The Education Consultancy Association (ECAN) Education Fair, the largest education fair for study aboard, is all set to be held at the Exhibition Hall in Capital. The four-day event, targeted at grade 12 graduates, will be inaugurated by the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Anand Pokharel amid a function on Friday.

According to the organisers, this tenth iteration of the fair will be the largest yet in terms of the numbers of stalls and the volume of participation by colleges and universities from around the world. The exhibitors will showcase their services out of 225 stalls and 17 pavilions, each with representatives from international academic institutions or their local representatives.  A total of 70 academic institutions, 15 each from Australia and India, 10 each from New Zealand and Japan, among others, will be directly participating in the fair. Education consultancies which facilitate admissions to international institutions will be represented at the fair as well.

“We have learned many things in last nine editions of the fair. This fair is an amalgamation of the lessons from the past and is set to be a grand event,” said ECAN President Prakash Pandey. He also reiterated that while at the fair, students will not just be able to receive visa counselling but career counselling as well. As the directives that guide education consultancies and language institutions make it mandatory to have certified counsellors, students visiting the fair will be able to receive professional counselling based on their interests. “All the colleges and consultancies will have qualified counsellors and will not just provide visa counselling but also career counselling,” Ramesh Wagle ECAN joint-treasurer and fair coordinator.

The presence of the representatives from international academic institutions will provide students and their guardians an opportunity to gather first hand information about prospective universities and colleges. The exhibition will also acquaint students with the wide range of courses available in different countries. The mega education gathering, organisers assert, will be a great platform to gather the latest information about different opportunities available across the world. The fair will also provide the opportunities for students to stay updated with the changing visa and immigration regulations in the different destinations countries.

“With over 200 institutions gathering under a single roof, students don’t need to visit a number of consultancies to gather the information they need,” said ECAN Secretary Umesh Dhungel. The students can utilise the event to collect information about the education systems, visa policies, costs, scholarship opportunities for colleges in India, Japan, Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand, South Korea, Bangladesh and Germany among others. Records at the Ministry of Education show that Nepali students have travelled to 76 countries across the world for the higher studies

Apart from catering to the needs of the students and their guardians, the fair will also provide a platform for the ECAN members to promote their businesses. The exhibitors will get the opportunity to brand themselves at the fair which is slated to attract around 150,000 visitors in its four days. ECAN, with over 340 membes, is the largest umbrella organisation of the education consultancies in the country.