Prestigious Korean higher education institution, Sungkyunkwan University, chooses Flywire to solve cross-border payments and future-proof payments

Students at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) follow in the footsteps of Confucian scholars. Founded over 600 years ago, at the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, SKKU is the oldest higher education institution in East Asia, blending traditional philosophy with innovative spirit; fostering the leaders of tomorrow.

Ranked among the top universities in the world, its reputation for academic excellence and innovation attracts over 26,000 students per semester, including more than 4000 international students from across the globe. It was these students that desperately needed innovation when it came to paying their tuition fees.

Problem: Limited payment options, excessive FX costs and delayed tuition payments

International students wishing to study at SKKU only had a limited number of options available to them for paying their tuition fees. If a student, for whatever reason, couldn’t use one of these options they often resorted to using illegal (and extortionate) currency exchange brokers.

Students from countries where the Korean Won is not readily available for exchange had significant issues with paying their tuition fees. These students had to go through two stages of currency exchange—their home currency to USD, then USD to KRW—causing delays and paying double FX fees, adding to the cost to make a payment. They also had to visit their bank in person to do this.

The difficulties students had with payments had a knock on effect on the finance team at SKKU, who had difficulty accurately reconciling most of the international payments they received. Overseas payments often arrived with no identification information (i.e. invoice number or student ID) or the amounts received didn’t correspond to invoices issued due to exchange rate fluctuations and unexpected fees.

Solution: Innovative cross-border payment solution with endorsements from esteemed universities around the world

SKKU wanted their payment process to be seamless and more convenient for everyone involved. This meant the solution they chose had to improve the experience for their international students and, at the same time, improve efficiency and make life easier for the finance staff too. Flywire’s reputation as a global public fintech, with reputable higher education clients, such as the University of Chicago and University of Oxford, meant SKKU felt confident that they could trust Flywire to deliver the solution to their payment problems.

Using Flywire, international students can now pay in 140+ currencies and have a larger number of payment options available to them; bank transfer, card payments and online transfers. Students can complete their payments online, anytime from anywhere. What’s more, Flywire gives students real time payment status updates so they are kept updated on the progress of their payment, giving them reassurance and around-the-clock multilingual support if it is ever needed.

The seamless payment experience, through a custom integration into the SKKU student portal and finance system translates to increased student satisfaction and improved internal process efficiency. Under and over payments have been eliminated; so too have associated additional collections and refunds. SKKU staff can also see the real time status of payments that have been made, within the student account, removing the need for students to send proof of payment.

Flywire will also support their international student diversification plans; allowing them to attract and take payments from students all over the globe.