America’s universities are the top destination for the world’s “best and brightest.” Easy to appreciate why. America’s universities account for 25% in the authoritative annual ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Shanghai Jiao-Tong University.

U.S. universities instruct 22% of travel-aboard students. But as a share of the entire U.S. student population, foreign students account for only 3.5%; reflecting that the U.S. is not, in relation to size, grabbing as many students as it could.

What explains they anomaly? Why aren’t more aboard students landing in the U.S.? Simple: agents, or the lack thereof.

Two-thirds of the world’s travel aboard students, and almost all of those from Asia, use “agents” to find the perfect foreign university. Half of Chinese students, for instance, have paid agents to held them find a placement in a foreign university.

In order for agents to properly do their work, they need a receptive university. American university are often not. Some believe that agents are illegal, they are not, and many fear that agents engage in unethical behavior with placing students. For instance, maybe placing students in oneupmanship with bribes for entrance into exclusive universities.

Thus, as a result, many agents place students in British, Europeans and Australian universities. Agents, though, would prefer placing students in American universities.

What explains this? Certainly not the quality of education on offer, which is often superb. One huge factor is the way that American universities shun the intermediaries whose services are used by most students wanting to study abroad. Markus Badde, the chief executive of ICEF, a student recruitment consultancy, says two-thirds of the world’s border-crossing students, and almost all of those from Asia, turn to “agents” to find a university place. But hardly any important American institution will pay intermediaries.

A survey conducted by British market-research firm i-graduate recorded that most agents would like to place students in the U.S. They ranked America as the best place for undergraduate, post graduate [for almost all studies] and MBA studies. The only other nations that out placed America were Britain, for language and foundational studies, and Australia, for vocational programs.

But the lack of a receptive response from American universities prohibits agents from connecting students with American higher-learning.

Mitch Leventhal hopes to change that. He is the founding president of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC), a new non-profit organisation, formed by a myriad of educational institutions, dedicated to making sure that America does not neglect the resource of many foreign students. The organization will employ its own agents and, to disabuse fears of unethical behavior, will train them regularly to follow proper procedures. The agency is having a trial run in Bangkok. Thus far 35 American universities have signed on and the figure is expected to be 100 soon.

AIRC scares some educators. Upon hearing about the new institution, a Asian professor reacted in horror that America will destroy Asian universities by taking even more of the “best and brightest.”