Turkish agency Atlas looks to expand markets

Published 31/01/2018

Turkish education agency Atlas is upbeat for the year ahead and will expand with offices opening in two new countries, according to managing director Mesud Yilmaz.

At the joint Atlas-Edcon Conference in Istanbul in January, Turkish education agents and consultants heard an assessment of the industry in 2017 and details about planned projects for 2018. Atlas and its partners explained that they were confident for 2018.

“The main dramatically growing business we are expecting for next year is students coming to study in Turkey. Of course, from countries on Turkey’s east and south,” he told The PIE News.

“Our vision is to also promote Turkish universities through our offices abroad. Morocco and Baku are part of it”

Yilmaz added that Atlas was planning to open offices in Morocco and Poland, while investing in inbound student recruitment.

The office in Poland will not be the first in Europe – Atlas has had offices in London for 10 years, as well as two offices in Ukraine (Kharkiv and Odessa). The Kharkiv office recruits Ukrainian students while the Odessa office looks after Turkish students who are studying in Ukraine’s third biggest city.

“The office in Poland is different, it has two missions,” Yilmaz said. “One – after sales service for our Turkish students studying in Poland and two – promoting study abroad opportunities in English speaking countries for local students.”

He added that the Turkish students in Poland were all university students, studying English-medium bachelors.

In 2017, Atlas opened three new offices – two in Istanbul and one in Baku, Azerbaijan. Yilmaz says the offices have dramatically increased Atlas’s academic student numbers.

“Our vision is to also promote Turkish universities through our offices abroad. Morocco and Baku are part of it,” he said.

The on-off US-Turkey visa issues, have not dampened hopes for the upcoming year, although Yilmaz admits that the situation had affected the number of students going to the US.

“US [has] become less attractive since Trump was elected,” he said, adding that the “UK is stable and Canada is the rising star”.

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