AARHUS UNIVERSITY HAD AGENCY AGREEMENTS IN BANGLADESH AND NEPAL

It was not correct when Aarhus University informed the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science in August that the university had not worked systematically or specifically to attract students from the two South Asian countries, Bangladesh and Nepal.

From 2022 to 2024, the AU had agency agreements covering Bangladesh and Nepal. That was reported by the media Frihedsbrevet on 13 October. The information came to light after Frihedsbrevet requested access to AU's agency contracts. Agencies attract international students to universities in return for a fee. 

Aarhus University informs Omnibus that the university has had three agency agreements covering Bangladesh in the period 11 May 2022 to 14 January 2024 and three agency agreements covering Nepal in the period 10 January 2023 to 23 January 2024. In total, six agency agreements were made with four agencies. Three of these agencies are based in India – one of the AU's key focus areas for international recruitment – and covered several countries, while the fourth agency covered only Bangladesh. This is explained by the deputy director of AU Student Administration and Services, Anna Bak Maigaard, in a written response. 

"As we began to see the explosive development in applications from Bangladesh in 2023, the collaboration with the agents for recruitment from these countries came to an end. The fourth contract, which was valid from April 2022 for a period of one and a half years, was with an agency in Bangladesh. “We also ended that contract, as applications from Bangladesh had risen sharply in the meantime,” stated Anna Bak Maigaard.

“As we began to see the explosive development in applications from Bangladesh in 2023, the collaboration with the agents for recruitment from these countries came to an end.”

AU has received a total of eight students from Bangladesh and Nepal through the contracts with the four agencies. Six students from Bangladesh and two students from Nepal. According to the AU Student Administration and Services, the agents received approximately 14,000 euros for the recruitment. This corresponds to DKK 104,000.

AU STUDENT ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES DIDN’T CONSIDER THE AGREEMENTS AS RELEVANT TO INCLUDE

On 2 October, AU corrected its original reply to the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science in the memo published by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science on 21 August. In the memo, the Danish universities answered a number of questions about the admission of students from Bangladesh and Nepal. It now appears that AU had agency agreements covering Bangladesh and Nepal.

When asked whether the university itself has "actively done something to attract more students from third countries, including from Bangladesh and Nepal", AU initially responded in August: 

"Overall, AU has not worked systematically or specifically to attract students from either Bangladesh or Nepal."  

Why do you only inform the ministry about the agency agreements on 2 October, after having given them a different answer in August?

"We received a request from Frihedsbrevet for insight into agency contracts, including the contracts we have ended. It was in connection with the response to that question that we at AU Student Administration and Services became aware that the relevant contracts should’ve been mentioned in the original reply to the agency this summer. Therefore, we will of course immediately inform the agency and provide a satisfactory response," says Anna Bak Maigaard in a written response. 

In May 2023, when the explosive number of applications for AU's Master's degree programmes from Bangladesh first appeared, AU told Omnibus that it was not due to a targeted campaign by the university. 

That wasn't correct, was it? 

"As we have explained to both the agency and Frihedsbrevet, the debate was based on the many hundreds of unsolicited applications we suddenly received from Bangladesh. In this context, these relatively small contracts, where we have recruited eight students over two to three years, haven’t played a role. We did not intend to hide that we had the agreements, not even in 2023 – we simply did not consider them relevant to include in this context,” Anna Bak Maigaard says.

“We did not intend to hide that we had the agreements, not even in 2023 – we simply did not consider them relevant to include in this context”

Does the AU regret having these agency agreements in Bangladesh and Nepal?

“AU is an international university, and therefore, we are also active in various ways when it comes to recruitment. Back in 2022, we had no indications – neither professionally nor in terms of numbers – that there would be a problem with applicants from Bangladesh, nor was there any political reluctance specifically against recruitment from here. We saw a value in investing part of the tuition fee paid by the students in extra quality assurance by a local agent who helps to align expectations and screen the candidates. For good reasons, we cannot provide insight into individual students' courses of study, but generally, we have good experiences with the relatively few students recruited through agents. We closely followed the trends in application numbers and ended the collaboration specifically aimed at Nepal and Bangladesh as the contracts expired, once we saw the marked increase in applicants,” Anna Bak Maigaard stated.

In the report "Investigation of Students in Higher Education from Bangladesh and Nepal (in Danish)", published by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science in August, based on the aforementioned memo, it is still stated that AU responded that the university had not worked systematically to attract more applicants from either Bangladesh or Nepal.

This text was machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen