Healthcare courses experienced the highest growth with the number of applicants tripling

Adventus.io, a SaaS-based international student recruitment marketplace with over 4,000 agents and 1,300 institution partners globally, continues to see the UK as the top study destination for international students, achieving the highest application share according to its marketplace data. In terms of course popularity in the UK, healthcare courses experienced the highest growth with the number of applications, tripling between 2020 and 2021 in the UK. Meanwhile the number of business applicants decreased in popularity. According to Nursing Times, there was already a shortage of 50,000 nurses in the UK before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and also reported that recruiting staff is a difficult task globally. With comparatively more open borders throughout the COVID pandemic, the UK remained the top destination market for international students applying through Adventus. The US came in as the second most popular destination, having experienced the sharpest recovery, and Canada came in as the third most popular destination market for international students and one that has remained relatively more stable compared to other markets, with application share growing from 16% in September 2020 to 22% in September 2021. “The NHS heavily relies on international healthcare students, so we are delighted to see the number of applications for healthcare significantly increasing on our platform during the Covid pandemic,” Adventus.io co-Founder and CEO Ryan Trainor said. “However, one of the greatest challenges we see institutions face is high churn rates amongst international students which is in part due to bias in the counselling process. If the course is not what students expect, they either drop out or switch, which means courses are not at full capacity. Adventus solves this challenge by democratising access to education, removing bias so that counsellors can recommend the best fitting course for students. This is the true essence of Adventus, we want students and their families to feel empowered, supported and have the knowledge literally at their fingertips to make the best possible choices when it comes to their educational futures.” To assist institutions to achieve their goals, Adventus.io has today launched a suite of powerful data-driven tools to help universities better understand the student recruitment funnel. Adventus Drive is a suite of marketplace solutions designed specifically to help institutions establish a strong pipeline of international students. Adventus Drive includes advanced analytic capability so that institutions can make data-driven decisions at every stage of the recruitment funnel and understand where they can make the most impact. This helps them track search results, course card views, applications submitted and conversions. Adventus Drive also helps institutions better understand who their prospective students are and better diversify the student body with detailed student profiling including breaking down leads by age, gender, source country and application status. Furthermore, institutions can access tools to proactively influence the network of 4,000+ vetted recruitment agents on the marketplace, efficiently and at scale. Institutions can also elevate their brand and increase visibility to maximise relevant applications from key and emerging source markets. Since launch, Adventus.io has raised more than USD$22 million, with the latest Series A round being supported by leading technology investment firms. The company has more than 4,000 agents on the platform and recorded over 800,000 searches conducted on the marketplace across 70,000+ courses from 1,300+ institutions globally. Over 2021, Adventus.io has had a 90% application success rate and a 98% visa success rate. Adventus.io now has more than 350+ staff across 17 countries and is expanding into another 6 countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Spain.