RAISING THEIR GAME
36 | THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE #26
“The agent
association was
actually housed within
the Australian High
Commission for the
first several years
Paolo Barilari is president of FELCA,
which unites association members
across 14 countries
The legitimacy of codes of conduct are strengthened
when, in some cases, associations join together to form
federations such as the Federation of Education and Langu-age
Consultant Associations.
FELCA’s strength lies in the way it unites association
members across borders. Conditions of membership are
applicable to associations in all sorts of countries and
cultural contexts – they request that members comply with
national laws and regulations, that they act in the main
interest of students and clients and provide objective, ethical
advice and give ongoing service and assistance to students
throughout their stay abroad.
But despite all the weight of large memberships and
stringent vetting procedures, these codes of conduct are
only able to go so far. They are, after all, voluntary. It is the
role of consumer rights laws that ultimately protect students
and providers from bad practice.
However, association codes are sometimes used by
regulators who seek to understand the nuances of the agent
sector, as Julia Richter, managing director of German as-sociation
FDSV, points out.
“Our regulations were actually the base of the European
standards, many years ago, when we together with France
and Italy and all other European countries decided to esta-blish
a European standard for language travel.
“So basically our FDSV regulations and guidelines were
more or less already the same as the EN14804 regulations,
but what we have done is get even closer so that we can say
our FDSV guidelines are equal to the European standards
for language travel.”
The same is true in Australia, where in 2016, IEAA led
the development of a national code of ethics for agents –
on behalf of the Australian Government’s Department of
Education and Training. This code is now embedded in the
country’s Education Services for Overseas Students Act,
meaning that when agents sign agreements with providers
they have to say that they understand and abide by that code
of ethics.
Australia is an example of a country where government
has a close relationship with associations, and where they
are involved in the decision making around the ethical codes
that govern members.
Ravi Lochan Singh, president of the Association of
Australian Education Representatives in India, explains that
his organisation started in 1996 as an initiative led by the
Australian government to create a self-regulating agent body
in the subcontinent.
“The Australian Department of Education took the lead
and the agent association was actually housed within the
Australian High Commission for the first several years and
even today our meetings are regularly attended by the
Australian government’s Department of Education, Depart-ment
of Home Affairs, and the Department of Trade,” says
Lochan Singh.
Associations don’t only play their part in setting the rules,
they can offer members training to help make sure they are
following them.
“That was brought in last year, although we are still rolling
that out to agents, as a lot of them signed it and said ‘yes
we understand it’, but had never actually read it,” admits
Parsonson of ISEAA.
“So we do a whole training around that, and what agents’
responsibilities are in response to the provider and the
student and we make them much more aware that student
welfare is extremely high on the scale of things.”
PHOTO: FELCA