agents and schools by streamlining reconciliation processes, eliminating manual inefficiencies, increasing security, and providing greater visibility and control over payments.

Trend 2: Payments are becoming more flexible

Consumers expect flexible ways to pay, whether instalments, digital wallets or other options, and fintechs are working fast to deliver them. But it’s not only consumer businesses that are experiencing the demands for payment flexibility. In the education sector, payment plans are gaining popularity as a way to make tuition expenses more affordable.

In a recent survey of finance professionals at U.S. education institutions conducted by PYMNTS.com, more than 80% of university bursars said flexible payment plans tailored to individual students can be attractive alternatives to traditional payments. These offerings can be automated based on the student’s financial background and payment history. As a result, schools are limiting potential dropouts due to financial difficulties and reducing collection costs.

Students around the globe feel the same - 70% of students say that having a payment plan would make their education more affordable. To see how this works in practice, we only need to look to Brazil, where the culture of instalment payments is second nature, and students are more than comfortable to pre-pay their tuition fees via instalments over a number of months, rather than making one large lump sum payment.

Trend 4: Payments are becoming embedded in the digital customer experience

As payments go digital, the payment experience needs to become part of the overall value proposition organizations offer up front, or they risk alienating a loyal customer base. Both business and consumer customers now expect a convenient, digital payment option no matter what they are buying. It’s the logical result of an ongoing quest to make things better, faster and cheaper by minimizing friction at the point of sale, enhancing engagement, and driving operational efficiencies. Some call it embedded finance and payments, others call it payment services.

The takeaway for agents here is that a seamless payment experience is linked to a good client experience. Increasingly, agents want to recommend payment methods that reduce fees, speed settlement, and make it easier for all parties - agents, students and schools - to track payment status. Fintech offers a way to do just this.

Flywire's Agent Platform connects students with education agents and institutions to optimize the payment process.

Education agents must prioritize payment innovation

At this stage, there is a wide gap between what students and families expect from a payment experience, what agents are able to provide and what institutions are willing to prioritize. Digital payments, frictionless transaction experiences, convenient local payment options, and speed of processing are some of the key areas of opportunity for agents. Those that take advantage of these opportunities to help students and payers navigate the payment experience with secure digital options will definitely have an edge over the competition.

Want to learn more?

Check out the following resources to see why Flywire is the Trusted Choice of millions of students and thousands of education institutions and agents around the world:

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How do education agents get paid?

Nearly all (97% according to BUILA & UUKi) education agents are paid a fee, or commission, by institutions, usually upon placement and based on a percentage of a student’s first year tuition fees. Other established, but less common, payment models are retainers, a set fee for services provided regardless of the number of students placed, or a per-head rate for each student that enrolls.

Unfortunately, commission payments are often a source of frustration between institutions and their agents. This is due to a lack of clarity around how many/which students a particular agent should be paid for, and at what point in the application/enrollment process. For example, an agent may invoice for commission before a student has confirmed their enrollment; the agent’s commission invoice may relate to a number of (perhaps unidentified) students, or internal records may not correlate to the invoice figures. To prevent dissatisfaction from building up on either side, it is important that a mutually agreeable commission payment policy is developed and agreed by Finance and International Office teams . This policy should address agreement terms, invoicing processes and payment timescales.

68% of Agents do not have a CRM system or software to support commission payments

Technology - or rather a lack of technology - exacerbates existing friction in the commission payment process, for both institutions and agents. According to the ICEF’s 2022 Agent Voice report), 68% of agents do not have a CRM or software to support commission payments, and 63% use excel or other manual processes to invoice for commission payments.

Without a robust way to record, submit and validate commission payments there is room for errors (e.g. duplicated or missing payments) to occur, ample opportunity for unscrupulous “bad actors” to attempt fraud, and payment delays, all of which affect the bottom line of agents and institutions.

Education Consultants

Education consultants are generally professionals who charge a family a service fee for interviews, learning / personality assessments, and a list of school recommendations that best match selection criteria. They also facilitate school visits, and assist with application, test and interview preparation. Educational consultants are considered to be impartial because they are hired by the family and they do not accept a commission from the school after student placement.

What is the finance team’s role in the agent relationship?

While the agent relationship usually sits with the International Office, payments resulting from agent-derived applications and enrollments are processed by finance teams, and finance processes can impact agents.

Apart from the application process, payment is one of the first points of contact between students, their families and educational providers, so a smooth process is key to satisfaction. If the payment process is unclear and difficult to navigate with queries going unanswered, it can significantly impact the student’s perception of the institution.

According to the 1H22 Agent Voice report, 85% of agents said that quick responses to queries are the most valuable support institutions can provide them with the enrollment process.

When finance teams are kept on the periphery of the agent relationship, and only have limited interaction outside of payment inquiries or processing commission payments, inefficiencies and a buildup of frustrations affecting internal and external relationships can result. The student, or payer, ultimately pays the price.


Learn how institutions and agents can streamline communications and payment tracking.

