Challenging the status quo: University Contracts in the Digital Age, Featuring John Connolly Introduction of Guest: John Connolly has extensive experience in higher education, particularly in the UK and Australia. John's Journey: From mature student to international student recruitment in university sales and marketing. Traditional Challenges: Inefficiencies, lack of pipeline control, high costs, and limited access for smaller/newer agents in university-agent agreements. Birth of Feezy: A digital platform created by John to connect universities and agents more efficiently. Feezy's Functionality: Enables universities to scale student sourcing and establish transparent, flexible commission agreements. Benefits of Feezy: Reduces sales costs, improves student diversity, and increases direct collaborations between universities and agents. Feezy's Progress: Founded two years ago, gradually gaining traction with universities and agents embracing digitalization. Future Expansion: Leveraging data and AI for insights, enhancing transparency, and showcasing agent performance and compliance. Market Insights: Changing international education dynamics, need for efficient, data-driven student recruitment. Current Challenges: geopolitical issues, visa difficulties, high acquisition costs, and negative margins in major markets (Australia, Canada, UK). 2025 Market Outlook: Sustained student demand for accessible markets, potential disruptions in the US/Australia, and growth opportunities in non-traditional markets (Germany, South Asia, Southeast Asia). Recommendations: Optimize commission agreements and spending. Use digital platforms like Feezy to scale efficiently. Collaborate between universities and agents on recruitment. Feezy Platform: Quick onboarding (30-35 minutes). Offering free trials, moving to paid trials as revenue secures. Clear planning and goal-setting for users. Future Education Pricing: Potential variable pricing models based on affordability. Adjust pricing and discount policies for "Global South" students. Closing Remarks: Acknowledging current market challenges. Encourage exploration of the Feezy platform for more information. Feezy Website: https://bit.ly/4izW4Cs Greenwich University, etc commission spends https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/18/uk-universities-paying-millions-in-agent-fees-to-secure-international-students Coventry financial statement FY23 https://www.coventry.ac.uk/globalassets/media/global/09-about-us/key-information/financial-reports/coventry_university_group_annual_report_2022-23_signed.pdf SMH article https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sold-to-the-university-agents-paid-millions-to-recruit-international-students-20231127-p5en3b.html IDP FY24 results https://investors.idp.com/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/v1AiEHYL20-_Rje11PzkYA/file/FY24-Results-Presentation.pdf Eg of Aus uni deficit https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/15/anu-asks-staff-to-give-up-agreed-pay-rise-to-help-reach-250m-cost-cuts#:~:text=Last%20week%20the%20ANU%20Council,%2C%E2%80%9D%20Bell%20wrote%20to%20staff. UK university deficit at 72% of total https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2024111513543454 IH Closure https://ihsydney.com.au/important-update/ About The Podcast This Podcast contains Episodes related to Career Guidance under the India Career Centre. This Podcast is dedicated to providing relevant information for students, professionals and parents about the different aspects of Career Planning, including the Careers of 2030 and beyond. We have a vast variety of subjects covered related to Education, Skill development, Future Planning, Financial Planning, etc. It is an interview-based podcast and in every episode, we host experts from various fields to gain their knowledge and expertise. Explore the past episodes: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3TioTbV Apple: https://apple.co/3YR5fHp Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Xcm3Gz Audible: https://bit.ly/4cwOtR7