The changing rhythm of international student payments
International education was growing. The United States hosted over 1.1 million international students in 2023/24, an all-time high and up 7% on the previous period. Graduate enrolments and OPT participation also reached record levels.
However, due to an unpredictable macro-environment, forecasts indicate that the US could expect a decrease of up to 40% in new international student enrolments this year, resulting in a potential loss of USD$7 billion to the US economy.
At the same time, budgets are tight. The loss of international student revenue can affect institutions in the U.S. Along with these losses, there are cuts in federal grants, with over 4,000 grants reduced to fewer than 600 institutions across the 50 states.
The result is an education sector that needs reliable revenue and an improved student financial experience.
Why instalments are becoming the default
Students are funding their degrees from multiple sources while managing the rising costs of living. In TouchNet’s 2025 Student Financial Experience Report, 55 percent of US students juggle three or more funding sources, 82 percent say financial tasks require moderate to high effort, and half of the international students surveyed stated that positive payment experiences with institutions had a positive effect on them.
That illustrates the importance of offering students flexible, self-service tools. By streamlining payment processes, offering alternative payment methods, and, most importantly, providing payment flexibility, those financial tasks that cause students stress can be alleviated. In turn, those positive experiences will lead to better-engaged students, who can worry about their financial standings a little bit less.
Apart from providing financial security and a positive experience to students, payment plans are crucial to an institution’s survival. International students contributed an estimated USD$43.8bn to the US economy in 2023/24. Protecting that value means eliminating friction from the invoicing, payment, and reconciliation processes across borders and currencies.
From annual to monthly payments: what institutions gain
Moving from one or two large value annual due dates to monthly, quarterly, or term-aligned schedules spreads risk for students in a turbulent macroeconomic environment and smooths cash flow for institutions.
That shift helps students plan around scholarship disbursements, loans, family support, and part-time work, while giving bursar teams earlier visibility of potential issues.
The outcome is higher on-time payment rates, fewer past-due balances, and a better student experience.
What to demand from a payments partner
If you are rethinking fee schedules, the partner you choose matters.
- Look for providers that offer multiple payment options for annual payments and instalment payments. Whether it’s credit or debit cards, bank transfers, or alternative regional payment methods, ensure that the provider you choose offers a wide range of payment options.
This way, students who need to pay you can complete the financial transaction in the most convenient way for them. A bonus is when the provider uses local payment rails to complete the transaction, helping you benefit from reduced intermediary fees. - Seek partners that can provide complete visibility of payments for both students and institutions. This will help to reduce your admin time. By maintaining a comprehensive record of student payment history, you can easily verify a student’s financial standing without having to search through paperwork.
On the other hand, students and parents (or anyone paying the tuition) can view the status of their payments, balances, sign up for payment plans, and check their standings without needing to raise support tickets. - Make sure a prospective provider can facilitate fast refunds and handle automated reconciliation. Linking in with the full record of payment history, any provider you onboard should be able to initiate refunds promptly and return funds to the originating account. Not only is that required from a regulatory standpoint, but with the rise in education payment-related fraud, it may save you multiple thousands of dollars in the long run.
Furthermore, if a student drops out of their course six months into their first year and has made seven payments for their tuition, it should be a simple process to refund them any amount they’re due. Choose a provider with capabilities to do so to save your team headaches.
How TransferMate helps you make monthly instalments work
TransferMate’s education solutions were built for the new reality we’re living through. Providing choice across instalments and payment methods is at the forefront of our platform, and is specifically designed to meet institutional control requirements and student expectations.
Here’s what you can expect from our integration:
- Multiple instalment options out of the box: Offer students monthly schedules that they can opt into. Plans can be paid for across multiple cards, bank transfers, or local payment methods, with clear due-date reminders.
- Recurring card payments for student housing: Students can sign up once for automated recurring card payments on their housing fees. This reduces missed payments, lowers the administrative load for teams, and provides students with predictable outgoings throughout the year.
- API Client Dashboards: Finance and student accounts teams with embedded solutions from TransferMate can see payment histories and statuses per student, country, currency, or programme. This surfaces issues earlier and supports more innovative outreach to at-risk cohorts. As analytics deepen, you can monitor instalment adoption and on-time performance by segment.
- Virtual Accounts and refunds: With our Global Account solution, you can accept and hold funds in multiple currencies, route payments over local rails, and issue refunds quickly without breaking reconciliation. And as a plus, you can convert currencies and make payments in those local currencies for any inter-campus requirements, scholarship, or guest lecturer fees.
- Beneficiary Portal: Through our beneficiary portal, users can invite students, agents, and research partners to provide their bank details aligned to your reference fields (such as student ID, program code, etc). Instead of your team collecting sensitive bank details via email or phone, you can invite the beneficiary with a secure portal link, allowing them to complete the form in minutes. This results in fewer data errors, fewer returns, and faster payment processing for scholarship, bursary, commission, or refund payments.
- Compliance and transparency. TransferMate operates the largest globally licensed fintech payments infrastructure, featuring end-to-end tracking that allows students and institutions to see when funds are sent and received. As we own our infrastructure, we offer preferential foreign exchange rates and zero transaction fees. Clients save real time and money, with one institution having increased the college’s revenue by about 3%, purely on the savings made on bank and credit card charges.
The strategy that pays back
The plain facts are simple, even if it is a hard truth to swallow.
Institutions do not control the macro environment.
But what you do control is how easy it is for students to enrol and pay. The sector is moving from annual lump sums to monthly and quarterly instalments because it improves affordability, supports retention, and strengthens cash flow.
Being part of that movement is as easy as reaching out to a payments partner and getting started.
Want to learn more about how TransferMate configures instalment options for your institution? Get in touch with our team today.
About the author: Thomas Butler is head of education at TransferMate, driving innovation in payment solutions for the education sector. He leads teams focused on developing seamless, secure systems that simplify how institutions, platforms, and students send and receive international payments. Under his guidance, TransferMate powers collections in over 140 currencies across more than 200 countries, with fully regulated infrastructure and integrations via APIs, white-label platforms, and embedded solutions. Thomas works with both educational institutions and software partners to reduce bank fees, improve FX rates, automate reconciliation, cut administration, and enhance transparency, all to improve the payment experience and financial operations in education globally.
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