Entrepreneurship Trials and Tribulations
By Jayasankar Seshadri
Jayasankar is the Founder/Director of Campus Abroad for the last 20 years, with extensive experience in the field of education and has been a key event speaker. He was involved in the setting up the JSS Academy of Technical Education, Mauritius as a Founder Director. He is currently working on setting up a campus proposing to conduct programs on behalf of an Australian Group of 8 University.
It was the year 1998. My wife Rajeshwari was working in Chennai as the Country Head of a leading UK shoe making company and I was involved in running my company which manufactured and marketed power supply systems. Both of us were living a comfortable life, but we were restless and looking for new pastures. Mauritius was, in those days, promoting its freeport aggressively in India and I happened to attend a presentation. I had a few friends in Mauritius and they had told me that it was a beautiful country and a great place to live. I was tempted to move after seeing the Freeport presentation. I spoke to Philips, the electronics giant from Holland, and convinced them to give me distribution of their power supply systems for the East African region. Once the contract was signed, we decided to make the move to Mauritius – I, with a lot of enthusiasm and my wife, with a lot of reluctance. We were giving up everything to venture into uncharted territory.
We set up a Freeport company in Mauritius to export power supplies to East Africa. The first two years saw reasonably decent business though it involved a lot of hard work. My wife had to juggle the responsibility of maintaining the house, taking care of the children and helping me out in the office. To add to our woes, I suffered a multiple fracture of the leg while on a trekking expedition which rendered me bed ridden for about three months. However, we managed to get through these trying times and were all set for an expansion of our business.
Suddenly, one day in 2001, I got a call from the Philips office in Taipei. They told me they were selling their power supply business and exiting it completely. This came as a complete shock to us. We had left everything in India to come to Mauritius to start a new life but now here we were, facing an uncertain future. We then took a decision that we would not give up but would soldier on looking out for any worthwhile business opportunity. We had interacted with a lot of Mauritian friends and many of them had told us about opportunities in the educational consulting sector. They were frustrated at the lack of professional educational consultants to help their wards navigate the complex overseas admission process. Even though both of us were completely new to this sector, we decided to do some research and see if we could fit in. We noticed that this sector was completely unorganised and unscrupulous agents were taking advantage of prospective students. We therefore decided to venture into this business even though we lacked the background or expertise. Our enthusiasm was our biggest strength.
We set up a company in late 2001. The initial challenge was to come up with a catchy brand name. After much deliberation we decided on Campus Abroad as this reflected what our business sought to represent – students looking to study at a campus in an overseas country.
The next hurdle was to get representations from reputed institutions. Our original target market was the UK. We wrote to several universities in the UK, but all of them asked us to provide references from other UK universities we were working with. Unfortunately, we were not working with any. We kept persevering and finally a reputed UK university gave us a contract for one year. We were elated and gave it our all that year and were able to give the university a reasonable number of students. The university was also impressed by the way we worked and gave us a glowing reference and also a fresh three-year contract.
This was our inflection point. We were now able to get contracts from several UK universities as well as enquiries to represent from several others.
At the time Campus Abroad was formed, there were very few organised competitors in the market. It was a playing field ripe for exploitation by dishonest agents. Our focus on the interest of the student helped us to build the brand through word-of-mouth marketing by satisfied students and parents. Our reputation as an ethical agent helped us get a number of representations from UK universities. It soon came to a stage when we had to decline some universities as we felt that we would not be able to do justice to so many.
In 2007, we decided to organise our first Campus Abroad Education Fair at the British Council, Mauritius. We had the participation of 7 UK universities. This fair has since come a very long way and is a landmark in the Mauritian Higher Education Calendar. In the last edition, we had 65 institutions that participated
including the several embassies and high commissions.
Our growth over the years has been both upwardly vertical as well as horizontal. We have expanded our geographic focus to many other countries including Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, India, China, UAE and others besides the UK. Within each country we have also increased the number of universities we work with.
We are now a well-established and trustworthy brand in Mauritius. The brand reputation obviously comes with hard work and dedication. Even now, my wife and I make it a point to see every student who walks into our office, try and understand his/her aspirations and help in the best manner possible. Personal attention to detail is something we take very seriously.
Our logo reflects our business. The globe is our marketplace and the tag line “Secure your Future” emphasises our vision for our students.
Maintenance of excellence in the service industry is a 24/7 process. Campus Abroad understands this and is trying to deliver services in line with these expectations.
Student Testimonials
Dear Campus Abroad Team, I seize this opportunity to express my great satisfaction, gratitude and respect for helping me with admission to the University of Sheffield. You managed this in a professional and delicate way. You are all wonderful people, always smiling and providing solutions to any problem that students have. There are no words which can express my gratitude towards this institution! Campus Abroad just opened and brightened up my way up to success and I will forever be grateful to the whole team, especially Mrs. Jayasankar! Thank you very much for everything!
~ Yash Hardowar
The welcome and kindness shown by Campus Abroad and its collaborators along with their precious help, concise guidance and work devotion define their attitude and passion. Since I made my applications, I was provided support every step of the way. Numerous are those undergraduate and postgraduate students who are thankful to them. I can affirm that I have the privilege to be one of them. As Benjamin Franklin once said: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” If one is ready to embark onto one’s tertiary education abroad after the A-levels, I would highly recommend Campus Abroad.
~ Dharanjay Jugun
After my A levels, I was indecisive about the next step. At Campus Abroad, Mr. Seshadri Jayasankar and his team helped me to choose a Canadian university with the best program I wanted to study and assisted me with the visa application. I would strongly recommend Campus Abroad to those who wish to study abroad. Do not hesitate to call at their office if you have questions! I’d like to thank the team once again for their support.
~ Lakshana Jeewoonarain
It is my pleasure to recommend Campus Abroad for advice on tertiary education and visa application. My experience with Campus abroad was exceptional. Campus Abroad helped me with my application to the Niagara College, Canada back in 2013. After my graduation, I worked for a year in Canada before getting my PR. I am currently doing my Masters in Automation Engineering at McMaster University Canada while my citizenship application is in process. Throughout my journey, Campus abroad was always available to answer my concerns. I do not hesitate to recommend the services of Campus Abroad and wish them the best of luck. Keep up the good work!
~ Melvyn Mungroo
