With international student mobility on the rise and India emerging as a key source of global talent, the systems that enable trust, recognition, and access are under sharper focus. Credential evaluation sits at the centre of this ecosystem.
Founded in 1974, World Education Services (WES) has evolved into a global non-profit serving over half a million people annually, playing a pivotal role in enabling students and professionals to study and work across borders.
In an exclusive interview with EdexLive, Esther T Benjamin, CEO and President of WES, discusses the importance of credential verification and why inclusion remains central to the future of education and mobility.
Excerpts:
WES has chosen Hyderabad to host its headquarters & base of operations. What edge do you see in the city over other metropolitan areas like Mumbai, Bangalore, or Chennai?
I'll start by saying that India as a whole is very important to world education services. Every year, we serve about 500,000 people from all over the world. Of that 500,000, over 100,000 of those individuals are Indian, and they're Indians from all over the country. So Hyderabad is important, and many other geographies are important.
Hyderabad is important because it is one of the cities, most recently, that has been sending a large number of international students to study around the world. Hyderabad has become known as a city with high international student mobility, so that definitely catches our attention.
Six years ago, we were just getting started in establishing a presence and relationships and partnerships in India. But in 2025, we opened an office; it’s incorporated in Delhi, but our purpose is to partner nationally.
We have important partnerships in Hyderabad. We have moved our global customer care centre to Hyderabad. Every one of our customers from around the world, when they need help and they call WES, the call will be answered or the email will be responded to from Hyderabad. We also have an innovation and technology and R&D partnership in Hyderabad as well.
So, going from a reality six years ago, where we had no presence, we now have an office in India. We have about a dozen partnerships with technology and operational companies and many other types of companies in India.
As I meet these companies, I'm seeing the number of people who are working indirectly for WES, and it's literally hundreds of people. So we're making an investment in India, and we're also recognising the large number of Indian individuals who are our customers.
WES has partnered with organisations like NDSC in India, and is also a founding member of NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services). What role do international partnerships play in your strategy, and how do you prioritise global collaborators?
We often say that we don't do the work alone. We've never done the work alone, and partnerships are so essential for doing all aspects of our work.
In terms of credential evaluation, there are two parts of the work: one is verification, and the other is equivalency.
Verification is the process to make sure that the person who has come to us has in fact completed their degree from that institution, and that they were the one who received that degree.
The equivalency process is where we analyse the degree and compare it in many different aspects to education in the United States and Canada.
For verification, we need partners to help ensure that the person earned that qualification. NSDC is one of our partners in India. We also work with a company called Qualification Check and other Indian companies that have helped us verify credentials over time.
For equivalency, we need to understand universities and higher education institutions globally. We have relationships with about 60,000 universities and academic institutions across 205 countries and territories. These partnerships help us understand regulation, accreditation, and programme standards.
So we work with partners globally and across India, receiving degrees from all states. The top states include Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Kerala.
Essentially, partnerships help you verify and authenticate that the degree was completed by the person presenting it.
WES’s core mission is advancing educational, economic, and social inclusion for immigrants, international students, and refugees. What have been your biggest lessons in driving systemic impact, and how do you measure success in these areas?
We are a non-profit social enterprise and an impact-centred organisation. We centre people, communities, and migrants.
We measure impact by conducting studies. Over 80 per cent of people are able to use our evaluations successfully toward their goals, whether it's gaining admission, immigration, or obtaining professional licences.
If you don’t measure effectiveness, you don’t understand your impact.
We are deeply dedicated to inclusion. Inclusion for us has three parts: academic inclusion, workplace inclusion, and social inclusion, so that people are integrated into communities and countries they move to.
Credential evaluation is one tool, but we ultimately believe in access: to education, workplaces, and societies.
Credential recognition is often invisible to the public. Why is it becoming a critical pillar of global mobility, and how does it benefit students, universities, employers and governments?
Governments, universities, and employers all require verified credentials. Students and migrants also benefit from having their qualifications authenticated.
We recommend getting a credential evaluation early in the process. It helps individuals understand how their qualifications will be viewed, what programmes they can pursue, and where they have better chances of admission. It also broadens options beyond what agents may recommend.
We are founding members of NACES in the US and an alliance in Canada. These collaborations help us share best practices and set standards. For example, we were among the first to recognise certain three-year Indian bachelor’s degrees as equivalent to four-year degrees under specific conditions.
WES has publicly supported policy changes that enhance opportunities for international students. Why should countries strive to improve global mobility?
We believe that the world benefits from more international students and inclusive workplaces. In the US, about 17 per cent of the workforce is foreign-born; in Canada, it's over 25 per cent.
More diversity leads to more productive and dynamic environments. Out of 250 million university students globally, less than 3 per cent are international. Increasing this would create better leaders and a more connected world.
What are the key technological innovations you believe will redefine credential evaluation and global mobility in the next 5-10 years?
In 1974, everything was manual. In 1999, we introduced the first electronic process.
Now, we've automated evaluations and digitised verification. In 2019, only 7 per cent of verification was digital; today, it's over 90 per cent.
We use technologies like Intelligent Data Processing (IDP) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read transcripts from around the world.
Now, we’re integrating AI to improve efficiency, reduce turnaround time, and enhance customer experience. As for the risks that come with that, we are cautious about bias. Our goal is to ensure equal access, not reduce it.
We’re also exploring using AI to assess fraud risk and streamline verification processes where risk is low.
This is still evolving, and our processes will likely change significantly in the next year.
With foreign campuses coming into India in the last couple of India — does India need to ramp up credential evaluation for inbound students and talent?
Higher education in India is set to grow significantly. The National Education Policy aims to double student numbers from 40 million to 80 million by 2035.
India is already a major contributor to the global talent pipeline, with one in three STEM graduates being Indian. Credential evaluation will play a key role in building trust, recognition, and credibility as India continues to grow in global education.