Student Welfare
The welfare of potential and actual applicants should remain an important consideration throughout recruitment and admission activities.
Higher Education
ACISC promotes high standards of ethical practice and professional behaviour in the recruitment and admission of students into higher-education institutions.
These principles provide a framework for member institutions to promote clear information, responsible recruitment, non-discrimination, appropriate student support, and integrity in their relationships with students and third parties.
Purpose & Responsibility
Recruitment and admission activities can have a significant effect on students and families as they make important decisions about higher education. Institutions therefore have a responsibility to ensure that information, communications, representatives, and recruitment practices are handled appropriately.
ACISC member institutions are expected to apply these principles across their recruitment and admission activities and to recognise their responsibility for individuals who act on their behalf or represent them in these activities.
The welfare of potential and actual applicants should remain an important consideration throughout recruitment and admission activities.
Institutions and their representatives should conduct recruitment and admission activities with integrity, transparency, professionalism, and respect.
Students should have access to clear, accurate, relevant information that enables them to make informed academic decisions.
01 — Publications, Marketing & Promotion
Promotional materials used with students should provide a truthful and useful representation of the institution, its educational programmes, and the services available to students.
Institutions should ensure that information is reviewed regularly and remains consistent across relevant print and electronic communications.
Promotional materials should be clear, accurate, and up to date. They should not contain false, incomplete, or misleading information about programmes, services, or institutional offerings.
Electronic and print materials should be reviewed frequently so that information remains consistent and objectively reflects the programmes and opportunities actually offered by the institution.
Information should provide students with relevant and pertinent details so that individuals who may be unfamiliar with higher-education practices in a particular country can make informed academic judgments.
Institutions should make it clear how students can verify information and where they can obtain additional information when they need clarification.
02 — Third-Party Recruitment
Institutions that use agents, third parties, individuals, or organisations in recruitment activities have a responsibility to ensure that those representatives operate in accordance with appropriate ethical standards.
Member institutions should contract only with agents, third parties, individuals, or organisations whose practices and behaviour conform to the applicable ACISC Code of Ethics.
Institutions using third parties should provide them with a copy of the ACISC Guiding Principles and Code of Ethics so that expectations are clear.
Institutions should maintain transparency, accountability, and integrity in relationships between the institution, the student, and any third party involved in recruitment.
Third-Party Expectations
Using a third party does not remove the institution’s responsibility for the recruitment activities undertaken on its behalf. Appropriate oversight helps institutions maintain ethical standards and protect students.
Give contracted third parties access to the ACISC Guiding Principles and Code of Ethics.
Ensure that third-party practices maintain transparency and integrity in relationships with prospective and actual students.
Third parties engaged under these principles should not accept payment from students or their families for recruitment activities.
Institutions should monitor third-party practices to ensure continued adherence to the applicable principles and Code of Ethics.
03 — Non-Discrimination
Member institutions should not discriminate in recruitment or admission on the prohibited grounds identified in the current ACISC principles and should work to understand and protect the civil and human rights of individuals.
The current principles identify race, colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, political opinion, and disability among the grounds on which member institutions will not discriminate.
Institutions should maintain a high degree of multicultural awareness and understand the diverse backgrounds and perspectives represented within their student communities.
Institutions should understand and adhere to applicable laws and statutes concerning non-discrimination in the jurisdictions in which they operate.
Institutions should periodically review practices, procedures, and actual results to help determine whether discriminatory practices have occurred or are occurring.
04 — Institutional Policies & Programmes
Member institutions should establish appropriate policies governing international student recruitment, admissions, support activities, specialised programmes, and curricula.
Policies and programmes dealing with students should be documented and should clearly describe the relevant institutional arrangements.
Institutional policies should address relevant aspects of recruitment and admission so that responsibilities and procedures are clearly understood.
Where applicable, institutional policies should clearly address financial-aid arrangements and provide relevant information to students.
Policies should address appropriate student-support activities and help ensure that students receive the information and support needed during their transition into a new educational and cultural environment.
Institutional Transparency
Policies dealing with recruitment, admission, financial aid, student support, specialised programmes, and curricula should be sufficiently clear and accessible to relevant individuals working on behalf of the institution.
The current principles specifically identify volunteers and third parties acting on behalf of an institution as individuals who should be able to review relevant institutional policies and programmes.
Relevant representatives should understand their responsibilities when communicating with prospective students and families.
Those representing an institution should work from current institutional information and communicate consistently with approved policies and programmes.
Appropriate information and support should help students transition into a new educational and cultural environment.
A Practical Framework
The principles can be used as a practical point of review when institutions examine their recruitment, admission, communications, and student-support practices.
Do promotional materials objectively and truthfully describe our programmes, services, and institutional offerings?
Can prospective students obtain candid information that enables them to make informed academic decisions?
Do agents and third parties understand our expectations and operate consistently with applicable ethical standards?
Do we regularly review recruitment and admission practices and their outcomes for potential discrimination?
Can relevant representatives review the institutional policies that govern recruitment, admission, financial aid, and student support?
Do our information and support arrangements help students transition successfully into a new educational and cultural environment?
Related Ethical Standards
Ethical recruitment and admission form part of a wider institutional responsibility for integrity, student welfare, professional conduct, and responsible international education.
Explore ACISC’s wider expectations concerning professional conduct and ethical practice.
Learn more about ACISC membership for eligible higher-education institutions.
Explore resources supporting connections between students, guidance professionals, and higher-education institutions.
Explore ACISC services supporting relationships between higher-education institutions and international schools.
Review information concerning mental health and well-being in higher-education environments.
Explore the wider ACISC framework for international education, institutional quality, and continuous improvement.
Clear information, ethical recruitment, non-discrimination, institutional accountability, and appropriate student support help create a more responsible higher-education environment.