An ambitious new higher education course comparison site, Uni Inspect has been launched, with the aims to eventually list every undergraduate and postgraduate course in the world and make finding courses abroad much easier for prospective international students.
Founder Martin Sharples was inspired to set up the company based on his interactions with students and his own difficulties in finding a university course that suited him.
He dropped out of university twice before later graduating with first-class honours.
“We plan to cover every university and course, whether it’s English or another language”
“I was geared towards only going to local universities. I didn’t explore other options out there and only really saw universities in the UK as possible for me,” he told The PIE News.
“It motivated me to do something about this in terms of making information about studying abroad more accessible so people can compare and find out what’s right for them.”
According to UNESCO, there were approximately 5.3 million international students in 2017.
However for most students trying to find information can still be a challenge, particularly if they don’t have any family or friends in whose footsteps they can follow.
“We’re on the verge of 2020 right now and the ways that people find things is all online.
“Students love to travel and we want to give them the option to travel and study and I think that’s going to become more and more popular,” Sharples explained.
“The number of international students is going to keep on going up and up. We see what we’re doing as the future of people discovering degrees.”
Sharples said the site is self-funded and the company is currently looking for external investment.
Uni Inspect currently lists more than 500 institutions and includes every university in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as about 200 in the US.
Each listing includes entry requirements, course content, assessment structures, visa and tuition information for every degree, as well as links to universities’ websites, news feeds and social media.
“We plan to cover every university and course, whether it’s English or another language,” added Sharples.
The website is also proving popular with universities themselves interested in using it to scope out the competition.
Sharples noted internal university departments could research other university courses through the site to determine what courses they should offer in the near future.