Oxford International Education Group
A Vision for Worldwide Access to Education
This inside story narrates the journey of Oxford International Education Group (OIEG) that has been focused on education and student success. The organisation’s vision is to support learning without limits; it believes that everyone, regardless of location or background, can benefit from worldwide access to education.
As Business Connect grabbed the opportunity to host a tete-a-tete with Mohit Gambir, founder and managing director of Oxford International Education Services, a very strong vertical of the Oxford International Education Group, we couldn’t help but be amazed by the insights he shared, touching various aspects of his business.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Starting in 1991, Oxford International Education Group (OIEG) is nearing a 30-year journey as a private education provider. Oxford International helps students from across the world gain lifechanging higher education, vocational and language education opportunities. The company runs international pathway colleges embedded in UK and US universities, its own pathway colleges in the UK, online courses and English language tests through the OI Digital Institute, and English language training facilities across the UK and North America.
Every year, their courses assist over 50,000 UK and international students in excelling in the classroom. They take pleasure in providing the best programmes and have developed excellent partnerships with education specialists all over the world. For example:
• With seven international colleges embedded in UK and North American universities, they equip international students with the language & academic skills to access higher education.
• They also prepare students for entry into university at two pathway colleges in London and Oxford. These help students go onto succeed at higher education institutions with a choice of opportunities for further study in Business and Finance & Management at undergraduate degree level.
• Through the Oxford International Digital Institute (OIDI) they support students and institutions with a comprehensive range of online, hybrid academic, language and short courses with a total of 20 university partners recognising their OIDI higher education courses.
• Through OIDI, they also provide accessible online and on-site English language testing & accreditation (OxfordELLT), which is recognised by 60 university partners.
• They operate English language schools for adult and junior students in the UK, Canada and USA, serving over 8,000 students per year. This includes 55 post-secondary, higher education language pathway partners in North America.
• In response to a growing demand for qualified candidates, they operate an expanding range of vocational courses in Canada through our Career Colleges.
Through their vertically integrated Education Services Division they are a leading recruiter of international students, delivering efficiency, effectiveness & speed across recruitment, student engagement & end-to-end application funnel management. From market presence development, to optimising student recruitment, enrolment and everything in-between, their integrated approach means they can respond to our partners’ most urgent and strategic needs:
• They have a dedicated team of 100 recruitment experts across 50 locations, typically sourcing talent for their partners across 100+ countries.
• Based out of Mumbai, India they have a dedicated centre for application vetting and processing, powered by 200+ experts which are focused first and foremost on quality and compliance.
• They collaborate with over 2,500 agents to source the right talent for their higher education partners.
Today, the Group’s subsidiary offices are spread across the UK, India, Hong Kong, China, and North America, as well as representatives in more than 45 other locations. Mumbai serves as the regional office for Oxford International Education Services (OIES), a part of the Oxford International Education Group.
THE MOTIVATION
After earning an MBA from Middlesex University London and working in the UK’s financial sector, Mohit returned to India in 2004 and started a family-owned company that provided tailored collaborative solutions to universities to help them grow and expand their global reach through process efficiency, agent management, student support, conversion campaigns and brand development.
He is an educationalist and a visionary with more than 18 years of expertise creating bespoke solutions for recruitment, agent management, and back office operations to multinational universities. As a student recruiter and educationalist with extensive knowledge of the local higher education market, over the years he has filled various gaps in industry that he genuinely believed were impeding the advancement of otherwise qualified individuals.
Mohit’s decision to pursue this career was solely inspired by his own personal experience of studying abroad and seeing the value of developing a wide range of abilities, including self-assurance, adaptability, problem-solving, communication, networking, amongst many others. He saw the great potential that these abilities and his international experience had for international students and decided to be the change in the way students are advised and supported to embark in the pursuit of a new journey to study on international shores.
PATH TOWARDS EXCELLENCE
What gives them an edge in the industry?
• Dedicated to assisting partners in creating better market presence, converting talented students from all over the world, and marketing themselves successfully to widen their talent pool.
• They partner with institutions to become a seamless extension of their end-to-end recruitment processes, making it simpler for overseas students to inquire, apply, receive an offer, and enroll.
• With the help of 40 local experts, a team of admissions and conversion professionals, and tested procedures, universities and students can get support for all of the challenges they encounter along the whole process, from student recruiting to administration.
• To September 2022, they processed 284% more applications than the previous year while lowering the rate of visa refusal through process innovation to a record-low 0.3% (99.7% of applications were approved, as will be discussed more below).
• Through a global network of 100 local recruitment professionals in 40+ locations and a 2500-strong agent network they are where the students are, enabling student diversity.
• Each year, they have 50,000 students from 100+ nationalities go through their extensive course range.
• A staff of over 200 admission and conversion specialists in India is dedicated to delivering the best possible student experience and upholding quality and compliance requirements. They provide quality responses within 24 to 48 hours and service support around-the-clock.
• They collaborate closely with their partners to design a conversion procedure that fully meets and surpasses their expectations, and they use powerful proprietary models to get rid of fraud.
• Their model can adapt to meet the most immediate and intermediate objectives of its clients, from developing market presence to optimizing student recruitment, enrolment, and everything in between.
• In contrast to the linear model, they choose an integrated strategy and emphasize project setup and new partner onboarding from the outset, realizing that these are the cornerstones of success. As a result, they can integrate and switch over the models of their institutional partners in less than a month.
EVALUATING THE IMPACT SCALE
Delivering life-changing education opportunities to students across the world is their philosophy and they ensure this by being student centric, through educational services and courses that allow them to unlock international education opportunities for students and universities. With their quality driven, focused approach, students are prepared for international study while universities receive a diverse talent pool.
THE CULTURAL PRINCIPLES AT THE INSTITUTION
The management of Oxford International Education Group has always been in constant strides to create life-enhancing possibilities for students by harnessing the power of effective teaching. This has been a well-asserted aim and single minded commitment of their staff members. They have cultivated integral business values for the past 29 years that serve as a secret to their grand success.
The core values that drive them are care, passion, creativity and integrity that are the qualities they look for in their staff members that are equally important as the knowledge, experience and expertise one brings on the table. “Almost all of our jobs involve working with young people. We are a passionate group of people looking to make a difference in the lives of the younger generation and assist in fulfilling their desire to study overseas” asserts Mohit.
