Flywire and Tencent Financial Team on International Tuition Payments for Chinese Students

Flywire and Tencent Financial Technology have teamed up to provide a convenient way for Chinese students to make international tuition payments.

This partnership will use the digital wallet Weixin Pay (WeChat Pay) to provide a seamless and smooth method for Chinese students and families to pay for education abroad, the companies said in a Thursday (July 13) press release.

“This partnership ensures that for Chinese students studying internationally at institutions that use Flywire, we essentially become their ‘pay’ button, by offering localized and seamless payment capabilities, which benefit students, families and institutions alike,” Mohit Kansal, senior vice president of global payments and payer services at Flywire, said in the release.

The new partnership will make the experience of paying cross-border education payments just as seamless as that of using Weixin Pay for daily transactions, according to the press release.

Chinese students make up a large portion of the international student population, the release said. According to recent estimates, after China’s recent reopening of its borders, Chinese outbound mobility is expected to recover to two-thirds of its 2019 highs, with around 110 million border crossings.

“As more Chinese students are eager to study abroad again, we’re confident that Flywire will enable our users to improve their international payment experience, and make paying for education as easy as sending a chat,” Tencent Financial Technology Asia Pacific General Manager Wenhui Yang said in the release.

According to Business of Apps, WeChat “is the only app in China to have over 1 billion active users and is one of only five apps in the world which have surpassed that milestone. WeChat Pay, which was built using the framework of Tenpay, has over 900 million users and has supplanted AliPay as the most popular payment service in the country.”

The new partnership comes about eight months after Flywire teamed up with India’s HDFC Bank to help students in India pay education fees at institutions around the world. The companies said at the time that their collaboration streamlines payments for students and families while also making sure they comply with international transaction guidelines.

It also comes two days after payments technology company Flutterwave launched a product called Tuition to enable African students to conveniently pay fees to educational institutions both within Africa and overseas by using their local currencies.