Higher education in the United States has long been attractive to international students, and universities have historically been able to attract those students on little more than name and reputation alone. However, as smaller, less well-known institutions seek to increase their recruiting efforts abroad the name-brand approach has become less viable, especially in the face of increased competition from a growing crop of education-destination countries around the world. As a result, a steadily increasing number of U.S. colleges and universities are employing — or looking to employ — the services of commission-based, in-country recruiting agents, a practice that has, until now, been viewed with considerable skepticism.

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Two months have passed since the Caribbean nation of Haiti was ravaged by a massive earthquake. The disaster took the lives of more than 250,000 Haitians and caused an estimated $8-$14 billion in physical damage, according to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The IDB has deemed the earthquake and its aftermath the “most destructive natural disaster in modern times.” The chaos that descended upon Haiti gripped the attention of international news media and the international community, helping to mount an unprecedented fundraising effort that garnered hundreds of millions of dollars for the relief effort. And yet, in the wake of the short-term rescue efforts, and as Haiti begins to fade from the media spotlight, the most important issue tied to the country’s long-term reconstruction remains largely untouched: Haiti’s education system.

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