DB: IGEC is the largest education consultancy in the MENA region. We’ve got 19 offices across the region and three liaison offices in Sydney, Chicago, and very soon we will be opening in the UK.

IGEC started in 1998 in Sydney and then we came to the Middle East as a small student recruitment company. But then, especially in the last five years, IGEC has started to cover most of the activities of educational consultancy. We have over 500 partner universities and colleges around the world: we provide special and exceptional education solutions.

The PIE: How many students do you send abroad each year?

DB: Given we’re scattered throughout the Middle East, we’re sending around 4,000 students. We focus only on English-speaking countries: the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The PIE: Where’s your most popular destination?

“The trends have changed in the last two years in Saudi Arabia. Now 90% of King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP) students go to the US”

DB: Well actually, the trends have changed in the last two years. It depends on the country. Let’s talk about Saudi Arabia, which is about 50% of the MENA region. The trend used to be between the UK and Australia, but just in the last two years, politically speaking especially, the trend is now 90% of King Abdullah Scholarship Programme (KASP) students go to the US. Currently there are around 180,000 students studying in the US, so we’re talking about a huge number of students.

There are a lot of reasons – I think the first reason is that the USA has many choices: many choices of universities, college, English schools. The second reason, I would say, is political. I mean, there are very big political ties between the US and Saudi Arabia. Not to forget there are quite a few US universities in the top 10 universities in the world, and a lot in the top 100. So I would say academic excellence, also, is one reason why students go there.

The PIE: I’ve heard there’s been some concern that KASP students aren’t properly prepared for study abroad – is that something you’ve seen?

DB: Imagine a country which hasn’t sponsored any students since 1947. If I’m not wrong, the first scholarship programme was in 1927, when 14 students were sent to Egypt from Saudi Arabia. The second started in 1947, and a lot of students were sent to Arab and Islamic countries. Saudi Arabia is not an open kind of country in terms of culture, economy, or tourism.

“Saudi Arabia hasn’t sponsored any students since 1947. So imagine when King Abdullah released the decree that started KASP in 2005 – it’s a big change”

So imagine when King Abdullah released the decree that started KASP – the biggest sponsorship programme in history –  in May 2005. It’s a big change. It’s a very conservative country. So even the education background – in terms of the students’ English fluency – was really very low compared with Jordan or Dubai, for example.

So when they started in 2005, they – not failed, but they stumbled. It was really a culture shock and an educational shock, to be honest. And IGEC was the first education consultancy to work with the Ministry of Higher Education.

The PIE: So what was IGEC’s role in KASP?

DB: We helped them a lot in recruiting and placing students for maybe three years since the start of the programme. It was new to them – they didn’t even know what recruitment meant. So the first couple of years of the programme, IGEC worked very closely with the Ministry, and I wish to say that we were one of the factors to make this programme successful.

The PIE: So have things changed since then?