Mesud Yilmaz is director of Turkey’s Atlas Private Educational Service and member of the board at UED, a major agency association in the country. The PIE caught up with him to find out more about Turkey’s growing market…
The PIE: What is the Atlas agency’s remit?
MY: Atlas was founded 23 years ago, with the sole purpose of recruiting students to international institutions. We mainly work with the UK, USA and Australia. We have eight offices in Turkey, one in London and one in Sydney. These are both overseas offices, but also onshore offices, so in London we recruit Turkish students in the UK to UK institutions. We deal with around 2,000 adult students per year. We also organise student recruitment fairs in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Morocco to help our partner institutions meet students.
The PIE: What is Atlas up to at the moment?
MY: In 2011 we opened three new branch offices in Bursa and Konya (Turkey), and Baku (Azerbaijan). In 2012, we have plans to expand to Northern Iraq. The numbers there are slightly increasing due to the strong economy.
The PIE: How is the Turkish market looking at the moment?
MY: The number of students going abroad is increasing, and the numbers coming to Turkey to study is increasing as well. It’s a two way thing. Turkey is the eighth biggest provider of international students globally – it’s the 11th biggest EFL source for the USA, and the fourth for the UK. So it’s a huge market, and with the improving economy, the numbers are going to keep growing because it’s more affordable now.
The other trend is that the number of weeks Turkish students are studying abroad is reducing. We have more short-term students now. This is because the government is investing a lot to teach EFL in Turkey – it’s not at the desired point yet, but we can see the improvement. So students are going abroad to practise more. In the past we had more students at beginner or intermediate level. Now we have more higher level students who require less time abroad.
The PIE: What are the opportunities and threats in the market?
MY: The economy is strong, the Turkish currency is also strong. The population is very young, the youngest in Europe, meaning huge potential. And the government is stable. These are all opportunities. When it comes to threats, if we have some economic uncertainty the number of students could go down. Visas restrictions could also be a problem. The UK is actually doing very well, Turkish rejections are very low. But Australia is much stricter than it was two years ago, and the number of Turks going there has dropped almost 50%.
The PIE: What is your advice to foreign providers looking to enter the Turkish market right now?
“Turkey is a very ‘last minute’ market”
MY: Forming a good agency network is important; they need to find the right agencies. They should talk to people and see which agencies would be best for them. But branding is the most important thing, because Turkey is not a new market and it’s very competitive. They should come to fairs, meet students’ families and train their counsellors well. If they are entering the market for the first time, incentives for agents and students can be useful, discounts or scholarships for example. New players should invest a little bit; and for older players, already in the market, they should keep investing.
The PIE: What are the classic mistakes foreign operators make? [more>>]
MY: They sometimes put all of their eggs in one basket. They only work with one agency, relying too much on it. They are sometimes not flexible enough as well, big companies in particular. Turkey is a very ‘last minute’ market, where students book courses and accommodation at the last minute. If companies are too strict with bookings they will have a problem. It’s the same with visas; if they have strict cancellation policies they will lose enrolments, because students don’t want to lose money on visa rejections which are not their fault. Again schools should be flexible. In the long-term it will be to their advantage.
Operators should also care about student satisfaction. They should listen to students, because Turkish students like to talk to each other and to schools’ alumni. Word of mouth recommendation is very important.
The PIE: Is Turkey moving towards a position where agents are properly represented? Previous UED surveys have shown that not all students understand or trust agents.
MY: I think so. UED is an only official agency association and authorised by the government. They are very strict with their members, they are a good reference for the quality of the agents a school will be working with. I think students do trust agents in Turkey. In fact, they trust us more than they trust the schools. They prefer to make payments through us, for example. They’d rather go through a local contact than make a direct booking.
Yilmaz speaking at the recent English UK event
There are very old agencies in Turkey too which have been in the industry for up to 25 years. They are very well known, and students go to them not only for help in the admission process but for guidance – to be counselled regarding which course would be best for them, which country, town and school. They also want to schedule their overall programme – to find out for how long they should study language, and when they should apply for higher education. It’s the whole package, with visas, flights, airport pick-ups. And as you know, this service is free of charge. The only income for agencies is the commission they receive from the school.
The PIE: There have been recent rumours that Kaplan is going to begin direct recruitment in Turkey…
MY: We are at the first stage of responding to this, and right now agencies are just taking to each other. Some say we should stop working with this provider. Others that we cannot afford to because they have very good programmes, such as SAT preparation in the USA, where there are very few other options. Others say let’s reduce the numbers to these programmes… So there is a lot of talk and this thing is going to get bigger. At the end of the day we don’t know what will happen.
My agencies have been in very good contact with Kaplan for many years, and we are one of their top agencies in Turkey, if not the top. We have an agreement with them for this year and we will honour it and keep on promoting them, but for now we must watch things and see where what happens.
On the other hand, I think this is business; any school has got the right to begin direct recruitment in any country; that’s their choice. But it is our choice with whom we want to work with. For the time being I don’t see it as a threat, but if I see Kaplan competing with us, of course I am responsible for my business with 50 people working for me, so we will have to act. From Kaplan’s point of view, again it is a business decision, and if they think this could be a better investment financially than paying commission they should go for it.
