The “innovative” new service will provide “more thorough end-to-end” support to UK-bound students with advice, guidance, application and document support, along with university visits and meetings.

According to QS, it will offer a “deeper level of service and engagement” on top of its current services, as it remains “committed to empowering students to fulfil their potential by making the right educational choice for their individual needs”.

University clients will be able to access increased numbers of diverse university applicants across the globe, the partners noted.

“Our partnership with SI-UK will now enable us to offer a deeper level of service and engagement”

“Our existing services, including rankings and QS Star ratings, enable students to differentiate between the wide array of available choices, and help institutions to shine a light on their strengths,” said Nunzio Quacquarelli, CEO of QS.

“Our partnership with SI-UK will now enable us to offer a deeper level of service and engagement with students around the world, who may otherwise not be empowered to pursue attractive international study options.”

Services will be available across both QS and SI-UK, including TopUniversities.com, TopMBA.com, studyin-uk.com and SI-UK’s platform of over 25 country websites.

It will also extend to in-person at QS’s 300 higher education events worldwide and the 62 SI-UK offices in 28 countries.

In a statement to The PIE News, SI-UK said the “combined reach of SI-UK with QS creates a partnership that will give client universities the opportunity to connect with the largest number and most diverse range of international students available through any educational organisation, bar none”.

“Together, SI-UK and QS reach well over 110 million unique online visitors per year and manage 700+ events which, combined, will generate in excess of 800,000 international HE enquiries that will be looking for a good quality UK education,” the company added.

While international student mobility flows have been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, only 6% of prospective internationally mobile students have been discouraged from continuing with their plan to study overseas, QS Student Pulse surveys have revealed.

Additionally, QS highlighted that applications from non-EU students to UK universities have reportedly increased by 6%. Statistics from UCAS in February 2021 indicated non-EU applications have risen by 17%, with China and India increasing to 25,810 (+21%) and 7,820 (+25%), respectively.

QS and SI-UK added that the partnership had been launched “in light of this continued demand among international students for British higher education”.

The new partners noted that they will strive to ensure students are better supported and aware of the “changing landscape” in UK higher education as well as the “dual shocks” created by the pandemic and the UK’s departure from the Erasmus+ program.

SI-UK’s “highly experienced” 400+ counsellors successfully assisted with over 112,000 university applications to UK universities in 2020, while QS’s  flagship website and home of the QS World University Rankings – www.TopUniversities.com – was viewed 147 million times in 2020.