Millions of students aspire to go for higher education. Many look forward to international universities as they provide higher education with quality, global perspective, and high learning standards.
However, the process of going to international universities can be arduous. It might pose certain challenges due to various reasons like lack of proper knowledge of international travel rules, the educational procedures, and some unknowns.
Well, there are some subject matter experts who are the rainmakers in guiding the aspiring students in the complete process of immigration, admission, fund management and settlement procedures. Anuj Parikh, Director of Disha Consultants, is one glaring example of a dedicated professional consultant for international education.
Disha Consultants, under his expert guidance, offers the right guidance to the aspiring students in the complete procedure for perceiving their higher education in various international universities in US and Canada.
Rising by Guiding
Disha Consultants is a Gujarat-based education counselling firm that guides students aiming to pursue higher education in the US and Canada. Disha Consultants was established in 2003 and has offices in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. In the last 19 years, Disha Consultants has helped more than 11,000 students secure admission to leading American and Canadian universities, including Ivy League institutes.
Disha Consultants is a certified member of The American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) and was one of the first firms in India to be approved by it. The firm also has the International Centre for Education (ICEF) status and NAFSA membership.
What differentiates Disha Consultants from other education counselling firms is that its directors have studied in the US, given up US permanent residence (green cards), and settled in India. The senior management’s practical experienceof studying abroad enable Disha Consultants to quickly understand the aspirants’ expectations and concerns, identify the best-fit programs and universities, and counsel them to achieve.
The highly experienced team of counsellors and facilitators at Disha Consultants offers personalized guidance and pulling up the students throughout the admission process, which includes creating the list of best-fit universities for them, building their unique admissions profile, assisting them with application forms, resume development, planning for finances, and guiding through the visa process to help them realize their dream of studying abroad.
Where Work Speaks and Values Work
On ground significant experience, the strength of Disha’s work continues to be a leader, effective enabler for students.
Disha Consultants focuses on the US and Canada, which continues the most popular international education destinations for Indian students and where the founding team has on-ground significant experience. Over the past, nearly two decades, Disha Consultants through word of mouth and informational seminars has established itself as a leading and effective enabler for students who aim to pursue further studies in North America. The uniqueness is that unlike the popular advertising mode (print, billboards, and radio) Disha Consultants through the strength of their work continue to be a leader in the space.
what makes Disha Consultants stand out in the crowd is the attention to individual needs. At Disha Consultants, the belief is that “no one size does not fit all” approach and strictly abide by it when working with students is adopted for every single student. There is a meticulous process followed to understand what each student brings, needs and aspires for. This process had led to a track record of identifying the right University for students and in turn ensured immense success for these students. This meticulous attention to detail, preparation and expert guidance from the founders is the reason for Disha Consultants’ over 95% visa success rate.
An Inspiring Anecdote of Passion
Anuj Parikh, director at Disha Consultants, has been associated with the firm since 2005. He is responsible for the firm’s international outreach and relationship-building with top foreign universities. He also oversees the recruitment of new students, counselling, guidance including visa processing.
He has a master’s degree in Packaging Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology, US, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from St. Xavier’s College in Ahmedabad. Over the years, he has visited numerous university campuses and attended several conferences to meet and connect with hundreds of admissions officers at top universities in the US and Canada.
Advantage Technology, Changing Adaptability
Adoption of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is becoming increasingly pervasive in our daily lives and the education counselling field is no different. The use of these and other emerging technologies will help in improving efficiencies and accuracy.
Disha Consultants, believes in making optimal use of technology and they are doing the same with these technologies. Its systems, data, and processes are designed to help in maximizing the use of technology.
Growing from the Challenges
The initial challenge was educating the market. Most students went to universities that their seniors or relatives went to. Disha Consultants had to work on first helping students and families understand the need to find a passion, identify individual student’s strengths, traits and realize what is right for one may not be necessarily right for another.
This required focused effort in spreading awareness and involved the founder travelling to more than 100 institutions and schools explaining the value of such thinking. However, as results became apparent to students and families the word spread and the market evolved.
The ‘been there and done that’ and hands-on approach of the directors surely made an impact. Educating the market and building awareness about finding the right fit in the mind of the clients was also a big challenge in those days, but with a track record, and has helped 11,000 students fulfil their dream of international education, clients’ faith and trust are Disha’s most prized possessions.
In today’s date, finding like-minded people, who are a must to expand the team and scale up operations, is a key challenge.
Philosophical Words of Sagacity
Anuj mentioned about identifying the market opportunity, planning, exerting to achieve, tweaking as the market evolves, and thinking in the long run. He exclaimed gleefully about the fact of time taken in building a successful firm. He mentioned, “Most importantly, continue to acquire knowledge and keep improving yourself by acquiring new skillsets. Listen to others but do what your heart tells you. Be passionate about pursuing your dream.
Most importantly give the best advice to the client, not the advice the client wants to hear, but the advice that is good for him. This will help you in building your reputation as even if they do not accept your advice immediately, they will eventually realize that taking your advice would have been better.”
Scaling New Horizons
Disha Consultants plans to scale up and is already doing this by expanding its team size, creating an online presence, and commencing a new division. Following the pandemic disruption, international education has bounced back to the pre-pandemic levels.
Anuj is confident of the industry to grow at a fast pace in 2022 and confident that Disha Consultants too will rise exponentially. He concluded, “We aim to enhance the use of technology to further enhance our offerings and build scale.”
