[Case Study] Queen’s University Belfast transforms payments with Flywire, enhancing student experience, increasing working capital and refocusing staff

Problem: Complex payment process impacting student and staff experience

Students at Queen’s University Belfast, both domestic and international, had several ways to pay their tuition fees: direct bank transfers, direct debits, and face-to-face and telephone payments. But, because there were different paths to follow depending on the chosen payment method, this choice just caused confusion and gave students a disjointed experience.

For staff, the choice caused a heavy workload as they dealt with large volumes of student queries, alongside highly manual payment processing and reconciliation involving multiple vendors. The administrative burden was so large that payment security was difficult to maintain and, at peak times, Finance staff at the university were subject to a moratorium on leave.

Solution: Future-proof, integrated payments improves payer experience, payment security and internal efficiency

Having used Flywire since 2020 to take cross-border payments from students, the Queen’s University Belfast team knew Flywire could deliver significant efficiencies. This meant they were confident that using Flywire for all their payments, would solve the challenges their payers and staff were facing and help them become a cashless campus in line with the University’s payment acceptance strategy. A critical factor in the decision was Flywire’s integration with Oracle PeopleSoft, the software Queen’s University Belfast uses to calculate tuition fees and where the debt ledger is held.

Queen’s University Belfast went live with Flywire’s Student Financial Software for domestic and international tuition payments in October 2023; the impact was immediate.

Now, when students are completing enrolment and registration they are seamlessly redirected to Flywire where they can pay their tuition in full or sign up for a payment plan (termly or 6-month plan) that suits their needs. The whole process takes just a few minutes and they can see updates to their tuition fee account in real time.

Through the combination of Flywire’s intuitive self-service interface and around-the-clock multilingual payer support, the volume of email and phone queries has been reduced substantially. Reconciliation processes have been simplified and automated meaning staff can spend much more time supporting those students with more complex issues, who need personalised service.

There has been a dramatic increase in student engagement around tuition fee payments because the Flywire portal is so easy to use. Flywire has also helped streamline communications with key stakeholders regarding payment options for students. In particular, education agents across the university’s global recruitment markets have become increasingly familiar with Flywire as a reliable and transparent payment platform, fostering confidence in its use.

What’s more, because students are signed up to payment plans much earlier in the academic year, and the team has changed how it deals with non-payment, debt levels have decreased substantially, and there has been a corresponding rise in working capital.

By working with Flywire, Queen’s University Belfast can evolve payments across the university as needed. In fact, nine months after launching tuition payments with Flywire, they replaced their in-house eStore) with the Flywire online store, transferring all eStores across campus to it, even those for short courses or exam fees, which has improved payment security.