How can finance work more effectively with agents?

To help international students have good study experiences, a smooth payment process is essential. This is why it is important that finance teams and agents communicate and work together effectively. Here are a few best practices to cultivate and foster solid working relationships:

Build relationships across internal departments:

As the relationship with education agents tends to sit with the international team, finance teams should connect internally to foster cross-departmental relationships and mutual understanding. This will not only help finance better understand the objectives of the international team, their recruitment strategies and agent partner mix, but will also help the international office address common issues arising from agent-initiated student recruitment, institution selection and the payment process.

Understand student demographics:

It is also useful for the finance team to understand the mix of nationalities within the institution’s international student population, get a grasp of the financial frameworks in each country, and work to minimize the complexities of making tuition payments. This way, finance teams can better anticipate issues that might occur and provide proactive solutions to help ease the payment process - and potential financial hardship - for students from those territories. Being able to anticipate financial issues and offer more flexible payment options will help improve enrollment and retention, reduce missed payments, and increase cash flow.

53% of agents would like to see more flexibility with payments/cancellation terms (ICEF Agent Voice H12022)

Meet with education agents:

Taking the time to meet with agents when they visit campus (or to participate in a visit overseas to their office location) provides an opportune moment for all relevant departments and agents to discuss the relationship, opportunities and challenges, and the “on-the-ground” impact of policies and processes that are in place. Fostering cross-departmental communication, and refining processes to work for everyone can help build a stronger, more effective partnership which delivers a superior student experience.

Provide agents with dedicated points of contact:

Education agents also benefit from having dedicated contacts from finance, admissions and other relevant teams to approach for answers to student queries, the swift resolution of which will help students more easily navigate their international education journey.

Automate more processes:

The international education ecosystem is often complex, especially as institutions look to diversify and add more regions to their recruitment efforts.In addition, finance teams seek seamless payment processes that support multiple locations to better meet the growing needs and expectations of students worldwide, while also reducing complexities to increase staff efficiencies.

ICEF reports that nearly 40% of agents in 2022 were not using a CRM to manage student information/applications, and 68% of agents were without software to support commission payments, leading to a reliance on manual processes, particularly for commission invoices. Delays and errors in commission payments, which can be a result of inaccurate data about a student’s enrollment progress, are a key frustration for both parties and could easily be solved by employing a robust solution to monitor the progress of agent-initiated student applications, enrollments and payments.

How can you provide a seamless agent-initiated enrollment process for students?

Most agents are working with many institutions, each with their own application, enrollment and payment processes that need to be communicated to students who may not have any experience of how things operate in the country they are bound for. So, the simpler a university can make a process, the better - for agents and students.

Despite ICEF reporting that 74% of agents say they are helping students with tuition fee payments, only 25% use their own third-party payment platform, or a platform recommended by an institution to facilitate these payments. The opportunity to better leverage technology to improve the student experience is vast.

Offering a simple and clear payment process preferably one that automatically reconciles payments using student information, and can be used to proactively communicate to students more easily will reap rewards in multiple areas.


As the Trusted Choice for millions of students and thousands of education institutions, agents and partners worldwide, Flywire has built a powerful global payment network to flexibly meet the diverse needs of the industry. Our Agent Platform makes it easy for institutions to better manage agent relationships, while also streamlining the payment tracking and reconciliation process for transactions processed through our network . In addition, our solution helps to eliminate short-balance payments, wire fees, and risk by:

  1. Centralizing all relevant agent and student data

  2. Securely processing and delivering payments in full

  3. Reducing unidentified transactions

  4. Automating reconciliation to save time

  5. Tracking payments in real time with transparency

With a significant proportion of agents operating without technology, institutions and agents alike need to team with proven third-party providers like Flywire to improve student experience by simplifying processes and increasing efficiency and overall data and payment accuracy.


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As the Trusted Choice for millions of students and thousands of education institutions, agents and partners worldwide, Flywire has built a powerful global payment network to flexibly meet the diverse needs of the industry. Our Agent Platform makes it easy for institutions to better manage agent relationships, while also streamlining the payment tracking and reconciliation process for transactions processed through our network . In addition, our solution helps to eliminate short-balance payments, wire fees, and risk by:

  1. Centralizing all relevant agent and student data

  2. Securely processing and delivering payments in full

  3. Reducing unidentified transactions

  4. Automating reconciliation to save time

  5. Tracking payments in real time with transparency

With a significant proportion of agents operating without technology, institutions and agents alike need to team with proven third-party providers like Flywire to improve student experience by simplifying processes and increasing efficiency and overall data and payment accuracy.

How Flywire's Agent Platform helps Annalink offer fast and secure tuition payment services

We found Flywire to be the safest and easiest method of payment for our students. The Agent Platform helps us offer tuition payment services fast and securely, making sure the institution receives the full amount. We are very confident to promote Flywire to our channels because we trust the company and are able to bring the best service to our clients.

Anna Thai Annalink OSHCstudents
Annalink OSHCstudents

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