About Lanka Scholar
Lanka Scholar is a Sri Lankan study-abroad consultancy with offices in Colombo, Jaffna, Matara, and Batticaloa. Universities pay us a referral commission when you enrol. That is the only money in the system — and it's the reason every other choice we make is uncomplicated.
What we believe
Every one of these is the result of watching the things that go wrong for Sri Lankan students who pick the cheaper, faster, or louder agent. Each is non-negotiable for us — and most are non-obvious until you've been through an application yourself.
01
Most Sri Lankan agencies layer consultation fees, application fees, and visa-handling fees on top of the commission they're already earning from your university. We don't charge any of those. Universities pay us a referral commission only when you enrol, and that is the only money in the system.
02
Universities pay different rates. We could chase the highest. We don't — a student who drops out, transfers, or feels pushed into the wrong programme breaks the relationship that pays us for years. The maths is on your side.
03
Before you write a single SOP, you get a realistic call on your odds — at this university, with these grades, for this intake. If you'd be uncompetitive, we tell you. The agencies that promise every student Oxford get paid the same as the ones that don't.
04
Junior counsellors learn the work. They do not learn it at your expense. Every SOP, scholarship essay, and visa file is read by a senior counsellor before it leaves our office. The mistakes that lose offers are predictable — and a second pair of eyes catches them.
05
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD, foundation pathways. We don't deprioritise undergraduates because postgrad intakes are easier to place. The student in front of us gets the same process — same five services, same review.
06
Every shortlist comes with the numbers behind it — entry odds vs your grades, fees in your destination's currency vs your family's budget, employability data, alumni feedback. You can sense-check us. You should sense-check us.
Track record
We are not publishing a placement count or a years-in-business figure yet — both are easy to inflate, and we don't think that's how trust is earned. Here is what is true and you can check.
Offices
Colombo head office, plus regional branches in Jaffna, Matara, and Batticaloa — walk-in welcome at every one.
Destinations
UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, South Korea, and Dubai — every major intake covered.
Services, end-to-end
University selection, applications and SOPs, scholarships, visa application, and pre-departure briefing — same counsellor across all five.
What students pay us
Universities pay us a referral commission when you enrol. You will not see an invoice from Lanka Scholar — for anything.
Transparency
Universities allocate a percentage of every international student's first-year tuition to whoever placed them. In Sri Lanka, that money flows to one of three places: directly to the university's in-house international office, to an exclusive country agent, or to whichever agent placed you. We earn ours only when you enrol — typically 10 to 20% of your first-year tuition, paid by the university directly to us. The student never sees this transaction. Your tuition is the same whether you apply through us, through another agent, or directly to the university.
Ranges reflect typical Sri Lankan market pricing across the major destinations. Exact figures vary by agency, country, and university tier.
No tiered packages, no premium options, no upgrades. The full team and the full process at no cost to you, ever.
The team
We are keeping written bios off the website for now. Verified credentials and a real sense of how a counsellor will work with you are things we would rather you see in person, or hear on a real call with the senior counsellor who would actually handle your case.
The team is small enough that you will usually deal with one or two of us from first chat to departure day. No hand-offs, no anonymous "case manager" emails — same name on every reply.
Send us your academic profile and the destination your friends say you can't get into. We'll tell you in plain English whether they are right — and what would change the answer.