Studyportals CEO Edwin van Rest honoured by PIEoneer Award for ‘Outstanding contribution to the industry’ 

 CEO and co-founder of Studyportals Edwin van Rest is a winner of the “Outstanding contribution to the industry” award at The PIEoneer Awards 2023.

This category recognises ‘individuals who have helped evolve or shape the global education sector in significant ways and who have dedicated their career to influencing or changing the landscape of the global higher education industry’.  

Edwin is co-founder of Studyportals – the Global Study Choice Platform, a purpose-driven organisation that has grown from a small student initiative into the largest information source for students considering their education options across borders.  

In 2022, Studyportals connected over 50 million prospective students to over 4,000+ institutions. These students visited the portals from 242 different countries and territories to find and compare their study options across borders and select the right programme. Edwin is an outspoken advocate for access to higher education. Studyportals Global Access Initiative partners with UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition towards extending access for all. 

As part of Studyportals mission to make study choice transparent, globally, Edwin also initiated the Global Student Satisfaction Awards, the first-ever global student-experience based global rating of universities. 

 In his acceptance speech Edwin said, “This award is not about me. It is a testament to the purpose, the passion and the persistence of our amazing staff and all our wonderful partners across the world that support us. So, I’m very proud to accept this award on behalf of them.” 

“I want to thank all of you for supporting us on our mission from the early days, for supporting us to reach our first crazy goal which was sending more students abroad through Studyportals than there are soldiers abroad. Together, we realised that. And we will need all of your support to reach our next audacious goal – which is actually a very low number – which is to make sure that there is a future where no student will miss out on an educational opportunity because of a lack of information.” 

The award comes alongside other accolades Edwin has been honoured with, such as the ‘Change the world’ award from Entrepreneurs Organisation and the ‘Rising Star’ award from the European Association of International Education. 

Joint winners of the award also recognised for their outstanding contributions to the industry were Bobby Mehta, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) University of Portsmouth and Cyndi McLeod CEO Canada at Global University Systems. 

The PIEoneer Awards honour innovation and achievement across the whole of the global education industry. A distinguished judging panel of over 40 independent judges from across the industry select the winners.