Flywire, a leading provider of international payment and receivables solutions for businesses, schools and healthcare providers, is helping Irish schools comply with a recent government regulation regarding tuition payments being made from outside of Ireland.
The company is already working with a number of education institutions in the country that attract international students including The Centre of English Studies, The English Studio Dublin, Apollo Language Centre, and many other higher education, vocational, and language schools.
In Ireland, Flywire has tailored its platform specifically to meet the escrow-type account requirements for international students who require a visa to study in Ireland. Irish schools that enroll such students are required to set aside funds paid on behalf of each student until the student's visa application is approved or rejected. Flywire takes this burden off the schools with a new "delayed payment account" service. Irish schools can now have Flywire hold tuition payments until the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service (INIS) decides on each application, transferring the funds to the school upon visa approval, or returning funds to the payer if a visa is denied. The new service is available immediately.
Flywire serves Irish schools recruiting international students, as well as those students traveling to Ireland to study. With Flywire, Irish schools can offer those students and their families a highly-tailored, international payment experience - customized by country, currency and institution. In addition, school financial and operations teams benefit from streamlined reconciliation and easy tracking of international payments.
"Our new delayed payment account capability highlights Flywire's commitment to meeting the evolving needs of the Irish education market," said Mike Massaro, CEO at Flywire. "The ability to tailor our platform to the unique needs of each market is core to the value we offer and in our view, essential to addressing our clients' cross-border payment requirements."
According to Enterprise Ireland, the country has seen a 25% increase in the number of international students since 2012 -- worth more than €1 billion to the Irish economy. Currently, international students make up almost 10 percent of the overall student body in Ireland with that number projected to reach 15 per cent by 2020. China, Brazil, India, the Middle East, US and southeast Asia are all key target markets for Irish schools.