The University of Oxford is considered the gold-standard of higher education, but their highly manual U.S. loan process did not match this reputation. It was a drain on staff time and a source of unnecessary financial friction for American students. For a world-class institution, complexity shouldn’t come at the cost of the student experience.
By implementing Flywire’s Financial Aid Disbursements solution, Oxford resolved these issues (and more), resulting in a secure process that saved two to three hours per disbursement and seamlessly managed the transfer of nearly $3.6 million in funding.
About University of Oxford
The problem: Manual processes exposed
The university’s extremely manual, spreadsheet-based process made it difficult to best serve U.S. students. It was difficult to send students’ overage payments or ensure that they didn't get hit with additional fees when they sent them to U.S. bank accounts. The university also couldn’t easily accept or process funding from private loan providers because their process was inflexible.
Not only was the process complex and time-consuming, it also exposed the university to risk. It wasn’t possible to develop existing solutions to fully resolve the challenges the finance team faced so they looked to Flywire.
The solution: Flywire’s seamless and secure Financial Aid Disbursements solution
The University of Oxford partnered with Flywire to automate the processing of $3.6m in federal and private loans in the first major disbursement of the academic year. With Flywire, the university has:
- Saved 2-3 hours per disbursement. Data is extracted from the Microsoft Dynamics database, automatically reformatted, and transferred to Flywire in a single, secure upload. This has accelerated the process by eliminating the complex, multi-step, manual process, and removed the risk of human error.
- Strengthened compliance & data security. Students now enter their bank details directly into the Flywire portal, ensuring sensitive personal information is transmitted and stored securely.
- Improved the experience for students & staff. Staff can send overage payments directly to students’ U.S. bank accounts in USD, eliminating double currency conversion. Coupled with the university’s new-found ability to process disbursements from a wider range of loan providers, the experience has improved significantly for staff and students alike.
Flywire was open to listening to our unique circumstances, given Oxford's complexity. For us, the transition was really positive—it has saved significant time and delivered a great benefit to our students, improving the experience for all students.
Learn how Flywire’s Financial Aid Disbursements solution can help your institution preserve enrolment and protect revenue, regardless of your structural complexity.