Jai Vardhan felt overwhelmed as he prepared for his final school exams.
He tried to navigate a myriad overseas university choices and decide what he should study when he got there.
The 18-year-old Indian was looking at the UK and Canada, but did not know where to start. His school has one guidance counsellor for 200 pupils in their final year.
“I did not find them helpful,” he said of his school's free service.
We see mentoring the way an athlete would see coaching. You can be the best athlete in the world - but you're still going to need a coach
Soraya Beheshti,
Crimson Education
“[School counsellors] are just so overwhelmed by the number of pupils that they get. It's very difficult for them to give you personalised suggestions.”
So he hired a professional consultant to help him, paying them Dh10,000 ($2,700) to help him deal with the process.
Jai is among an increasing number of young people, particularly among those from better-off backgrounds, to pay thousands of dollars to get into the right university.
“I started researching universities but could not find the information that I needed, such as the grade requirements at each university. That’s how I first went for counselling.”
He said Rema Menon, from Dubai-based Counselling Point, “gave me an idea of the scores as well as extracurriculars I needed”.
Jai applied to 12 universities in the UK and Canada, and was offered a scholarship to one Canadian campus. He decided to turn it down to attend the University of Warwick, home of the Warwick Business School.
He will begin a four-year bachelor's degree in business and management this autumn at a cost of Dh90,000 ($24,500) a year.
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World's top universities in 2023: in pictures
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So, does Dh10,000 give pupils the edge to make it to the university they want?
“With both parents working, families often do not have time to help pupils with planning college applications while children are overwhelmed with school exams, finishing their coursework, and university planning simultaneously,” said Ms Menon, who has a background in psychiatric social work.
Pupils often forget that extra-curricular activities, sports, hobbies all play in to an application.
“I try to understand what are the person’s strengths, the extracurriculars, and what are some of the skills that have been honed because of that exposure,” she said.
“That will all have an impact on what they choose to do in the future.”
Psychometric assessments, a breakdown of the right universities for the client, and a guide to scholarships are included in the service, she said.
Application portals and admission requirements can be overwhelming and daunting for pupils who often start looking when they are 16.
Lucrative business
Complex visa arrangements, depending on nationality, tend to be handled separately through companies such as VFS.
Ms Menon charges pupils based on destination, with the US the highest at Dh7,500 and Canada and Europe, UK at about Dh3,000 to Dh5,000.
She said that when she started her business in 2005, very few pupils looked at universities in the UAE, but that has changed.
Peter Davos, managing director of Hale Education Group, who focuses on putting pupils into American universities, said the costs are so high in the US that parents do not want to choose the wrong university for their child.
“If you're going to go to any leading private US university — and not just the top 20 — you're going to be paying close to Dh1 million ($270,000) for the cost of attendance [over three to four years].
“If you have an intermediary that charges 2 to 4 per cent of that cost, that's very standard. Whether it's a real estate broker or financial adviser, anyone who acts as an adviser is going to charge you.”
Pupils heading Stateside need to practise for their SATs and then pass them, he said. The process can be unfamiliar for pupils in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
His service for that starts at Dh4,000, rising to “dozens of one-on-one sessions which range from Dh20,000 to Dh40,000".
Mr Davos claimed it is good value, particularly for high performing pupils with their sights on the Ivy League universities.
If they win a scholarship, he said, they or their parents may save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“On average, a student gets back over 10 times what they pay us in scholarships,” he said.
“If someone comes to me and spends Dh40,000, and then they get a full cost of attendance scholarship, which is valued at Dh1m, or a 50 per cent scholarship, which is valued at Dh500,000 … that's a pretty good return on investment.”
Experts help with everything from assistance with essay submissions to universities, mock interviews and profiles of the institutions.
Mr Davos said his company works at no charge with high-achieving pupils who come from poorer backgrounds and who need scholarships.
Rising competition
More prospective students are applying for places in US universities.
The number of applications went up by 21.3 per cent between 2019-2020 and 2021-2022, according to a March 2022 Common Application report.
Soraya Beheshti, regional director for Crimson Education, another college application consultancy, said even pupils with the best possible grades may not win the university place they want.
Such consultancies have separate strategists, essay coaches, scholarship consultants, an interview tutor and even an extra-curricular mentor.
They focus on Ivy League, Oxbridge and top European universities, along with advising those in the workplace on how to choose an MBA course.
She said pupils could spend anywhere between $5,000 to $15,000 for university consulting with her service.
“It's incredibly difficult to get into a top 50 university,” she said.
“We see mentoring the way an athlete would see coaching. You can be the best athlete in the world — but you're still going to need a coach.”
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
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