The future of global higher education and studying abroad: How Studyportals harnesses generative AI

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International education is constantly evolving, and Studyportals is at the forefront, breaking down barriers and expanding access to global higher education opportunities for students worldwide. Studyportals is dedicated to equipping students with the resources and information necessary to successfully pursue their education abroad. Powered by the scalable and secure infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Studyportals is now harnessing the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to redefine the student experience.

Addressing a critical inflection point in the student journey

Studyportals, a platform that attracts more than 4.2 million students each month, has long been recognized for its comprehensive database of international university programs and scholarships. However, the company identified a critical gap in the student journey—the 16- to 18-month period between a student’s initial interest in studying abroad and their actual enrollment. During this pivotal phase, prospective students explore the feasibility and logistics of a global education. All too often, students give up on studying abroad during this time because they lose interest, fail to find programs that appeal to them, or determine that the opportunity is unattainable given their available resources.

Studyportals sought to develop a solution that would better help these students as they explore their options for studying abroad. They created the Studyportals AI student advisor, Sophia, an innovative tool designed to guide and support students through their international education journey.

Developing the Studyportals AI student advisor

Studyportals built an initial proof of concept with OpenAI, embedding a conversational assistant into the Studyportals landing pages, resulting in a 16 percent increase in user engagement over 30 days. Studyportals turned to AWS and Amazon Bedrock to develop a robust, scalable platform. With Amazon Bedrock, Studyportals has access to a broad choice of foundation models (FMs) from AWS and industry-leading AI companies. This allows Studyportals to efficiently integrate advanced business logic into their AI-powered advisor.

“To ensure the reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness of our generative AI–powered Student Advisor, we have chosen to build it on the AWS infrastructure,” said Stefan Klokgieters, software development manager at Studyportals. “This decision was driven by our existing AWS based ecosystem and the in-house expertise of our team in navigating the AWS landscape.”

Working with AWS on this new solution was a natural choice for the Studyportals team.

Learning from insights and refining the solution

Through extensive testing, Studyportals discovered that students responded better to an AI advisor that was seamlessly integrated into the platform, rather than a standalone chat assistant. This insight led Studyportals to develop a user-centric and highly knowledgeable advisor that provides personalized recommendations about study programs and scholarship opportunities, drawing from Studyportals’ extensive database. The immersive and contextual experience of the AI assistant is redefining how students discover and navigate studying abroad.

How Sophia enables students to study abroad

Since its launch, the AI assistant, Sophia, has connected users from 100-plus countries around the world with resources that facilitate studying abroad. Sophia can engage with students in more than 20 languages, and this number is growing. This widespread adoption, spanning continents and languages, is a clear indication of the growing interest and trust that students have placed in the tool.

As mentioned, Studyportals realized early that there is a significant challenge during the 16- to 18-month period when a student first shows interest in studying abroad and when they enroll in their international education program. Data on Sophia’s performance promises to better support students through this period. Users average four messages with Sophia in one interaction. What’s more, 85 percent of those users went on to explore the resources and recommendations provided by Sophia. This level of engagement highlights the advisor’s ability to keep students actively involved in their educational journeys.

A key metric for Studyportals is whether students explore one of their 3,500 participating higher education institutions. About half of Sophia’s users have been directed to pages about their global university partners, indicating that personalized and relevant recommendations enhance the visibility of the extensive Studyportals network and scholarship opportunities. Sophia plays a pivotal role in helping students access diverse international education options and funding.

Powering the future of global education

As Studyportals continues to push the boundaries of global education, their strategic engagement with AWS and commitment to developing new solutions have made them a leader in the field. Studyportals, with the support of AWS, is leading the charge to make international education more accessible and helping students around the world to unlock their full potential. If you are interested in learning more about studying abroad and scholarship opportunities, get in touch with Sophia. To learn more about AWS infrastructure and generative AI, contact your AWS account team or the AWS Public Sector team.