Independent guidance, paid for by institutions.

CI Study has advised students since 2008, from offices in Dhaka, Chattogram, London, Toronto and Sydney. Here is how we work, how we are paid, and what that means for the advice you get.

2008
founded: 5
offices: 1,100+
partner institutions: Free
to students: 14
countries covered

WHO WE ARE

A counselling business, not a placement agency.

The difference matters. A placement agency starts from the universities it represents and works backwards to a student who fits. We start from your record, your budget and where you want to end up, and only then look at which institutions are worth applying to. Sometimes the answer is a partner of ours. Sometimes it is not, and we say so, because a student on the wrong course does not finish it and an agent known for that stops getting referrals.

01Independent by designThe shortlist comes out of your profile, not our partner list.
02Counsellors with the relevant experienceMost of our team were international students themselves.
03Accountable to one personYour file has a named owner from enquiry to enrolment.

What we actually do

Counselling, applications, funding, visas, housing and pre-departure. The full sequence from a first conversation about what you want to study through to your first week on campus, handled by one counsellor rather than passed between departments.

What we do not do is teach you to want something. If you arrive certain about a country and a course and the record supports it, the job is administrative and we say so rather than manufacture a discovery process.

How we are paid

Transparency here matters more than anywhere else on the site, because the incentive is not obvious to a student reading it.

Source	Detail
Institution commission	Paid when an accepted student enrols, and only then
Student fees	None for counselling, applications, visa work or housing
Premium counselling	An optional paid tier for applicants who need more hours
Third-party fees	University application fees, test fees and government visa fees, paid by you directly to them

What we will not do

We will not push a partner institution over a better fit, apply on your behalf to somewhere you have not agreed to, submit a visa file we believe will be refused, or promise an outcome that belongs to an admissions committee or a case officer.

We will also tell you when you do not need us. If your grades clear your shortlist comfortably and your timeline is relaxed, the free service is enough and we will not sell you the premium tier.

How we measure ourselves

Not on applications submitted, which is easy to inflate, but on enrolments completed, visa approval rate, and how many students come to us through someone we have already placed. Those three are hard to game and they point in the same direction.

It began with a 340-kilometre mistake

Four moments that decided what this company refuses to do.

One student, one agent, one brochure.

He left for a Masters in London at a time when you could not check a university yourself. So he relied on an agent, because everyone did.

The campus was 340 km from the one he was promised.

The offer was real. The institution was not the one in the brochure. He transferred at his own cost, a full term late.

He was not the only one.

Every second student he met had paid for a shortlist someone else was paid to produce. He started reading their paperwork for free, on weekends, in a library.

So the checking became the business.

CI Study opened with one rule that has not moved since: if we cannot source a number from the institution itself, we do not publish it.

BEHIND CI STUDY

Meet our founders

Here is the team leading the way in creating the perfect platform to find and apply to your dream study abroad destination.

Tanvir Ahmed

WHO YOU WORK WITH

Named counsellors, not a queue

You are assigned one counsellor for the whole application. Their destination desk, caseload and placement record are on record.

Farhana RahmanBangla, English9 yrs

Tanvir AhmedBangla, English, Hindi6 yrs

Nusrat JahanBangla, English7 yrs

Rafiq ChowdhuryBangla, English, Arabic11 yrs

COMMON QUESTIONS

Frequently asked questions

Is counselling really free for students?

Yes. There is no consultation fee, no application handling fee and no charge for visa assistance or accommodation placement. Institutions pay a commission when a student they have accepted enrols, and that funds the service. You still pay third parties directly — university application fees where they exist, your English test, and the government visa fee — and we tell you each of those amounts before you commit to anything.

How do you choose which universities to recommend?