This is one of the key issues that students have when booking Spanish courses in Spain: deciding whether to book with an agent or with the school itself. To guide you, we have compiled a list of the main advantages of each option.
Agency
Objective advice
Schools themselves will always promote their own courses. However, as agencies work with a wide number of schools and receive commission from each one, they will offer an objective view of which city you should study in and in which school specifically. Language agencies have a wealth of information about each school and each specific region in Spain; you can therefore use this to help you decide.
Save money
So once you have made your decision as to which school to study in, an agency is redundant isn’t it? Isn’t it better and cheaper to book directly with the school? No, not at all! Here at UniSpain, we receive a commission from the school for each student we send, part of which we share with you, thereby reducing your fees. This is why we have our Price Guarantee– you will not find cheaper prices anywhere else!
Support in case of emergency
If you encounter any problems, or if due to unforeseen circumstances you have to rush back home, we can negotiate with the school in order to obtain a partial refund or credit vouchers. Even after the course, if there is anything that you are not satisfied with, we can discuss it with the school and try to provide you with some compensation. Over summer a student had signed up for a 12 week course with us, but due to problems they had to return to their home country after only 2 weeks. We were able to negotiate with the school and they have offered the student in question the opportunity to return and complete the remaining 10 weeks at any point over the coming year. Had the student booked directly with the school, they would not have had our help and it would have been highly unlikely of the school to offer them this. Because the schools rely on us to send them students, we as an agency have more influence over them than a single complaint from one student. Our clients’ happiness is our top priority: if we feel that too many of our clients criticise a particular school, we will not hesitate to stop working with that school- we have done so in the past.
School
Quicker response times
If you book directly with a school, response times to your queries will be faster, because as agents we often double check and confirm with the schools themselves before responding to our clients.
Updated information
The school will probably have more up-to-date information about the school, the courses and what there is to do in the city; therefore if you have any specific queries, they will know better how to answer them. Asking an agent will provide you with the same responses, however, again with a slight delay if they do not already know the information and must first ask the school.
Security
You may feel more secure by booking with and paying a school directly, as opposed to paying an agent. However, we have uploaded copies of the collaboration letters with each school we work with and if you have any further doubts, simply asking the school in question would confirm that we do indeed work with them.
So what should I do?
We are an agency; therefore it is difficult for us to be 100% objective as we will always be biased towards recommending using an agency (and especially our own!). However, if you prefer a wide range of information to help you decide on which city and school would suit you best, cheaper prices and extra support throughout the entire study abroad process, then booking with an agency is highly recommended.
In any case, if you do finally decide to book your course directly with the school after having received assistance or information from an agent then we would appreciate it if you could let us know that you decided to book directly with the school, as well as mention to the school where you heard about them. Most schools will then still pay a commission to the agency even though the client has booked directly with the school, and this will help agents to be able to continue offering their service.
