Application spots for students can fill up in as little as 15 minutes. Every year, after placements are set, there is a very long wait-list. And education agents working with interested international students are already eying the 2025 academic year.
Think we’re talking about a higher education institution? Think again. This is West Vancouver School District, the longest-running international K-12 school district in British Columbia, and a coveted primary and secondary education experience for international students. Roughly 450 international students (130 of them primary school age) come to study at West Vancouver institutions every year – approximately 6% of the 7,200 students in that community. They take part in Canada’s program that enables international students to attend public schools on a tuition-fee basis. But before any of that can begin, tuition payments need to be processed.
West Vancouver School District at a glance
Problem: Despite provider promises, international payment processes still manual
Prior to implementing Flywire, international students attending West Vancouver District elementary or secondary schools mainly paid through wire transfer, according to Michael Frankowski, who has been the Director of International Programs Department since 2012. The job of more fully automating that process was one that West Vancouver’s previous payment provider said it could handle. Instead, the work of matching hundreds of incoming wire transfers to student accounts fell to one person, a sort of superhuman as Frankowski describes her, who manually muscled through the herculean process in order to ensure student success. With that payment provider obviously not delivering, and the payment hero’s impending retirement, it was time for a change.
“We were the school with the oldest international program in the country, handling tuition with the same 1970’s money handling process and timelines,” he said.
Solution: Flywire integrates with TrueNorth to streamline international tuition payments
As Frankowski put it perfectly, “the previous system didn’t work. Flywire works. It does exactly what it says it does.” Families can easily and securely pay online in their currency using their payment method of choice. Student payments then quickly settle in CAD in West Vancouver’s bank account. And because Flywire is integrated with its TrueNorth student information system, transaction details are always accurate and up-to-date. The pre-built Flywire and TrueNorth integration was a big factor in the decision to move to Flywire. “TrueNorth is pivotal to all of our work. We could not have a 450 international student program without TrueNorth,” he said.
With 82% of international student recruitment coming through partnerships with education agents, the school district also benefits from Flywire’s strong reputation in the education agent ecosystem. Thousands of education agents globally already rely on Flywire for their students to send tuition payments, and that makes it much easier for the school in terms of tracking and reconciliation.
There are other benefits West Vancouver has found by easing the international tuition payment process that they did not anticipate. For instance, they used to have to chase or eventually just write-off the $300 CAD application fees of students who applied to the school, decided to go somewhere else, and never paid their bill. Now more families pay right away because there is an easy way to pay application fees online using a credit card before the process starts.
Frankowski also appreciates the care Flywire put into setting the staff up for success. He was impressed that Flywire did not just show the bells and whistles, but trained staff on how the day-to-day work was going to go, even anticipating their questions. “Staff just want it to be easy,” he said. “That training was pretty critical.”
Benefits of Flywire
The previous system didn’t work. Flywire works. It does exactly what it says it does.
