Get introduced to UK Study Information Centre based in SL!!

What exactly is UKSIC?

‘’Striving to Set’’ a legacy in being the most resourceful overseas education consultancy in Sri Lanka The start : UKSIC (UK Student Education Centre) is a platform designed by two Sri Lankan immigrantsThe inauguration: This is a compact platform reshaped and molded, by two Sri Lankan immigrants residing in the UK that thought on the lines of creating a student centered, educational migration information hub and branding the business venture as UKSIC ( UK Student Education Centre ). Benchmarking this venture focusing mainly to be a responsible guide for aspiring Sri Lankan students who wishes to pursue a diversified experience in varied fields of education by being based in the UK. The founders directed themselves a decade ago to the UK in a similar pathway by obtaining student migration VISAS. They do share the parallel experience like the rest of the other international students residing in different parts of the world. After a period of time by being self-assured in the UK, the setting up of the business project, UKSIC began in 2014, and continuous to grow with more constancy.

The transition of being immigrant students to immigrant entrepreneurs was truly a tough start. We faced many battles day in and day out: cultural differences; money; customers from different parts of the world who spoke different languages; competition.

However, there was one thing in our favour: Our experience as immigrant international students in the UK. Since it was an education consultancy for international students, all we had to do was share our real life experiences with our clients and guide them. What helps an international student more than learning from someone who went through the same experience and being guided by that person?

To sum up our lives as immigrant international students, we worked hard. We took up many jobs to cover our expenses. We learnt to manage the little money we had to achieve bigger dreams. We completed our studies. The education we received in the UK was certainly beyond theories. The UK for us, from day one, has been a grand platform to experience the real world.

At our education consultancy : We worked hard to cater to all sorts of clients. Our clients utilised student visas to come to the UK for many reasons: education; money; opportunity; better living standards; status and pride. We had worked with low ranked colleges to universities with the highest standards. Most applicants that we served — most of our customers were Asian — just wanted to come to the UK; for most customers, education was not their prime objective. But on the other hand, there were a few who genuinely wanted us to assist them with finding the best university, course and location that suit their educational needs and fall in line with their career aspirations. For us, survival in this market wasn’t tough; with our experience as international students from Sri Lanka who came to the UK, we had the capacity and resources to cater to different customer needs.

But soon, we had to decide where we wanted to position our company in the long run. There were many students who just wanted to come to the UK, but only a few thought of what’s next? Through experience, we knew that they were going to get it wrong.

In the long run : First and foremost, We always emphasise that “just coming to the UK on a student visa won’t change your life, it can even make it worse”(there is a separate article on this topic).

The UK is a great place to receive both theoretical and practical aspects of education and the student visa route is specifically designed for that reason. But due to the nature of the UK student visa route (the eligibility criteria can be easily met than other visa categories), people tend to misuse this channel for permanent migration. Then these people are often misled by agents and bogus solicitors.

What the UK can offer you goes way beyond settling in the UK; the potential is immense. The UK truly is a land of opportunities, but only if you utilise the opportunities right.

However, we have seen hundreds of thousands of people who spend a fortune to keep renewing student visas so that they can remain in the UK after coming here for irrelevant reasons (Also read: Top 5 irrelevant reasons to come to the UK on Student visa). Some immigrants grow older in this process of renewing visas, and live a very unsatisfied life. They spend weeks and months and years, shifting from one programme to another and one college/university to another to renew their student visas in order to remain in the UK. This process not only takes away their valuable time and potential for growth, but also takes away their finances. That’s the bitter truth.

On the other hand for students who are progressive and determined, settling in the UK is a bonus. So, from day one, we want to help our students develop a quality career, add value to themselves and live a better life regardless of their plans to settle in the UK or vice versa. Hence, we encourage our students to focus on education more than anything else. When it comes to promoting student visas, we, therefore, decided to stick to overseas students who genuinely seek better educational opportunities and life experiences than people who just want to migrate to a first world country.

Our advice is based on years of experience we gained as immigrant students in the UK; it’s coupled with the experience we gained by handling hundreds of immigrants from different parts of the world.

Expanding to Sri Lanka: There was a huge potential for what we stood up for.

There were many misconceptions to be addressed when it comes to studying in the UK as an international student coming from Sri Lanka, or simply about the international student visa pathway in the UK.

However, in 2014, we didn’t have a bigger, wider audience to listen to our message. Therefore, we had to work on different projects to take our message to potential candidates. The growth of the market was slow, but it has certainly grown steadily during the last few years.

UKSIC is one of the platforms we have designed focusing on Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan students during our journey to deliver our message productively. UKSIC began in 2021 in Sri Lanka under the supervision of our London office. We specifically curated UKSIC to provide tangible information and guidance to develop Sri Lankan immigrant students in the UK who want to improve their student life and advance their career. At UKSIC, our priority is to empower students to see the real world possibilities and benefits of the Tier 4 Student Visa in the UK, beyond using it as a tool to migrate to a first world country.

This sums up our journey from the UK to Sri Lanka so far. I will talk to you soon in our next article.

Click here for the Next article : Part 2 —How resourceful is UKSIC?

Writer: Hasitha Rodrigo founder member UKSIC