Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 25, 2022 - May 1, 2022

When we think about studying abroad and settling down or working in that country after graduating, academic institutions in the UK, the US, Australia and Canada come to mind. 

However, in the last couple of years, Asian students have been showing interest in pursuing higher education closer to home, in countries such as Japan, South Korea and China. Flying Chalks CEO Melvin Lee tells Digital Edge that this is caused by factors such as the increasing geopolitical tensions between the US and China, which saw sudden changes in immigration policies, and Asia’s strong economic growth and much-improved education system. Flying Chalks is a Singapore-based company that specialises in helping students study abroad.

Another reason is Covid-19, as Asian countries put greater importance on ensuring public safety and healthcare, while the western world values freedom more than public health.

“There have also been cases of racist attacks against Asians in the west as well. This also decreases the attractiveness and safety of the west, steering parents to look to Asia,” Lee says.

“Korea is our most important study destination right now. Universities in China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore have also been rising in global rankings, making it to the top 100 universities in the world.”

Demand for long-term study is gaining traction now as economies ease Covid-19 protocols. Lee says students who started their studies online at foreign institutions can now travel to the respective countries while those who have been contemplating whether to study abroad have greater confidence and face fewer barriers to do so. 

“The benefits and experience of studying abroad are irreplaceable for most and any news regarding borders reopening will quickly translate to an increase in demand. 

“For example, when South Korea announced vaccinated travel lanes and eliminated the need for quarantine, and Japan announced the reopening of its borders, we saw a 40% increase in enquiries from students about university admissions in both countries compared to the July to October period last year,” says Lee.

“Competition for admission into schools and demand for short-term courses will be much higher. Hence, parents and students should start planning and making their decisions as early as possible,” he adds.

Meanwhile, short-term study and study camps saw a dip in demand last year compared with long-term study programmes. Before the pandemic, it made sense to travel a few weeks for study, but since quarantine restrictions had been put in place, it was not a viable and economic option.

Many students travelled overseas for one semester of their course or for seasonal language camps. Lee shares that summer and winter camps are popular among non-native English speakers who go to other countries to learn English.

With restrictions being eased for vaccinated travellers, there has been a rise in enquiries for short-term courses this year. More educational institutions are starting to provide short-term courses again and Flying Chalks is working with them to offer summer camps and language programmes in Dubai, the UK and South Korea. 

“[The number of enrolments] is still a far cry from pre-Covid times. This is primarily due to the fact that the borders of many countries have just reopened and there is still uncertainty surrounding details of these reopening and the pre-departure processes, which adds to costs.

“However, we are confident that should countries keep the current pace of reopening, the demand for such short-term courses will see an exponential increase in a few months’ time,” says Lee.

Due to the increased focus on Asian study destinations, Lee says Flying Chalks is looking to set up an office in Japan as students face a lot of difficulties due to the language barrier and cultural differences. 

Using tech to facilitate studying abroad

Lee set up Flying Chalks to simplify the process of studying overseas after facing many difficulties before being able to pursue an exchange programme in South Korea. Everything from the visa application to getting accommodation proved to be a challenge as all the applications were on different platforms and managed by different organisations, resulting in a very fragmented and irksome experience.

Upon returning home, Lee learnt how agents facilitated students’ preparations to study abroad and was shocked to discover that their processes had remained manual for decades. Most agents employed little to no technology in helping their students and typically relied on basic software like Microsoft Excel while communication was done via email, calls, messages or in-person consultations.

As for the agencies, most of their websites served as nothing more than just the sharing of their services. 

All these elements bring about many problems, the biggest one of all is the negative connotation associated with agents, who are commonly perceived as only interested in monetary gains. The lack of transparency, says Lee, is the primary reason for this perception.

“When an agent presents their school recommendations, people often wonder whether these recommendations are what is best for them or whether it is in the best interest of the agent themselves. If a particular school is going to pay them more, they might recommend it, even though it’s not the best fit for the student,” he says.

“On top of that, how familiar can one person be with all the schools and programmes in countries across the world? It’s impossible to know them all without the help of technology.”

When processes are manual, Lee says it is also prone to human error, further reinforcing the inefficiencies of the agents. “Students will not get the best support because every time they need something, they will need to refer to the agent,” he adds.

After a couple of years of researching the gaps in the ecosystem, Lee says he realised the potential technology had in making the process easier for everyone and set up Flying Chalks, a one-stop platform for students to get all the resources, services and community support they need to study abroad.

The platform aims to solve a lot of the issues students face, from the start to the end of their study abroad, from pre-departure to when they return. Once students decide on the programme they want to pursue, they can apply to the schools directly through the platform and once they get their offer letter, Flying Chalks will assist them with pre-departure preparation such as visa application, travel documents, accommodation, arrival processes and everything in between.

“We are now building a recommendation engine to recommend the best country, school and programme based on each student’s unique profile and the data that we have collected from thousands of schools and students from around the world,” says Lee.

“We have also assigned attributes to these datasets, which means that a student’s successful admission, academic qualifications, non-academic qualifications, nationality and budget will play a role in the recommendations. It even goes down to language proficiency and a student’s post-graduation plans.”

“We’re crunching all this data and building an algorithm-based system to give the best recommendations to students. This is just one example, there are many ways to automate and enhance a student’s journey,” says Lee. 

Currently, the platform — which has a community of over 15,000 students — functions like LinkedIn, where students can discover peers who are travelling to the same destination, seek advice from those who have returned from studying abroad as well as connect with local students in their destination country. Students have access to over 2,000 schools in 18 countries.

“We’re headquartered in Singapore and have branch offices in Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and Hong Kong. About two thirds of our students come from countries where we have offices but interestingly, one third of our students are coming from countries that we do not have any physical presence in,” he says.

“Our top sources outside Asia are the US and Europe. We have also helped students from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Romania and Switzerland come to Asia.”

Flying Chalks has direct partnerships with academic institutions and companies that have access to more higher learning institutions overseas. Usually, schools pay a commission for every student they receive, which is also the reason why Flying Chalks can offer its services for free.

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