ABSTRACT
This chapter explores education consultants and their roles in international higher education. Education consultants help middle-class and upper-class families’ children make college choices and preparations within the broader global higher education environment. As an increasingly prevalent entity within global higher education markets, the education consultant business connects students to new channels of education and helps students construct the intention and personal significance of their foreign education. Past research has primarily focused on understanding the purpose and function of education consultants’ businesses and less on directly exploring the everyday meaning-making processes of their work. Drawing on interviews with 42 Taiwanese education consultants, this study illustrates how consultants’ businesses operate and how they understand the meaning of their professions. By their own admission, education consultants transform the complex process of studying abroad into scripted steps. The consultants also use their emotional and personal skills to transform the experience of studying abroad into the construction of positive social networks. This study argues for more visibility of the various modes of business-facilitated educational mobility channels and how they have impacted students’ admission experiences.
