South Korea-based student recruitment company, iae Global, has earmarked Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia as markets offering significant opportunity for growth of its student counselling and placement business.
The company’s group director of business development has told The PIE News that it is initially researching opportunities in Vietnam to open an agency operation there.
“Whether that’s an acquisition, a JV partnership or a greenfield [venture], we are just doing some research on that market,” said Mark Lucas, in an interview.
“The schools deliver the education and the agents are looking after the students, with very personalised services 24/7”
Following a significant investment into the company by Japanese PE firm, New Horizon Capital, iae Global plans to expand its operations regionally, building on its successful track record of counselling and sending students overseas to study.
Lucas talked about the success of the iae model which includes an onshore office in various study destinations, which can offer end-to-end services for students travelling overseas.
“I think we probably deal with more human issues, because at universities, if you’ve got 50,000 students, it’s kind of hard to have that personal relationship,” he said. “Our success is based on servicing the needs of students and that can be anything such as ‘I lost my passport, what do I do’.”
First established in 1992 in Seoul, iae global has expanded to 39 international branch recruitment offices in 15 countries.
The company was set up by OJ Kim, who spoke with The PIE News in 2013. He said then, “Nowadays, the agents are more like guardians or an insurance company for their students. The schools deliver the education and the agents are looking after the students, with very personalised services 24/7.”
Lucas also acknowledged that the education interests’ of largely Asian students is becoming more advanced.
“We’ve moved in the last 10 years from predominantly language and some pathway providers in most of the markets we’re in,” he said. “Especially in Australia to universities and pathway. English is the enabling course now rather than the primary course for a lot of our countries.”
Read the full interview here.
