As educational trips gain popularity, universities embrace the Visa at Your Doorstep service for efficiency

With travel restrictions around the globe easing in the post-pandemic age, universities have seen an increase in the number of overseas trips for students.

In the past year, British universities re-started their overseas trips for sports, culture, education or exchange programmes and have noted increased demand. According to the latest reports, the educational tourism market is expected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2% between 2021-2031. By 2031 its value is projected to reach $1,947 billion. 

Further, the total number of global educational tourists stood at 6 million in 2022. In the UK, leading passport and visa services company VFS Global has seen an increase in interest from universities for its Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD) service.

Over the years, it has helped over 20 colleges and universities with visa services for trips abroad for sports, culture, education or exchange programmes.

VFS Global has noted a sharp increase in educational institutions offering cultural and student exchange programmes over the year and found sports, culture, education, and skiing types of activities as being popular. It has also been noted that  European destinations are popular for UK students and educational programmes.  

As many students, especially those from third countries in the UK, need a visa to join overseas education tours, VFS Global launched its Visa At Your Doorstep (VAYD) service to make it easier for universities and students to have a seamless travel experience. 

The doorstep service enables students to apply for a visa from the comfort of their university campus. They don’t have to visit the visa centre or wait in long queues anymore. If a university chooses the service, VFS Global’s team visits the location at a scheduled time and date and helps process applications

The team assists students through their application submission process and biometrics, providing all necessary clarifications and helping them with the end-to-end application process.

Applying for a visa can be a very stressful experience. So, agencies try and ensure that the experience for University students is a seamless and stress-free one.

Yummi Talwar,COO of Europe and CIS region at VFS Global said:

“The Visa at Your Doorstep (VAYD) service has seen a huge spike in demand lately.  Over the last two years, 20 colleges and universities have used the VAYD service for trips abroad for sports, culture, education or exchange programmes. Applying for a visa can be a very stressful experience so, we try and ensure that the experience for University students is a seamless and stress-free one. In the UK, Universities are a huge market for us, given that it makes more sense for large groups to utilise this service instead of making multiple in-person appointments to VFS Global centres. Our staff carry mobile kits to capture the biometrics and this ease and convenience of having the visa services company visit a university campus to offer the visa processing service for students make a big difference to their travel experience.”

In the UK, VFS Global offers VAYD services to countries including Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Malta, Croatia, Ireland, Cyprus and South Africa.