IDP Education Looks to Reinvent the Student Placement Model by Developing a Canadian Higher Education Consortium

Never before has there been an organization like what IDP Education, the world's largest student placement firm, is looking to develop: a cooperative of Canadian colleges and universities.

Philadelphia, PA, May 18, 2011 -- IDP Education, the world’s largest student placement organisation and part-owner of IELTS, wants to stretch beyond the typical notion of an agent to represent the Canadian higher education system itself.

That was the main message to come out of a recent series of seminars conducted by the firm in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Three members of IDP’s North America team, in addition to Harmeet Pental, the regional director of South Asia, and Luna Das, IDP India’s head of North American counselling and training, met with Canadian colleges and universities over three days to discuss, among other topics, the concept of developing a countrywide international student recruitment strategy.

“Canada is such a high quality higher education destination, and the country’s institutions are very savvy at recruiting students from other countries,” says Pental. “We hope to use their collective knowledge and our global resources to establish what is in essence a combination between the comprehensiveness of an EducationUSA or the CEC, and the personal guidance and counselling of a quality student recruitment agent.”

Pental believes this will be the first time a student placement organisation has undertaken an effort to promote Canada’s higher education opportunities as a collective portfolio, representing multiple types of Canadian institutions across the various provinces.

“A technology institute in Saskatchewan offers a very different experience and is seeking a very different student than a research university in Waterloo,” says Pental. “By serving all types of learners and their individual needs and goals, we hope to be able to raise the number of quality students achieving success in Canada, just as we accomplished in Australia.”

Luna Das worked for both the CEC and EducationUSA, and is now using that knowledge to oversee IDP’s counselling. She promises that IDP will highlight all that Canada has to offer as a study destination while remaining aware and respectful of the important systematic differences among the provinces and each individual institution.

The recent seminars were an opportunity for IDP to share its philosophy, provide useful firsthand knowledge of the South Asia market, and allow current and prospective partner institutions to interact and develop relationships.

IDP Education began as a cooperative for Australia’s universities, and remains 50 percent owned by those institutions. The organisation recently expanded into the United States and works with more U.S. colleges and universities than any other international student recruitment firm.

About IDP Education
Over the last 41 years, IDP Education has become the world's largest student placement firm, operating more than 70 counselling centres in more than 20 countries and placing more than 300,000 students. It is jointly owned by 38 Australian universities and a leading online recruitment firm, and is one-third owner of the IELTS English proficiency exam with the British Council and the University of Cambridge. For more information, visit http://canada.idp.com

Over the last 41 years, IDP Education has become the world's largest student placement firm, operating more than 70 counselling centres

Contact:
Matthew Ulmer
IDP Education
1818 Market Street, Suite 1105
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-282-1885
matthew.ulmer@idp.com
http://canada.idpd.com

This release was published on openPR.