Liza Manoussis

I have placed over 1000 students now, over my 18 years, to Navitas colleges. I’m just in awe of how they’ve just all excelled and how the company has grown.  

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

I came to partner with Navitas 18 years ago when I started my own agency in South Africa and Navitas was one of the first partners who agreed to allow me to represent them. Previous to that, I worked in another agency. So, I’ve been working with Navitas for 23 years now.  

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

I have a few, but my favourite one is when Scott Jones was Curtin College Marketing Manager and he came out, that was 23 years ago. And I travelled with him domestically back to South Africa when he had finished his marketing trip, and I got horribly sick. And all I can remember is Scott rubbing my back and comforting me, and every time I see him, that’s what comes to my mind. And now he’s this awesome CEO and all I can think of is Scott as Marketing Manager of Curtin College.  

My other memory is with Michelle. Michelle was the marketing manager for HIBT, Michelle von Karlowitz. And I went on a trip to London and I met her at Hertfordshire. That was my initial inception to Navitas and the Navitas colleges. And Michelle has become one of my very closest friends. I’m just in awe of how they’ve just all excelled and how the company has grown.  

Actually taking Omid to Tin Roof in Zimbabwe, he was in shock. Flies could have gone in and out his mouth because he was so shocked. And I’ll leave it at that because that was a huge memory for me and for him. Those were my first memories.  

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

Well, I absolutely love Navitas because when I go and speak to schools, I have so many who say they don’t have the grades and they really want to go to university, but they think that they can’t. And those are the students that we target. We target those who have average grades, whose parents have the means to pay for them to go to university, but they think that they can’t. And I have placed over 1000 students now over my 18 years to Navitas colleges.  

I just, I’m in awe of every single one of them and how well they’ve done. Word has to get out that more and more students can go to university when they think they can’t. And I think that Navitas is the initial pathway provider. They were the very first to start this process. I think that it can only grow. We have so many students.  

 We have a story right now of a student who’s never been in an aeroplane, and she started in May this year. She comes from a little village in the north of Durban. She’s the very first in her family that’s left Durban, let alone gone overseas. It was the first time she went into an aeroplane. She’s doing biomedical science because she wants to become a doctor. And she’s doing very, very well so far. And we’re really excited because now a second member of the family has also enrolled, and we know that it can only grow.  

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

The key achievements that come to my mind during my partnership with Navitas…Firstly, when I started my company, I believed that the Zimbabwe market was a UK market. Donald O’Connor, who was at the time with Swansea University, he trusted me when I said to him ‘please invest in me, I believe that it’s a UK market’. And he helped me and he supported me, and the truth came out. And sure enough, instead of all the students going to Australia, there was a complete shift. I put UK on the map in Zimbabwe and that’s one of the key achievements that I’m really proud of because our main market in Zimbabwe now is the UK.  

And then in 2014 we won an Outstanding Partner of the Year for Canada, which I thought was a great achievement from our company, which was new and competing with so many others in Africa. And then we also won two in 2014 and 15. We won Agent Partner of the Year, which was also a great achievement. So I’m very proud of those. To be affiliated with Navitas, it’s just a great company and it has the same ethos as we have: family first. They treat you as if you’re family, and we do the same. So synergies are the same.