Diplomatist: Can you tell us a bit about your background prior to becoming an entrepreneur, educational consultant and the founder of Edudite Consultancy?
Saksham Gupta: I consider myself an inspiring entrepreneur and organized leader who is focused on producing realistic goals, developing ways to efficiently achieve and often exceed those goals, and producing results.
I think I am a constant learner at heart, I have portrayed various roles in the education management industry. Owning rich experience in relationship building, customer acquisition, international admissions and sales, I have travelled to over 30+ countries representing EDUDITE, delivering & facilitating conferences, government relationship building, and expansion of Indian universities in SAARC and African regions.
I come from a family involved in education. My father and mother have both been in the education industry since 1993 and are successfully running a training institute and an education center in my hometown Kashipur, Uttarakhand. From my early days, I was interested to explore and travel the world and work with people from different walks of life. I did the most cliché Computer Science Engineering and then MBA like a regular student, dreaming that this is the only gate to success.
Entrepreneurship happened to me in my college days itself. I started and failed at 4 or 5 companies before Edudite finally happened.
Diplomatist: What made you decide to set up Edudite Consultancy?
Saksham Gupta: Since early childhood, I have always been an extrovert and had an outgoing personality whether it was sports, extracurricular in school, or public speaking opportunities as and where I got. This has a lot to do with the kind of background I come from. My parents have been in the Education sector throughout their careers and I was raised in an academically influenced environment. My mother is an IIT Roorkee alumnus and my dad is an engineer and served in central government as a scientific officer for 20+ years.
They both lead a stable life with secured jobs for about 20 years in their career and decided to resign from their respective jobs and came into a full-time business to become an edupreneur, to serve and uplift the community by providing better education. This all happened when I was around 16 years old and it gave me a very solid base to make my decisions.
In my college life, I led a local chapter of the world’s largest youth-run organization AIESEC which allowed me to travel, explore and see the world from a new perspective.
As soon as I graduated, I started working at a university in their International department handling relations for them and representing them at various events and conferences in India and abroad. In this short time of 5.5 months there, my work gave me a platform to build my idea of business. I started the business by helping Indian universities and colleges from relations with universities outside India for student and faculty exchange problems and joint research work. Over the period, the team grew and they added study abroad and study in India products in their basket and managed to expand their major base in the African continent with offices spanning 30 countries and now with ww.matchmyuni.com, they want customers from all walks of life to spread awareness and give opportunities to make an informed decision simplify study Abroad for them.
The combination of the above, I believe, lead me to work in the education sector and that’s how I launched Edudite Consultancy Private Limited.
Diplomatist: What services does Edudite offer?
Saksham Gupta: Edudite helps students throughout his/her study abroad journey from the first counselling session until the student reaches the University we help them in the entire process and in the visa process as well. Even after the student reaches the university, our counsellor stays in constant touch with the student. From time to time, we meet our students and organize special events for them like taking them out for a lunch, or going on a trip with them, etc. We also have a program specially designed for our students, it’s called EWYL (EARN WHILE YOU LEARN), it’s like an internship/part-time job in which the student can enroll with us and get the experience of working with an organization and earn some pocket money as well.
As the Founder of the company, I was able to achieve some notable milestones. A few of those are:
♣ Establishing offices across 12 countries.
♣ Network of 3000+ universities across the globe.
♣ Mobilizing 3000+ students to India and Europe as their Study destinations.
♣ Launching of matchmyuni.com
♣ Holding numerous amounts of exhibitions and fairs across East Africa.
♣ Currently working team of 55+ people as of today.
In the six-year journey, Edudite has facilitated 300+ collaborations between universities, 100,000+ students were positively impacted during this period whereas 3000+ students were assisted to study at their dream destinations. I with my team travelled to 30+ countries (covering South America, Asia and Africa) in the last 4 years to facilitate the above said projects.
Diplomatist: What is a typical day in your working life like?
Saksham Gupta: It’s like I have two kinds of work life. When in India, it’s all the calls, office and meetings and when outside, it’s filled with a bit of hustle, meeting the partners, students, visiting schools and offices. Overall, I have a pretty hectic work life especially from January to November and December is the month when I enjoy leisure and holidays with family and my wife.
Diplomatist: What are the popular study areas for international students in India?
Saksham Gupta: Depending on the countries student hail from, Edudite statistics to date suggest that paramedical, engineering fields, management and law are the top choices.
In India, for study, there are thousands of schools and universities to pick from, with a wide range of types, sizes, specializations, and origins, some public and others private. A growing number of students from other countries are opting to study in India for foreign students.
Study in India is an excellent choice for a wide range of international students. It is one of the world’s fastest-developing countries, with a rapidly expanding technological infrastructure. There are many start-ups to choose from, and job chances in India in the technology area have risen in recent years. Higher education in India is rapidly developing for International Students. In India nowadays, there are over a thousand authorised study institutions. Around fifty of them are well-known on a global scale. The National Institute Ranking Framework accredits and ranks all institutions (NIRF).
The educational system in India is as large and varied as the country itself. Students have access to a variety of courses from India’s finest schools, ranging from current and cutting-edge fields like Law Management, Humanities, and STEM to specialised courses like Buddhist Studies and Yoga. The online system is transparent and tech-driven, and it was designed to make the entire process, from registration to immigration, as simple as possible. Living and studying in India for international students differ in accordance with different factors. If the student has taken admission to a college in a big city, the student will find it quite convenient and easy in terms of connectivity and benefits. One of the best ways is to get admission to a university that also offers accommodation so that there is no such difficulty in terms of accommodation and survival.
Diplomatist: What are your plans for the future?
Saksham Gupta: We want to expand Edudite offices from 10 countries currently to at least 30 more and impact at least 10 million students in the next 5 years with www.matchmyuni.com becoming a household name in the study abroad sector across our targeted nations. To be honest, I have never given a thought for the next 5 years, I want to keep learning and growing and contribute to Edudite’s success for as long as I can.
Leave a Reply