Students from India, enrolling with Acumen’s UK university partners, are eligible to receive services under the new partnerships with VFS Global and One VASCO.
Since April 1, 2024, students have been able to visit any Acumen India office, beginning in Delhi, with the services expanding to Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and other cities, to complete their visa applications and biometrics without having to visit visa application centres.
According to Acumen, this approach not only simplifies the process but also allows the involvement of parents and university in-country representatives, ensuring a personalised touch absent in traditional visa application processes.
Students can also get services for document verification, form completion, and expert assistance from One VASCO specialists, adding a layer of quality checks for the university partners and students.
Indian students represent 42% of those progressing onto the UK’s Graduate Route visa
“There was a need to innovate the international student recruitment domain and during regular conversations with university partners, it was established that a more convenient student service for such a critical aspect of their admission journey was needed, besides the need to strength checks and balances of this process,” Sagar Bahadur, executive director for India and South Asia at Acumen, told The PIE.
“Sometimes the dates become an issue, students might forget certain important documents, which leads to them having to rebook their appointments. So, this partnership also entails that level of document checking once again plus students and parents can walk into our offices to meet university representatives and progress with their visa process in a much more conducive environment,” added Sagar.
In 2022, one out of four students going to study from India to the UK were Acumen students, as per details shared by the organisation. These new partnerships will also help Acumen to handle the volume of students using its services.
“Close to 25,000 students from India, who go to the UK, are managed by Acumen’s resources. In-country representatives of around 25-odd UK universities, who work with us, handle a bulk of those students,” said Kalpana Zutshi, director of partner success at Acumen.
Despite concerns over the UK government’s crackdown on international students, India has remained one of the biggest international student markets for the country. Moreover, Indians represent 42% of all international students to receive the UK Graduate Route, with 89,231 students receiving the post-study work visa, as per data shared by the UK Home Office.