Senior Software Engineer

Students can now pay school fees through Flutterwave and Convera's new global tie-up. Flutterwave and Convera are partnering to give students more flexible, multi-method tuition payment options across regions. Flutterwave is partnering with global cross-border payments firm Convera to expand flexible tuition payment options for students paying higher-education fees across regions, the African payments company said in a post on X. The partnership aims to give students alternative payment methods so they can pay however works best for them. The move extends Flutterwave's existing Tuition product, which lets students or their guardians pay school fees directly into a university's account within about 48 hours using local currency or another currency. Tuition already supports payments to more than 40 UK institutions, with users in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and South Africa able to pay via debit or credit cards, Google Pay, and bank transfer in Nigeria, according to coverage of the product's launch. Convera operates GlobalPay for Students, an international tuition payment platform that supports payments in over 140 currencies across 200+ countries and territories. Students can use bank transfers, wires, credit or debit cards, and alternative methods such as Sofort and Trustly to pay tuition and related fees including deposits, health insurance, and accommodation. Convera also runs embedded payment solutions for the education sector, integrating GlobalPay for Students into universities' websites and management systems through partnerships like its collaboration with Ascent One, which unifies applications, payments, and commission tracking for education agents. Flutterwave's Tuition mechanism requires users to sign up, select a school from a drop-down list, upload the school fees invoice, add student details, review the transfer, choose a payment method, and Flutterwave routes funds to the school within about 48 hours, according to the company's product documentation. The initial launch in July 2023 came as African families faced rising demand for FX to pay international school fees, a trend noted by StartupLagos and other regional outlets. A case study with Nexford University shows how Flutterwave's infrastructure already supports online universities serving African students. Nexford integrated Flutterwave's Collections and Payouts to let students in Africa pay in local currencies using cards, bank transfers, and mobile money, with transactions growing from a few thousand to tens of thousands and roughly 150% compound annual growth rate between 2021 and 2024. The tweet from Flutterwave does not include specific geography, integration depth, or launch timeline for the Convera partnership. Neither company has published a separate press release or blog post describing the integration beyond the tweet, leaving the full scope and technical details uncertain. Flutterwave's broader education messaging frames Tuition as a way to simplify FX and payment processes for African students paying overseas institutions, positioning the Convera tie-up as one more step toward making global education more accessible. Help others discover this story

University of Denver elevates its international student payments through seamless integration. How University of Denver integrated Convera with TouchNet to create a streamlined student payment solution for international tuition. Success at a glance. Disconnected systems caused friction for international students and staff. Seamless integration of Convera's GlobalPay for Students within the university's bill-payment suite, TouchNet. Fast, transparent payments journey for international students and staff. The challenge. A fragmented tuition payments experience. The University of Denver (DU) is a private research institution in Colorado, USA recognized for programs in business, law, and international studies, with a strong emphasis on experiential learning and global engagement. The university's student community includes 1,000 international students from more than 80 countries. A smooth, trusted cross-border payment experience is an important part of serving its global student base. However, incoming international tuition payments had become a source of friction for DU due to a manual process that resided outside of the university's bill-payment suite, and lacked integration. Mic Grebenc, Director of Student Billing at the University of Denver, elaborates, "This lack of integration meant our international students had to leave the university's website to complete their payment on a third-party site. "Many of these students didn't feel confident about sending funds through an unfamiliar external site. They also had limited visibility into the status of their payment, which contributed to a higher volume of inbound inquiries." Behind the scenes, the process was equally challenging for the university finance office. "Staff had to manually download reconciliation files, match payments to student records inside the TouchNet bill-payment suite, and then notify students that their payments were complete. The workflow was time intensive, resource heavy, and vulnerable to human error." The solution. Seamless integration enhances the student payment experience. DU was already in conversation with Convera about improving outgoing international payments when it asked about a solution for incoming student payments as well. "That conversation revealed a strong fit," explains Mic. "Convera already had a partnership with our bill-payment provider, TouchNet, which meant we could easily integrate Convera's GlobalPay for Students platform into our existing payment environment." "Once internal approvals were completed and contracts executed, the actual Convera - TouchNet integration was implemented over a few hours, with no burden on our IT team. It was a very smooth process." GlobalPay for Students is an online platform that empowers students to pay international tuition and fees in more than 140 currencies across 200 countries and territories. Students can lock in an exchange rate for up to 72 hours, for greater certainty over the total cost of payment in their local currency, while choosing from a broad range of payment methods, including bank transfer, credit or debit card, and e-wallets. International students also benefit from Convera's price-promise guarantee on bank transfers. If the total cost of making the transfer is lower with their bank than the amount quoted on Convera GlobalPay for Students, Convera will honor the bank's final price. The results. Reduced complexity for staff and improved student experience. The impact of the Convera - TouchNet integration was immediate across both the student experience and internal operations. "Students now log into their account using single sign-on (SSO), access their bill, select Convera as the payment method, and complete the transaction without leaving the university website," says Mic. "Students have more trust in the payment process now that they remain within the university's secure environment." From an operational standpoint, Convera's international student payments solution delivers complete control without the complexity of managing multiple platforms, while eliminating manual payment posting and saving valuable time and resources. "We've also seen a meaningful reduction in payment-related inquiries. Students now receive real-time status updates and can easily reference payment instructions in the portal, which means staff spend minimal to no time fielding routine questions." With a modernized, integrated payment experience now in place, the University of Denver is better positioned to support its international student community with a trust-worthy, frictionless, and efficient payments process. "Overall, there's significantly less lift involved in managing international student payments. And, the support we receive from the Convera team is second to none. I can see us continuing to work together long into the future." Universities shouldn't have to choose between delivering a seamless international student experience and maintaining operational control. With Convera, we've turned a fragmented, manual process into a connected, transparent payment journey." Mic Grebenc Director of Student Billing, University of Denver Plus, dive deeper into the trends shaping cross-border payments with our podcast, Converge.