Dipta Joshi
The Kerala-based Ed-tech company Edumpus (estb.2019), an online higher education aggregator platform, has simplified the admission process to in-country as well as overseas higher education universities. The Edumpus social communication platform not only connects all the stakeholders in higher education – the students, the institutes and the offline educational consultants but also offers students’ a wide range of choices through its large repository of 50,000 plus courses from 500 plus universities across 15 plus countries.
“The best analogy would be to term Edumpus as the LinkedIn for education. Our aim has been to harness artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to transform the student recruitment industry by providing access to authentic and detailed information to all stakeholders, including students with minimal human interaction. We are trying to create a unitary platform for students so that all their needs are covered as they prepare for their life abroad,” says Ajesh Raj, co-founder and CEO, Edumpus.
Using AI, the Edumpus portal provides curated suggestions to the users based on one’s learning inclination, calibre and eligibility requirement of the listed courses. However, alongside providing reliable information regarding the institutions and courses, Edumpus also hand-holds students through other aspects of the recruitment process like course counselling, visa applications, drafting of admission documents, guidance on offer conditions, on-arrival formalities, travel and accommodation facilities, etc. Considering factors such as budgets, academic requirements, scholarship availability, available intakes, etc. differ on a case-to-case basis, students can also connect with counsellors who suggest the best fit for each applicant thus providing assistance and a more insightful perspective to the students’ decision-making.
International educational institutions have been observing the COVID-19 related developments in India considering the country is the second-largest supplier of international students after China. Cancellation and postponement of examinations have resulted in students being unable to start the relatively lengthy international admissions process and several final year students who started preparing for their application process are still awaiting their examination results to move forward.
According to Raj, this break in the academic calendar has created a pent-up demand in admissions and will take some time to normalise. “We have seen a healthy uptick in interest after the lull during the initial days of the pandemic situation. This calendar year, we have already received more than 3000 applications as enrolments pick up pace. The highest number of applications have been for universities in the UK and Canada. We have been highlighting the ongoing situation in India to our institutional partners abroad and also recommending mutually beneficial solutions to them, including opting for additional intakes later in the year. We are also advising our students to strengthen their profile by opting to do additional courses in the meantime or developing their soft skills,” adds Raj.
Aiming to make Edumpus the default option for all students seeking admissions to higher education universities, there are no charges attached to using any of its features. Edumpus helps institutions find the right talent for their programmes by curating student profiles with the necessary checks and balances and thus relies on the B2B monetisation model charging its clientele (educational institutions) for successful enrolments and through portal subscription fees.