A new “ecosystem” encompassing the student application process from inquiry to graduation has been launched by a British former independent college owner who believes his idea will improve quality standards and compliance and safeguard the UK’s reputation as an education destination.
Zakaria Mahmood, also an ex-professional cricketer and management consultant, was inspired by a turbulent experience owning an independent college to create a new application system that agents and institutions can use, with an escrow account system and insurance mechanism built in that he believes will also appeal to legitimate international students, education agencies, education institutions and earn the approval of the Home Office.
Asset Management Legal And Protective Services (AMLAPS) launched this month and was born out of Mahmood’s track record focusing on operational excellence across eight industries. He previously worked in the telecoms sector before he entered education.
“As an industry, I think telecommunications accepted that there is regulation which required an intimate working relationship with Ofcom. The sector accepted that compliance was part and parcel of what we do on a day-to-day basis, ” he told The PIE News.
“When I moved into education, what I acknowledged was that the same paradigm shift was taking a bit too long, and therefore I can see why there are discrepancies between what the British government have outlined as fears around immigration and compliance and how the industry is coping around that.”
The crux of AMLAPS’ role is based in maintaining an escrow fund of tuition fees and maintenance allowance that international students pay directly into its system when they are offered a place at a UK institution.
“We’re insuring institutions against the risk of losing their Tier 4 licence or falling into financial administration”
It offers them a guarantee that their money will be safeguarded, or an alternative course of study ensured should their provider collapse, and the appeal for agencies and institutions of also working with this ecosystem is that they are also covered by an AMLAPS insurance bond, explained Mahmood.
“Every institution we take on, we insure. We’re insuring [institutions] against the risk of losing their Tier 4 licence or falling into financial administration. Students and agents across the world (Tier 4 or Student Visitor routes) needed some type of protection,” he said.
He observes that by using a system which requires a student to pay tuition and maintenance fees upfront, it means a safeguard for the institutions in the system that their students do in fact have all the money they are required to demonstrate by immigration authorities – and it is non-returnable upon visa issuance.
“I witnessed in various countries how a student would work with an agent and the agent would work with a local bank manager who happens to be his friend and he will set up a bank account in the student’s name, deposit his own money, and by lunch time, that money’s back in his pocket again. But 28 days later, a bank statement is produced, given to the student, and then apparently he’s got £9000,” said Mahmood.
In order to enter the system, students pay a protection fee ranging from £50-190 per year
Institutions and agents within the system are given a risk rating and they receive what they are due from the student’s fees over a varied timeline, depending on their perceived level of risk. Higher risk institutions receive periodic releasing of tuition fees by working with AMLAPS to ensure students are not exposed to risk.
In order to enter the system, students pay a protection fee ranging from £50-190 per year. Agents and institutions arrange their own commission agreements, and participating agents pay an annual membership fee in return for a range of support services and capacity building programmes.
Participating agents pay upfront inspection fees of £1,200 in order to begin the vetting process which leads to the system endorsing them to its university partners.
In order to be endorsed by AMLAPS, institutions must also meet a pre-established kite mark. This will allow them access to over 9,000 education agents that have already been through the first stage only of AMLAPS’s screening process.
“The industry needed a how solution, not a what solution,” stated Mahmood, claiming that an independent third body is necessary to improve trust in the sector. His company is backed by a fairly heavyweight Leadership Team, including the former Vice Chancellor of University of East London, Professor Patrick McGhee and the Director of International Programmes at London School of Economics.
“Over time we will be able to demonstrate to the market that we are not a competitor”
So far, 11 institutions have signed a contract with AMLAPS and the company anticipates closing off a further 40 over the coming months. Mahmood said that 2,500 students had used the system in its beta phase, brought into the ecosystem on the advice of education agencies that had agreed to collaborate.
Mahmood and a small team interviewed 1,200 agents in more than 27 countries over three years. As “the most potent voice in the industry”, Mahmood said he believes agents will promote the service and that “many of our leads are coming via a 9000 plus agency network”.
“Over time we will be able to demonstrate to the market that we are not a competitor,” Mahmood told The PIE News. “That in fact we unify the industry, restoring the message that used to go out to the open market that Britain does welcome international students.”
