# Studyportals

> Studyportals is a Netherlands-based education platform that helps students discover and compare study programs anywhere in the world. Through nine portals - including Mastersportal, Bachelorsportal, PhDportal and Scholarshipportal - it lists more than 240,000 English-taught programs from over 3,500 institutions across 110+ countries, drawing roughly 50 million student visitors a year. For universities, it turns that global demand data into recruitment, analytics and consulting services, and in 2024 it launched an AI Student Advisor named Sophia, built with AWS, to guide applicants in more than 20 languages.

- **Founded:** 2009
- **Headquarters:** Eindhoven, Netherlands
- **Founders:** Edwin van Rest (Co-founder & CEO), Thijs Putman (Co-founder & CTO)
- **Team size:** ~180-300 employees representing 35+ nationalities
- **Products:** Mastersportal, Bachelorsportal, PhDportal, Shortcoursesportal & Distancelearningportal, Scholarshipportal
- **Notable:** Won the Dutch New Venture award (McKinsey & Co., Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs) in 2009 as most promising socially impactful start-up., Won the FD Gazellen Award for best international growth in the Netherlands in 2014., Ranked 7th in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 BENELUX and 54th in the Fast500 EMEA (2014).

## Products & services

- **Mastersportal** — Global search and comparison portal for master's programs; the original product that began as Mastersportal in 2007.
- **Bachelorsportal** — Search portal for undergraduate/bachelor's programs worldwide.
- **PhDportal** — Portal for finding PhD and doctoral programs and research positions internationally.
- **Shortcoursesportal & Distancelearningportal** — Portals for short courses and online/distance learning programs.
- **Scholarshipportal** — Searchable listing of scholarships from institutions and organisations around the world.
- **Analytics & Consulting (ACT)** — B2B data, analytics and consulting for universities on international student demand, recruitment and portfolio strategy.
- **AI Student Advisor (Sophia)** — Generative-AI advisor built with AWS that guides students on programs, countries and scholarships in 20+ languages.

## Achievements

- Won the Dutch New Venture award (McKinsey & Co., Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs) in 2009 as most promising socially impactful start-up.
- Won the FD Gazellen Award for best international growth in the Netherlands in 2014.
- Ranked 7th in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 BENELUX and 54th in the Fast500 EMEA (2014).
- Grew to list 240,000+ programs from 3,500+ institutions across 110+ countries.
- Reached tens of millions of annual student visitors (reported ~40-55M).
- Launched Sophia AI Student Advisor with AWS (2024); 85% of users went on to explore its recommendations.
- Acquired Uni-Life (2025).

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Acquired Amsterdam-based Uni-Life to strengthen student connections and bring campus-life experiences into the study-choice journey.
- **2024-11** — Launched Sophia, an AI Student Advisor co-developed with AWS, guiding students in 20+ languages across 240k+ programs.
- **2024-09** — Refreshed brand and corporate site emphasizing 'empower the world to choose education.'

## Links

- Website: https://studyportals.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studyportals
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/studyportals
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/StudyPortals
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studyportals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Studyportals/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/studyportals
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-17