Tech platform for school counsellors takes off
Published 03/10/2018
Concourse Global in the US is a new company poised to revolutionise the higher education admissions industry by putting college counsellors back “in the driver’s seat” during the application process, according to its directors.
The company launched its online platform in response to what it sees as a rise in families “demanding more sophisticated advising”, with an expanding range of study destinations and programs.
“Concourse puts the student’s own college counsellor in the driver’s seat”
Jamie Kanki, head of engagement & partnerships at Concourse Global told The PIE News the company will offer a completely new paradigm that brings “equity and integrity back to the student recruitment process”.
“Concourse is the first company in the industry that’s solving the university student recruitment challenge in a way that puts the student’s own college counsellor in the driver’s seat,” she expanded.
The tool “empowers” counsellors to create program and institution recommendations tailored to students’ profiles and create opportunities for the students to have guided conversations with university representatives, Joe Morrison, Concourse CEO explained.
“Our platform enables counsellors to use their knowledge and close relationships with their students to guide the recommendation process and manage interactions with university admissions officers, so that students receive thoughtful, curated offers from interested institutions, not spam.”
In just one year Concourse has brought over 140 universities onto its platform, 150 high schools, and several thousand students that have collectively received hundreds of offers using its services, Kanki noted.
She added that high schools in over 40 countries are using the platform.
Concourse launched its first end-to-end version of the solution in January 2018 and has focused on assisting counsellors at international high schools, she continued.
“Our initial goal had been to help with international students, but the more we thought about it, we started thinking about the high school counselling we got ourselves,” Kanki explained.
The firm ultimately plans to expand into domestic high schools around the world, and plans to start building localised versions of its software within the next two years, Kanki revealed.
Concourse highlighted what it sees as an increase in demand from families seeking a western style of education that can provide greater access to universities in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Originally it had targeted elite expatriate families.
“If [counsellors] are not comfortable, they can reject [the recommendations] with one click”
According to Concourse Global, these schools are under “enormous” pressure to provide high quality college counselling to students, and according to Kanki, many of these international schools use their counselling services as important selling points.
Earlier in 2018, more than 60 students from Nepal had their scholarships revoked from a university in Texas, and Concourse was on hand to help.
“We made a split second decision that we needed to open the platform to any universities who would be willing to help these students – especially if they were making full tuition offers. We decided that any university who wanted to come forward and make a full tuition offer to a student would not have to pay,” Kanki said.
The platform is funded by universities, which are given the option to pay to connect with counsellors and students by using Concourse.
Not only do counsellors save time researching best-fit study options for their students using Concourse, Kanki suggested, but they have ultimate power over which universities and courses are recommended.
“If [counsellors] are not comfortable, they can reject [the recommendations] with one click, provide an indication what the problem was, and Concourse will come up with a fresh set,” Kanki stated.
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