Page 11 - StudyTravel Magazine April 2025 Issue

EDUCATOR Q&A AGENTS ON...

HIGH SCHOOL
INDUSTRY SPEAKS INDIANS AT

This issue, Wolfango Poggi, from Italian
language school association ASILS, talks about Dushyant
continuing the good fight in regards to study Bachkaniwala,
visas in the country and how it has completed Dalimit
the draft of its new national standard. Associates, www.dalimit.
com, India

“High school study abroad consti-
tutes 15 per cent of business. This
figure has seen a slight increase

over the past year, primarily due to
growing awareness among Indian
parents about the benefits of inter-

A.S.I.L.S. national education from a young
www.asils.it age. The most popular destinations
info@asils.it are the USA, Canada, the UK, and
Australia, favoured due to their
Number of members: 43 strong education systems, diverse
Types of members: Private Italian language schools cultural experiences, and opportuni-
ties for HE pathways. Both short-
term and full academic year pro-
What has ASILS been up to over the last 12 months? grams are popular.”
2024 has been very important to complete the drafting and registration of
the new statute and bylaws with the registration in the national register.
This represents further recognition in addition to the inspection scheme Ravi Lochan
that we have adopted. New members are being assessed for entry into our Singh, Global
association and we hope to welcome them this year. For the first time ASILS Reach, www.

will participate in the ST Alphe UK London Conference with its own booth. globalreach.in, India

How did member business perform in 2024? “High school/secondary school
2023 was certainly very profitable for all our schools and in general for Italian study abroad represents less than

tourism with cities full of travellers throughout the year. Fortunately, the two per cent of our business.
year 2024 also continued with a positive trend. Due to the problem with Indian students travelling overseas
study visas we recorded student arrivals for shorter periods especially from are not really for the high school
countries where students generally stayed for 12 or more weeks such as sector. Only very few students who
South America, the Middle East and Asia. Compared to 2023, there has been are from extremely high-net-worth
an increase in arrivals of students over 50 years of age, probably due to families opt for certain branded
greater availability of time and purchasing power. schools. Even this is very few. India
has a large number of new schools
Please update us about legalities pertaining to visas. who supplement the traditional
We’ve worked hard with a lawyer to resolve the issue of study visas. The road schools. I feel that there might
is still long but we will not give up! Unfortunately we still do not have a defini- be some Indian students going

tive solution and the problem of the B1/B2 level persists and strongly affects to leading schools in the UK or in

the activity of schools and representative agencies because we have to give Europe, but very few.”
up many students interested in studying for periods longer than 90 days.
Read more at: https://studytravel.
Read more at: https://studytravel.network/magazine/issues/853 network/magazine/industry-issues

8 STUDYTRAVEL MAGAZINE