At Quallege, we recently gathered for a leadership retreat to chart our path forward. While we operate a global business, our takeaway was clear: Success isn’t found in a database; it’s found in the depth of our relationships.

As we expand under the leadership of Salman Faraaz, we are doubling down on the belief that “local impact” is the only way to achieve “global scale.” These four pillars define our strategy:

1. Relationships are Everything

We reject the “one-size-fits-all” concept. To be a true bridge between students and universities, we focus on three vital connections:

• The Student & Market: We’ve moved past treating international recruitment like a domestic US campaign. We localize messaging for every market because every student’s “why” is unique.
• The Education Advisor Network: Spanning 120+ countries, this network is our link to high-quality students. The Quallege team acts as boots-on-the-ground, prioritizing face-to-face visits so advisors are fully equipped to advocate for our partners and recruit high-quality students.
• The University Partner: We serve as the “global eyes” for our universities, providing the real-time data and local insights they need to remain competitive.

2. Quality Over Quantity (The Dunbar Principle)

The industry is currently dominated by “aggregators” who treat student recruitment like an Amazon-style auction. That isn’t us. While others focus on the volume of applications, we focus on the rate of enrollment.

• Selective Partnerships: Dunbar’s Rule suggests one can maintain 150 relationships, but you can’t have 150 close friends. We apply this ratio across the board—from our university partners to our education advisor network and our internal team.
• The Goal: We are building a tight-knit cohort of 20–30 US University partners who are geographically diverse but united by a commitment to excellence. We work for our partners daily; we don’t just list them in a directory.

3. Global Reach, Local Impact

How do you recruit beyond China or India? You stay local. While India and China continue to be critical pillars of international recruitment, true global scale requires building that same level of local presence across a broader set of markets.

This is why our global team extends far beyond those two markets. We aren’t just sending emails or posting the latest scholarship offers on a website; we are building a physical presence. We amplify our universities’ messages by going beyond traditional marketing tactics—extending not only to Tier 1 cities but to exactly where the students are. We constantly ask: “How do we make this feel more local for the student?”

4. Efficiency to Drive Quality at Scale

Our goal is to make recruiting an average 500 international students per university partner more efficient than a university doing it themselves. We are building systems and doubling down on services that remove friction, ensuring that “scale” never comes at the cost of student quality.

The Net-Net: We are building a business where transparency is the default and quality is the primary metric. We aren’t just another agency aggregator; we are a dedicated extension of our university partners.