Flywire Teams With BOSSA For China Cross-Border Tuition Payments

Flywire has teamed with China’s international education industry association BOSSA to bring its cross-border payment services to more Chinese students traveling to other countries.

BOSSA, or the Beijing Overseas Study Service Association, is a non-profit organization supported by the government that assists its 300 member agents to recruit and provide guidance to roughly two-thirds of all students from China studying in other countries annually. China boasts the largest source of international students for educational institutions worldwide.

Flywire, a payment provider for students and schools across the globe, lets institutions provide students with a convenient, customized and safe digital payment experience.

Jon Santangelo, a spokesperson for BOSSA, said in the announcement, “Flywire offers state-of-the-art technology and services for cross-border payments. We are pleased to endorse them to Chinese education agencies, and China’s wider international education sector as a whole. The level of integrity they’ve achieved in the higher education field is a big differentiator to Chinese agencies.”

Global students have been the focus of scams in past years, according to the announcement, which noted that fraudsters have purported to represent educational institutions and become trusted by families. After the scammers accept “tuition fees” from the families, they vanish and leave behind large challenges for students as well as institutions. Flywire and BOSSA have worked together during the past year to educate students and universities about the problem, while providing a secure channel for payments.

Sharon Butler, executive vice president of Education at Flywire, said in the announcement, “No one knows more about the international education sector in China than BOSSA. They’ve been an outstanding partner to date, and we look forward to expanding on that relationship to create even stronger and more meaningful relationships with Chinese students, education agents and industry professionals.”

The news comes as Flywire has unveiled multiple enhancements to its payments platform, which helps education recruitment agents manage student data as well as monitor payments. The company is rolling out a tailored dashboard that lets agents directly offer payment reminders to students and monitor payments in real time via the system.