International Agents

Picture of International Student at Flag Raising Ceremony

Picture of an International Student at Flag Raising ceremony

Dear Educational Recruiters, Advisors(EA's), and Agents,

While our job titles may be different, the task of finding competent students from around the city, county, state, province, country or world unites our mission. Northwest Missouri State University (Herein “Northwest”) works with EAs from around the world to bring qualified and interested students to Northwest. Northwest has high standards of operation and looks for partners who hold similar values. Northwest constantly looks to improve the educational environment in order to prepare students to positively engage in their living - learning environment and the global community. We hope you can send students that will succeed in this environment so we have carefully created policies designed to help you and Northwest succeed in our mission.

The policies of our recruiting efforts are conceptually undergirded by NAFSA’s Code of Ethics (found here). We insist on personally knowing each agent before we sign a contract. We do this so we can assure that EA’s business practices uphold our ethical approach to recruiting students and our contract is designed to reward agents for sending qualified students that possess the personal skills and ability to succeed in a long -term program of study. Our approach does not reward agents for sending large numbers of students for a short period of study. This approach has merits and demerits and it is up to EAs to decide whether our institution is the right choice for your business style.

Northwest does not offer exclusive contracts to any agents but we are aware of the number of agents in each geographic region and work to make sure those EAs are supported sufficiently by Northwest so they are serving that area’s and Northwest’s interests. Therefore, agents from some regions may not be invited to visit Northwest to sign a contract immediately or we may only sign contracts to send students from certain educational levels or for certain academic programs. It also means current EAs must perform sufficiently to maintain their contractual status with Northwest. Every EA is reviewed each year to determine whether they have performed sufficiently and contracts have a 3 year lifespan with renewal possible if both Northwest and the EA agree. Finally, it should be noted by all EAs that we use student feedback to enlighten our business practice. Our focus is on students and their opinions and experiences will be taken into account when decisions about EA performance are made.

Thank you for reading this page. It is designed for you. The links below have been conscientiously added to directly connect you to the people who can immediately answer your questions. Please read the administrative overview to understand our operational structure so you can ask the right questions to the responsible administrators (I.e. I do not answer Admissions questions) and use the links provided to guide you. I hope you find the resources needed to help you competently advise students interested in furthering their education.

Truly,

Dr. Jeffrey Foot, EdD
Director, International Affairs and ESL
Northwest Missouri State University

Administrative Overview

Northwest Missouri State University operates it international recruitment in a decentralized manner. This means there is not one office for admissions, I-20 production, arrivals, commission's payments, ESL, and international graduate admissions. The following chart is provided to clarify who handles each of the questions you may have. Always refer to the EA Handbook or the officer responsible for that area for exact answers.

Become a Northwest Contracted EA

We believe the best way to understand your business and for you to understand our university is through face to face meetings. Northwest enters into contracts with agents we have met personally. We do not sign contracts based solely on distance communication (E-mail, MSN Messenger, Video Chat, Telephone, or similar means of communication). Therefore, if you are interested in signing a contract then you must arrange a personal meeting in Maryville, Missouri. If you plan to travel to the USA, you can arrange this meeting through the contract request form located below.

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Contract Request Form

Northwest enters into contract agreement with EA's only after they visit the Northwest campus. Fill the contract Meeting Request Form by clicking here.

EA Handbook

Download the EA Handbook by clicking here.

Compensation overview

Students are billed for tuition and housing fees after they arrive here. Agents must not collect money for these purposes. Applicants from countries with currency restrictions may be required to submit a deposit in advance. Please see the admissions homepage for more information.

Commission payments are made twice a year; one in the late fall for summer and fall and one in the spring. A list of students will be mailed to each agent from Ms. Diana Heitman (dheitma@nwmissouri.edu) for verifying that all the information is correct. Once you reply to the e-mail a check will be produced and mailed to the address that we have on file. If any changes please let us know. Commission payments are only made for students whose accounts are not in arrears. (If a student receives a graduate assistantship that waives tuition fees, the agent commission will be based on the amount that the student would have paid for tuition.)

For consultancies with branch offices or business partners, we will make payment to the consultancy that has a signed contract. We ask that all consultancies that have branch offices or partners to collect the applications in the central office and send all applications from there to our admissions office. Please clearly indicate the consultancy name on the front of the applications. Any discrepancy in who advised the student will be dealt with by asking the student in question who their consultancy is and if that is not an entity with whom we are familiar, no reimbursement will be provided for that semester.

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