Convera and Ascent One launch international tuition payment platform

GlobalPay for Students will streamline payments for international students and education agents

With all of the different online payment applications and systems that exist now, you'd think that it would be relatively easy for international students to pay their university tuition. Yet, challenges and inefficiencies remain, including fluctuations in exchange rates, which can lead to unexpected costs, especially for students from countries with unstable economies or political turmoil, which can make it difficult to access foreign currency.

On top of that, a lot of universities and colleges require international students to pay their tuition fees in the local currency, which can lead to unexpected expenses, challenges, and financial stress.

To help solve for these challenges, Convera, a global provider of cross-border payment solutions, unveiled GlobalPay for Students, its new international tuition payment platform, on Thursday. The solution was developed in partnership with Ascent One, an ecosystem purposely built for the education sector. 

Education institutions will be embed GlobalPay for Students directly into their websites and management systems in order to streamline payments for international students and education agents, who act as intermediaries between the school and their students. That includes allowing the entire transaction to be done on a single platform so they can avoid intermediary bank fees while also being able to ensure that their payments arrive in full and on time. Users will have access to bank transfers, wires, credit and debit cards, e-wallets like AliPay, and alternative payment methods, including Sofort and Trustly.

The platform is able to transact in over 140 currencies across over 200 countries and territories, and is available in 10 languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic. 

Convera is used by over 1,000 education institutions around the world, including eight of the top 10 ranked universities globally, helping them remove the complexities of sending and receiving payments. It helps reconcile student tuition payments, pays overseas staff, and issues US student loans.

The Melbourne-based Ascent One, meanwhile, was founded to help education providers by making it easier to manage admissions, agent networks, and a marketing platform that helps agents create on-brand marketing, run on-demand student campaigns, and improve conversions.

The company's Easy Agent platform includes data sets for thousands of agents in over 160 countries, along with accurate agent details, updated by agents and checked by Ascent One. It collects and forwards leads to agents. 

Ascent One has already integrated Convera’s GlobalPay for Students solution as way to offer a frictionless payment experience for education agents so they can assist students with the facilitation of tuition fees and other education related payments.

“We’re excited to work with Convera and have them as our primary global payments partner. By leveraging Convera’s embedded payments solution into our platform, education agents across 167 countries can seamlessly manage any part of the student’s study journey from recruitment to admissions to facilitating payments on the student’s behalf all from one place,” Naresh Gulati, CEO of Ascent One, said in a statement.

“It was an easy decision for us to choose Convera for their strong reputation, unparalleled global reach and trust within the education industry. Convera’s global financial network, cross-border payments knowledge, and robust compliance and security measures were driving factors for us.”

(Image source: convera.com)