I sat down with Sri Giri Srinivasa Rao Bongarala, Co-founder and Managing Director of IVY Overseas, a major recruitment firm in South India, at AIRC (The Association International Enrollment Management) in Atlanta, to discuss the shifting landscape of the international student market. Sri provided a crucial assessment of how recent policy shifts in the “Big Four” destinations—the US, UK, Australia, and Canada—are forcing agents to adopt new strategies for student placement. Ivy Overseas market focus has historically been “predominantly the big four,” but Sri confirms that a fundamental pivot is now underway: “we’ve also added 10 destinations. That’s the survival technique now.” This shift is a direct response to policy issues, with the UK “closed for dependents now,” Australian visas “pretty tight,” and the Canadian market “all time low for enrollments, it’s taking a nosedive,” forcing agencies to actively “directing them to other countries Denmark, Sweden, and Finland” and other European destinations like Germany, which has established “a big, big presence” in their regions.

Sri remains a powerful advocate for the US, stating, “I still recommend students as far as the quality of education is concerned, the research is concerned… I still recommend U.S.,” this quality is overshadowed by crushing visa uncertainty, which he describes as the primary deterrent: “the visa rejection is a challenge for students now. There’s a lot of uncertainty around visa approvals.” He cited a structural problem, observing that “We have actually seen the rejection rate shoot up by 75 to 80 percent,” leading to immense student distress, with some clients even “crying in the office” after being rejected. Sri projects that this movement could be temporary, however, warning, “If government policies don’t change, we will be losing students every year 20% a clip. It will be rerouting students to other destinations.” In this high-risk environment, he insists that for agencies, “Service is the only differentiator.”

Quallege partners with high-quality universities that prioritize education, research, and career placement. We aim to highlight what makes the United States a market leader in higher education. Given the scale and potential for student rerouting, however, the U.S. must recognize that it can no longer rely on its past success and must be cognizant of other growing markets before it’s too late. Furthermore, universities should avoid over-reliance on any single geography for enrollment. Should US universities adapt their recruitment strategies to mitigate visa risk and re-establish confidence in the American pipeline against increasingly aggressive and stable European competitors?