A company that specialises in bringing international students to the UK to study, SI-UK already has an established presence in Japan, Thailand, India, Nigeria, China and the UK, and it has announced it is planning to open new offices in Ankara, Turkey as well as Abuja and Port Hartcourt in Nigeria.

A stated ambition is also to become one of the largest student counselling and placement agencies in Thailand, having made headway there since opening in Bangkok just over a year ago.

“We have managed two large scale exhibitions [in Thailand], of 85 and 62 institutions, the former being the largest event held by a private agency,” explained Dwayne Gallagher, a director at SI-UK.

He added: “Despite working within a market with over 250 well established registered agents, we will likely process the fourth largest number of applications to top UK universities this year of all agents.

“We plan to have between 18-20% of the entire UK higher education market by 2017, putting us in the number two or three position.”

SI-UK started in Japan and quickly established offices in the UK, enabling a outbound and inbound service for international students, before opening in other countries.

The onshore offices in the UK also organise events for the significant onshore student population of international students considering the next step in their academic career while already in the UK.

Last month, SI-UK held its largest springtime UK university fair in London, which allowed international students to meet and speak with university representatives from across the country. The fair was attended by 1380 visitors from 98 different nationalities.

“We will likely process the fourth largest number of applications to top UK universities this year of all agents”

“We had a very successful event. More students turned up for the event than last year,” said Robert Money from SI-UK. He added, “Our November fair is always the most well attended because students are still in line for applying for undergraduate study for the next year.”

“Universities were very happy with the quality and the quantity of the students, and our business has picked up very rapidly since then, so all round good.”

The most typical nationality in attendance was India, Bangladesh or Pakistan. Italy also represented 9% of the event’s visitors.

SI-UK now has plans to host university fairs in other European countries, including Italy and Spain, which it hopes will happen in September.