“I asked a question and never heard back.”
Recruitment
Every enquiry answered and followed up, and advisers call the students most likely to enrol first.
What it moves: conversion
Applied AI for the education sector.
Better for students. More efficient to run. Ready to grow.
We work across the whole student journey, from the first advert to graduation, and the operation that runs it. We find where AI makes the biggest difference, then design, build and run the systems that do it.
Recruitment
More of the right students, from the first enquiry.
Admissions
Decisions in days, with the checking done for them.
Onboarding
Students ready to start on day one.
Teaching and support
Teachers with time for the students who need them.
Better for studentsThe right course, a fast decision, a good start and help when it counts.
More efficient to runThe chasing, checking and drafting move to systems; staff keep the judgement.
Ready to growMore students and new markets, on an operation built to carry them.
Part of Hyphen Education Group
espalier venturesiO-SpherenurtureINTO University PartnershipsNILEThe AI Board
How we think about AI in education.
Your people keep the decisions.AI drafts, sorts and suggests. Your staff decide.
We prove it before you pay to build it.A working pilot with a small group comes first.
Sometimes the answer isn't AI.If a process change does the job, we'll say so.
Every frustration a student feels starts somewhere in the operation. So does most of the cost.
We find the cause and change it. Sometimes that's a process. Sometimes it's software. Usually both.
“I didn't know if my place was safe, or what it would really cost.”
Admissions and pre-arrival
Documents checked as they arrive, a live status the applicant can see, costs set out early.
What it moves: offers converted to enrolments; deferrals
“I arrived late and missed everything meant to help me settle.”
Onboarding
Induction that starts when the student does, and enrolment done before arrival.
What it moves: continuation
“I didn't understand how I was marked, and the feedback came late.”
Teaching and assessment
First feedback drafted against the marking criteria. Tutors review and decide.
What it moves: NSS assessment and feedback score
“I didn't know help existed until months in.”
Student support
The right support offered at the moment it's needed, and tutors alerted when a student starts to slip.
What it moves: continuation
“Every office asked me the same questions.”
The operation
One record behind every team, so each conversation starts where the last one ended.
What it moves: cost to serve; NSS organisation and management score
Illustrative examples of patterns common across the sector.
We agree the measures with you at the start, and report against them.
Every engagement starts by agreeing which of these matter most to you, and how we'll measure them.
ConversionMore enquiries become students
Cost to serveLess spent on each student served
ContinuationMore students stay and progress
Student satisfactionHigher scores where students rate you
From first question to everyday use.
You see it work before you pay to build it. Your staff shape it from the first week. Your data stays yours.
- UnderstandHow your organisation works today: who does what, what it costs, which systems hold it up.
- Find the opportunityWhere a change would move outcomes, cost or capacity, and by how much.
- TestA working prototype and a small pilot, before any significant spend.
- RecommendThe business case, the roadmap, and who runs it.
- BuildProduction software and the working practices around it.
- ScaleMeasure what changed, then extend what works.
Four ways in. One team throughout.
Start wherever the problem is. The same people take it from diagnosis to working software.
Student experience
Answers, feedback and support when students need them, from first enquiry to progression.
For example: every enquiry answered and followed up, with advisers calling the most likely students first.
Run the operation better
Less admin behind the service, so staff time and money go where they matter.
For example: offers in days rather than weeks, with admissions staff deciding.
Decide what to change first
Work out which problems are worth fixing first, and how.
For example: a prioritised programme with the business case for each part, ready for a board.
AI and digital products
The software the change needs, from first prototype to everyday use.
For example: a working prototype in weeks, tested with your staff before anything is built for real.
We started inside our own group.
INTO University Partnerships
AI across a large international education business.
INTO works with universities in the UK, the US and Australia to recruit, teach and support international students. We looked across all of it, from marketing and recruitment to admissions, teaching and student support, found where AI would make the biggest difference, and started building.
The detail stays with INTO. The approach is the one we'd bring to you.
Week 1Your staff in the roomThe people who do the work shape what changes.
PilotProven with a small groupReal students and staff, before anything is built for real.
LiveOwned by your teamThey run it, and they know why it works.
INTO Qualifications
Digital infrastructure for qualifications and university progression.
The platform behind an awarding body whose qualifications universities accept for progression: recognition, administration and progression workflows, built with the people who run them.
Who you'd be working with.
HCS is part of Hyphen Education Group, whose companies, INTO University Partnerships among them, have worked with UK universities for twenty years. We built HCS to do for other education organisations what we already do inside the group.
Based in London.
Oscar Colin
Co-founder
Co-founder of iO-Sphere and The AI Board; Director at Hyphen Education Group. Previously strategy at INTO University Partnerships.
Alireza Dehghan
Co-founder
AI product engineer. Has founded and built several AI products end to end, from first prototype to enterprise use, and ran a 45-person software company. Earlier worked in international student recruitment for more than a hundred universities.
Bring us the problem.
A student journey, a cost pressure, a system that gets in the way. We'll help you work out what to change first.
A first engagement is short and fixed in scope: one defined question and a written answer with the evidence behind it.
For large universities, college groups, training providers and education groups.
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