Enabling global collaborations | How SRM University's students became global citizens
With 40,000+ students at the Chennai, India campus alone, the SRM Institute of Science and Technology chose to transform how it offers study abroad opportunities and measures the success rates of its students. The results were remarkable. Here’s how they did it.
More than 10.9 lakh Indians were studying abroad in 2019[1]. In a recent survey, 36.5% of Indian students said they wanted to pursue higher education overseas despite COVID[2]. And with 72,000 students having gone abroad in the first 2 months of 2021[3] alone, the road to international education is looking at unusually high traffic.
With this in mind, the SRM Institute of Science and Technology partnered with iSchoolConnect, an emerging study abroad platform. The collaboration, which aimed at helping SRM’s students achieve success abroad and better track the institution’s graduate success rates in 2021, was a resounding success and continues to this day.
It’s difficult to keep track of student success rates
'Graduate success' is one of the topmost factors that students look at when choosing a college. Consequently, we find most Indian institutions exhibiting which organizations their students were hired by, what was the highest CTC procured, and how many of their graduates went on to study abroad.
A lot of us believe that higher education is a great path to choose during a pandemic. You’re practically training yourself as you wait to enter
the market at the right time. Our partnership with iSchoolConnect couldn’t have engendered at a better moment.
-Mr. Kartar Singh, Director of International Relations, SRMIST
Training and Placement Officers are responsible for not only training and helping students get hired but also take the onus of keeping track of their progress. And for an institution as big as SRM - with 50,000+ students spread across 5 different campuses - doing this manually was getting cumbersome, especially when it came to assessing the status of those graduates who wanted to study abroad. That’s when iSchoolConnect stepped in.
There’s a better way to help your students
With its technological expertise and 70+ man-years of experience, iSchoolConnect invited over 1600 SRM Chennai students to attend a workshop on “All about studying abroad.”
Of those interested, the organization offered its services to 170+ aspirants, handling their entire end-to-end university application process.
Better offers come with successful profiles. Seeing iSchoolConnect share this value with us is what nurtured our partnership so effectively.
From the get-go, they combined their technical expertise with personalized training sessions to guide our students during every step of the
application process.
-Mr. Kartar Singh, Director of International Relations, SRMIST
Since iSchoolConnect’s platform is automated and AI-based, it was easy to pinpoint at what stage each of these students was at a given time. Be it the ‘Shortlisting Stage,’ ‘Documentation Stage,’ ‘Application Stage,’ ‘Offer Letter,’ ‘Scholarship stage,’ or ‘Visa stage,’ SRM Chennai monitored the progress of its students through a single, consolidated report. The university leaders witnessed each of these aspirants apply to and receive admits from multiple international institutions, reaching an overall success rate of 59%! Some of these institutions include Penn State University, New York University, Duke University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Boston University.
Apart from aiding final year students aspiring to study abroad, iSchoolConnect and SRM Chennai collectively established a community of 1700+ active students with the aim of keeping them informed of the latest updates around studying overseas.
After a highly successful collaboration of 10 months, SRM Chennai and iSchoolConnect have begun the cycle all over again, targeting 5 times better progress than before.
Fulfill your students' dreams
Why this solution?
AI and Technology have already begun to reshape the future of education in India. SRM & iSchoolConnect not only understand this but are also willing to take advantage of the benefits ed-tech has to offer.
SRM has been a valuable partner for us since the very beginning. Helping their students and integrating our systems with their International
Relations Department was our foremost priority. We have been successful in doing so this year, but we’re excited to scale this up to 2000+
students during the next cycle.
-Ashish Fernando, CEO, iSchoolConnect
Having a single platform where one can get an overview of each student’s progress makes it easier to not only stay updated with everything but also guide your students in the right direction.
Moreover, while scalability offers significant advantages, the value of a personal touch cannot be ignored. Consequently, batch consulting is unheard of at iSchoolConnect.
iSC has always offered personalized consulting and dedicated dashboards to each SRM student, offering expert guidance every step of the way. Students also have multiple opportunities to attend webinars on profile building, shortlisting courses, countries, universities, test prep, study abroad documents, visa applications, and everything that falls under the umbrella of overseas education.
At the same time, iSchoolConnectv also gets in touch with the SRM leaders on a monthly basis, giving them a brief on their students’ progress and providing actionable insights, benefiting both the institution and its students simultaneously.
About SRM
SRM Institute of Science and Technology is a private deemed university located in Kattankulathur, near Chennai. It includes seven campuses, three in Tamil Nadu, one in NCR Delhi, one in Sikkim, one in Sonipat, and one in Amaravati. There are about 50,000 students studying in SRM, of which 1000 are international students.
With external funding of over 130+ Crore, the university employs 3200+ faculty members, collaborates with national and international organizations and institutions, and holds over 25,000 publications and 30+ patents.
About iSchoolConnect
iSchoolConnect is an AI-product company that assists students across the globe to fulfill their study abroad aspirations. They also help institutions and enterprises worldwide transform their end-to-end admission and graduate success ecosystem through the smart use of cutting-edge technology.
iSchoolConnect is a growing company with over 100 employees and offices in India, US, and Thailand. Several academic institutions and organizations, including SRM Institute of Science and Technology, California State University, and UC Berkeley Extension use its services, touching the lives of millions of students on a global scale.
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Citations
[1] Students Registration Portal, Ministry of External Affairs
[2] Student migration preferences in 2021: What do Indian students want
[3] 71k students went abroad this year, India times article
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