A new company based in Australia is bidding to streamline international tuition fee and commission payments, and make the process more affordable.
The Qualy platform – created by former EducationLink founder and product specialist at ApplyBoard and then Edvisor, Raphael Arias – allows schools to send digital payment reminders, collect payments and send agents’ commissions in real-time.
While many software systems and portals help students and colleges manage enrolment, students are “often confused in regards to the best way to pay and were being pushed and pulled by both the school and agency to pay them directly”, Arias said of the reason for launching the company.
Previously, receiving payment from students has mostly been a task for an expensive back-office team that would complete the process manually, Qualy maintained.
With no live data shared between schools and agencies, students were commonly chased for payment by one side, when they had already paid to the other side who had not informed their partner.
“This created an even worse student experience,” Arias told The PIE.
Qualy is hoping to help schools and agencies save time on administration work.
The company also noted that transparency and safety in payments is especially required “with the rise in usage of sub-agents, and the potential pitfalls and dangers of the practice”.
With students not always aware whether their agent is working directly with a college or if they are using a sub-agent, money paid “may become a risk, as it’s not accounted for by the school, nor the master agent”.
The platform also clarifies to schools if a commission is payable or not, and simplifies the net payment sending practice where agents withhold their commission and send the remaining amount to the college, which Qualy says is “prone to error, and hard to reconcile within accounting softwares”.
The payment engine provides a range of payment methods for students, and can automatically split payments and transfers funds to the school and agency.
It charges a small fee for each transaction and a monthly platform access fee.
Since its launch, Qualy has been working with selected schools and agencies, allowing the company to gather feedback and add features.
“This solution will provide an opportunity for schools and agencies to work more productively on their relationships”
“We are currently taking expressions of interest from more schools and agencies that want to begin using the platform. Alongside this, we are in discussions with existing student management systems and agency systems who are looking to provide more value to their existing users,” Arias explained.
An FX solution designed to power student payments and school and agency payouts in any currency is launching soon.
“As well as bringing transparency to payments, we know that this solution will provide an opportunity for schools and agencies to work more productively on their relationships,” Arias told The PIE.
“Instead of spending so much time chasing payments and invoices, our users are now able to spend that time planning new strategies to grow their organisations together. And most importantly, to provide an even better, more personal student experience, they are the sole reason we are all here.”
