International Student Market Brings Business Opportunities to The Consulting Company
by Rita Zhang
With China’s economic has a rapid development in decades and Chinese people’s house wealth has improved, Chinese students studying abroad has become a significant tendency in contemporary Chinese society. According to data, the United Kingdom has become a popular destination for Chinese students. Asking study advices from education consulting company has become a commonplace for Chinese people to preparing study in other countries. This phenomenon has brought enormous of opportunities to education consulting companies.
With the development of China’s economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, many families are willing to spend money on their children’s education. In particular, sending children to studying abroad is one of their options for taking well to their children which become a significant tendency in Chinese society.
According to research from China Daily, in recent years, the United Kingdom has become a very popular destination for Chinese students who seek to obtain an academic degree outside China. The high quality education of Britain’s university and a good relationship between Britain and China are two important factors to influence decision making of these Chinese students.
The British education environment and the academic atmosphere are in the leading position globally. In 2018 The UK had become the best Country for Education around the world. And in 2020, 18 universities which based in UK are involved the top 100 universities list by QS World University Rankings.
Significantly, deterioration of the relationship between China and the US is a considerable reason Chinese students prefer studying in British universities rather than in the US. According to China Daily in 2019, the commentators stated that the recent tensions between China and the United States have led Chinese students to focus on destinations outside the United States, with British universities as their main choice.
Reinstatement of Post Study Work (PSW) visa by the UK government is also a powerful factor that facilitates Chinese students studying in UK this year. From 2021, international students who enroll in any of UK universities will be empowered to stay in the country for two years after graduation. In contrast, American government has curtailed opportunities for international students to stay is also influencing the students’ choices of county to study.
Chen xi is studying in University of Glasgow, she said “At first, I wanted to go to the United States to study as a graduate student, but my parents were a little worried about me. They said that the relationship between the United States and China is not very friendly now, and it is difficult to find a job in the United States after graduation. But the situations in the UK is different. I can stay in the UK for two more years after I graduate. So, this is my decision.”
China has the largest source of international students for British universities. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2019, there were 43530 Chinese students in the UK during 2007–2008. In 2018, the total number reached 10,6530, including 6,0460 postgraduates and 4,6070 undergraduates
Due to the high demand of Chinese international students, it is a good choice to engage in business about oversea education consulting.
Kevin Tian, 28 years old, who is the manager of British American Consulting Ltd. He said that “During my master’s learning, I began to work in a consulting team and I found that I am interested in this job.”
Kevin emphasized the importance that working for companies rather than temporary teams, and also shared his bad working experience. “After I graduated from Stirling University, I had worked for another Consulting Team. They told that they could get me a work visa. So, I work very hard because I want to get a work visa. But in the end, I was very angry because I found out they lied on me because they had no permission on applying working visa for staffs.”
In addition to joining established companies, the investor can also found a Consulting company by themselies. Because the business environment in the UK is relatively loose than in China, people will not in trouble if they are following the laws. However, Chinese investors may not understand the laws and regulations of the UK explicitly which has potential led to some bad situations, such as labour dispute. It is very important to do research on the official documents from the UK government and this can reduce risk for the company to get intowhen doing business.
Kevin made a lot of friends in last few years. “I told with my friends we have a lots of experience anout uniersity consulting, so why don’t we found a consulting compeny together, this is really big markey. so, we found the company which is British American Consulting Ltd together.”
The most important business of their company is university consulting. However, Different universities have different regulations on consulting companies. “I talk with different university administration offices to understand how we should help the students to apply these universities.”
All things are difficult before they are easy. As Kevin stated “We met a lot of challenges in the first year. The biggest challenge is we didn’t have enough money for company maintenance. Because the income paid by those universities that we help the student to apply successfully is very important for us. Thus, making contracts with different universities’ administration offices. So, we did a lot of work with many universities’ offices.”
Except helping students connect with universities, investors can also do other businesses in their consulting companies, such as assisting some Chinese education institutions to carry through summer camp activities. Nowadays, a majority of Chinese parents expect their children have ability to go abroad and study by themselves during the holidays. This kind of experience can not only improve the learning capabilities of their children but also open their eyes. Kevin now has a new business with a local football school and Liverpool Football Club. His company enables to help children get entry to the football school for doing trainings then study at Liverpool Football Club during summer holiday.
Creativeness and diversity of services are the important factors for Chinese investors to set up a consulting company. Because there are hundreds of consulting companies in the UK, and both of these factors can be greatly impact the company operation well or not. In order to improving the competitiveness of his company, Kevin plans to develop an App to help students choose their favorite schools and majors on their phone which can help the student save their time.
With the growing economic of China, more and more children are affordable to study abroad, and the demand for education consulting companies will increase accordingly. Therefore, education consulting companies have great commercial potential. It is notable that if investors want to stand out, they still need to improve the creativeness and diversity of services of their companies.
