Throughout its history the Universidad de Málaga (UMA) has continually sought to be innovative. The recognition that students are the “protagonists of [their] mission” is rare in higher education, but this, along with its commitment to academic excellence, is what has attracted high caliber students to UMA’s campuses for three generations.
While international students are a small proportion of the student body, making UMA more attractive to overseas students is a strategic priority as the university looks to its future. As is leveraging digital transformation to modernise administration and optimise processes. Looking forward, UMA is committed to putting students at the centre of everything they do and demonstrates this with an eagerness to embrace change.
The problem: Non-Eurozone credit cards declined; short payments & time-consuming reconciliation result from international bank transfers
Before Flywire, international students enrolling with the Universidad de Málaga could only use a credit card or international bank transfer to pay their tuition fees; both posed problems. More often than not non-Eurozone credit cards were not authorised for international payments, and international bank transfers often resulted in short payments because of unexpected bank fees.
Alongside this, payments often arrived in the university’s bank account with no reference or identification information attached, making them hard to identify and allocate to the correct student account. The manual reconciliation was time-consuming and it was hard for the accounting team to identify unpaid tuition and therefore chase outstanding payments.
The solution: local payment options, automatic reconciliation & improved experience all around
Flywire’s powerful global payments network allows students to pay their tuition fees using their preferred local payment method, and see what the payment will cost them in their own currency, inclusive of fees and foreign exchange. The payment process is simple and transparent; students can be confident they are paying the exact right amount for their tuition fees and Flywire’s realtime updates keeps them informed of their payment’s status.
For the University’s accounting team, short payments are a thing of the past. Seamlessly integrating with their financial and accounting system, Universitas XXI, Flywire automates payment reconciliation and allocation. This means the team saves time and unpaid tuition can be easily identified and dealt with quickly, improving financial health.
Since implementing Flywire, we have observed a major transformation. All transactions are now clearly identified, which greatly facilitates the work of the accounting department and benefits our users.