US knows only 15 of 2,000 Hyderabad education consultants

Hyderabad: While there are over 2,000 overseas education consultants in the city facilitating admissions for US universities, only 15 are accredited by the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC).

These legitimate consultants facilitate admissions for top-rated universities in the US.

Meanwhile, a majority of the consultants push students towards mediocre and low profile universities to earn high commissions for each admission made.

These universities offer commissions of up to $300 for each admission while top-rated universities do not offer any commission and consultants get just a processing fee, about Rs 5,000 from each student.

AIRC is a non-profit membership association recognised by the US department of justice and the federal trade commission as a standards development organisation.

AIRC’s members include representatives from accredited US post-secondary institutions, pathway programmes, recruitment agencies, secondary schools, and non-US educational institutions.

“Most of the consulting agencies shy away from going for AIRC certification as it follows stringent norms for accreditation, besides it is expensive. They have to pay $15,000 to apply for certification which will be valid for three years. For renewal, a fee of $2,000 has to be paid every year. Besides, consultants have to follow a strict code of conduct with regard to admissions and counselling for students,” said Mr Ganesh Valmiki, CMD, Valmiki Group of Overseas Educational Consultants.

The AIRC works to safeguard the interests of both international students and enrolling institutions through the promotion of ethical, standards-based international admission strategies.