Kevin Tan

Partnerships between Sun and Navitas, has really significantly impacted the life of students who we helped to achieve their educational and career goals.  So I feel the synergies there because we provide more quality options and choices to them. 

Can you tell us when and how you came to partner with Navitas?  

I’ve partnered up with Navitas since 1998 when I established my first student agency called Erajasa Globalindo Student Services. And back then Navitas was called IBT Education. And I’m very pleased to say that Navitas was one of the first institutions that I signed an agency agreement with when I entered the industry.  

 What is one of your favourite memories from working with Navitas?   

 I’m glad that you only asked for one of my favourite memories, otherwise I could have spent the whole day answering this question because there’s just too many incredible memories with Navitas that has stretched out my 25 years serving in the industry.  

But if I can just choose one, it’s probably attending the Navitas Partners Conference every year. I always look forward to visiting the different locations and countries where the conference is held, absorbing the content and industrial knowledge that the conference presents and enjoying the networking opportunities to catch up with the Navitas team, partner universities, agents, and other stakeholders.  

 I remember one Navitas conference, the most though which was the one held in Bangkok in 2008. Near the end of the conference there were anti-government political riots leading to the Bangkok airports closing. However, despite the closing of the airports, the streets of Bangkok and the city remained quite safe and normal for the locals and foreigners. So, I was not worried at all because Navitas really took good care of us and suddenly all of us felt like we were having an extended holiday and party time in Bangkok. I’m sure the incident must have cost Navitas and the insurance company a hefty amount of money. 

But to cut a long story short, after a few days we received an update from the airline that we could leave Bangkok from the military airport, so we were escorted to the U-Tapao Airport. We joined a long line. Each bag was physically opened and checked because the airport was only equipped with one X-ray machine and there were thousands, thousands of people who wanted to flee the country.  

So I think it was quite an incredible experience and luckily everyone made it home once again thanks to Navitas. But to be honest with you, Navitas conference really stood out, stands out always, you know, and I’m really looking forward to it every year.  

How has partnering with Navitas made an impact on your work and the lives of the students you have helped? 

Partnering with Navitas has made a huge impact on my work and the life of the students that we have helped. But let me just tell you that in October 2010, my student agency Erajasa Globalindo Student Services, which was initially focused on student recruitment to study in Australia and New Zealand, merged with the other two student agencies called International Student Services and Next Gen to form a Sun Education Group.  

 As a merger of three companies and the Sun Education Group, we then had the ability to offer a wider selection of products, services and country destinations to our students, covering Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, which I believe is very much in line with Navitas’ strategy – that’s to provide more options to students and to help students to study globally.  

 So I feel the synergies there and partnerships between Sun and Navitas, has really significantly impacted the life of students who we helped to achieve their educational goals, career goals, because we provide more quality options and choices to them.  

 What key achievements come to mind during your partnership with Navitas? 

We were humbled and honoured to receive a hat trick by winning three awards at the 2023 Navitas Conference in Bangkok last year. I think it was also the first time that Navitas at the Navitas Conference, an agent got a hat trick of three awards.  

 The first award was Outstanding Partner of the Year worldwide, the second one was Outstanding Partner of the Year for Australia and last but not least was Outstanding Partner of the Year for SAE, which is the School of Audio Engineering. So we deeply appreciate the recognition given to our hard work and long-standing partnership with Navitas.  

 And honestly, there has been a lot of excitement, aka positive pressure internally within Sun Education Group to be continually striving for our best, not only to keep winning such motivating and prestigious awards at Navitas’ conference, but also more importantly of course, is to put more bums on seats at Navitas’ campuses.