Int’l Education Expo draws students in large numbers

Hundreds of students attended the International Education Expo 2018 organised jointly by Jang Media Group and Falcon Education & Consultancy Services on Saturday at local hotel.

The expo brought distinguished international universities and institutes as well as experienced education consultants under one roof to help students intending to pursue higher education abroad browse through the options and make informed decisions for their future.

The event featured about 25 stalls set up by various foreign universities and higher education institutes, including colleges, from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Northern Cyprus, Switzerland, Turkey and Egypt.

Highlighting the importance of education, the Jang Media Group displayed Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah’s quote: “Without education, it is complete darkness and with education it is light. Education is a matter of life and death for our nation”.

Speaking to The News, Syed Abidi, the chief executive of Falcon Education Consultancy said that in the past, the Jang Media Group had been organising the expo featuring national universities and degree-awarding institutes. “For the first time, Jang group has introduced international universities and colleges at the International Education Expo 2018,” he said.

He added that his company provides consultancy and counselling to students who wish to get admission in foreign higher education institutes. “Because a majority of them [students] are unable to find the right consultants, they end up wasting their time and money. Therefore, Falcon Services and Jang group organised this expo,” he said.

Abidi further said that education is the ladder to success. “Most of the young people have realised that without education they can’t climb the ladder because its first step is acquiring degree from a prestigious college or university,” said Abidi. “This year, it is expected that around 50,000 Pakistani students will go aboard to get higher education. Therefore, such events have a very important role in providing them accurate counselling.”

Zara Syed, a senior education consultant at one of the stalls, told The News that parents invest money as well as time to give their children a better education and future, but sometimes they end up choosing unheard of or unreliable institutes because of which their children have to face difficulities when they are studying abroad.

“The most common issue is that sometimes students get admissions in unrecognised colleges and varsities because they don’t get enough information about the foreign institutions,” she said.

Zara added that students commonly rely on the internet or on the information available on websites. “In such cases, we guide the parents and students in selecting foreign educational institutes for higher studies.”

According to her, not all students who intend to study abroad belong to high-income families, therefore, around 50 per cent of Pakistani students end up getting work permits in their host country while studying in order to support themselves.

“We suggest foreign education institutions based on the students’ priorities of what they want to study and where they want to go,” she said.