John Molony, Vice-President of QS, talks to The PIE News about the company’s move into student placement – partnering with agencies and organising direct-to-student events in the UK under its new brand, QS Advance.
The PIE: Why has QS decided to develop QS Advance?
JM: “Well QS has been around for 20 years now in the international higher ed space. What we do primarily is in the early stages of the students journey to a study destination. So we’re there at the point when they do their research through our rankings and when they make initial contact with us through our website or events. My background is 20 years in Australian universities running large international student programmes so I’m used to dealing with agents, and I thought there was an opportunity here at QS to extend what we’ve done very well, what we’re a world leader in, beyond the initial point and take students much further in the journey towards a university.”
The PIE: So will you partner with other agencies, apart from Global Reach in India, which you have already set up a partnership with?:
JM: “We’re a global brand so our ambitions are to provide a recruitment service that extends globally. But in these initital stages we want to get the model right, and there are two options that we’re exploring: one, here in the UK initially, where we provide the whole [recruitment] service ourslves and we’re getting a very strong response from institutions to that offering.”
The PIE: Where is this interest coming from for British students?
JM: “From Australian institutions, New Zealand, Canadian, those in the USA and Europe. So, from far and wide – they all like the idea of the diversity that British students on campus would bring to their institutions and they think the time is right now where they might be able to recruit some British students.”
The PIE: And in terms of working with established agencies?
JM: “The other model is when we form a partnership, a deeply-embedded partnership with a trusted partner on an exclusive basis. This model from our point of view has to be all about quality assurance. I know from the institution’s point of view that finding a trusted partner in country who’s going to represent you appropriately is not always easy. So we want to navigate that space. We want to use our experience over many years of working with agents, in my case, and find trusted partners, partners that are going to deliver the highest quality of experience for the students and represent the institutions appropriately.”
The PIE: How will you manage this if you don’t know the company personally – as is the case with Global Reach?
JM: “Accreditation under the AIRC is something that we certainly may look for. Beyond that we want to see a track record, a history – we would look at references – but we would want to see a track record where an agent has performed at the highest levels of integrity and quality over a long period of time and we would be looking for endorsement from institutions in that case.”
The PIE: Where is QS best known?
JM: “We have a very strong presence in Asia, we’re well known here in the UK and increasingly so in North America and Europe, and we have a presence in Latin America, but I think we are probably best known in Asia currently.”
The PIE: Are there particular source countries in which institutions are interested?
JM:”We’ve all seen the OECD data and the growth of internationally mobile students – it’s a modern phenomenon; it’s a mega-trend, and all the predictions are it will only continue to grow. So if we’re at 3.5 million in international mobile students now, the prediction is that in a little over 10 years time, it will be more than double that. And the mobility is starting to take different forms. It’s not simply a migration from the developing world to the developed world. There’s movement within the developing world and of course the middle classes that are emerging in China and India and places like that.. it’s all happening at pace.”
“We’ve all seen the OECD data and the growth of internationally mobile students – it’s a modern phenomenon; it’s a mega-trend”
The PIE: How are your plans progressing for your events in the UK?
JM: “Well certainly the institutions are expressing strong interest in it. We’re testing the market and we’ll be running major education events here in London in October and we expect very good attendance there. We’re also realistic. The mobility of UK students on international standards is relatively modest so while we’re anticpating some growth there, we’re also realistic it’s not going to turn into a flood of students moving abroad.”
The PIE: How does QS earn revenue – will you charge students?
JM: Because we are working globally there are different models, so among agents in China, for example, it’s common that some service charges are applied directly to the student and that’s justified in the sense of the very elaborate processing in getting a student visa, and all the preparation that ges into that. The market understands that and there is a market for that and there’s a willingness to pay. So when we eventually start offering our service in China, we would probably explore some fees that are justifiable and transparent to the students. The major model is where the commercial relationship is with the institution and the institution pay us for the services that we are providing to the students.”
The PIE: So, commission?
JM: “It need not be on a commission basis. I’m from a tradition in Australian universities where the success of Australian universities over the last 20 years in attracting international students has very much been around a success-based model where agents are the prime supply channel and a commission is paid per student. But we’re operating with institutions in the US where perhaps their model doesn’t go down that path and we’re flexible with that too.”
The PIE: Where would you like QS advance to be in five years?
JM: “The first thing that needs to be said is that we’re taking things very slowly at first and there are many components that we need to put into place before we start looking further afield. But in five years, because of our brand and the way we comunicate with the internationally mobile student audience, I think that certainly we have ambitions to be operating right around the world. To be providing a service for students in China, throughout Latin America, other parts of southeast Asia, south Asia and in fact through Europe. So it’s a grand plan that we have, but we’re taking it very cautiously in these development stages.”
