Oslo, Norway & Cologne, Germany – 21 March 2022

Keystone Education Group (“Keystone”) has acquired uniexperts, a German student-athlete placement agency as it continues to grow Keystone Sports as Europe’s strongest college sports recruiting solution for student-athletes looking to study in the US.

As part of its services, Keystone Sports has helped over 9,240 students over the past 24 years to play sports and study in the United States, generating over 582 million USD in scholarships for students placed during this period.

“We are excited to welcome uniexperts into the Keystone Sports family. Our mission with Keystone Sports is to help student-athletes in Europe and around the world to find the best US university for them to pursue both their academic and athlete dreams. Adding uniexperts will help us significantly expand our footprint and capabilities in Germany,” said Erik Harrell, Keystone CEO.

For uniexperts managing directors, Stefan Wirtz and Roger Thiele, alignment with their mission was central to their decision. 

“Joining Keystone Sports was a natural choice for us as we will be able to expand our services and further our mission of helping guide students through the international education journey,” said Wirtz.

"Student-athletes will benefit from the combined competencies of the world’s most experienced athletic recruiting consultants. They will be served with a speed and scale currently not offered by any other agency in the market," said Thiele.

Keystone has recently begun combining its Keystone Sports student-placement services with lead generation and marketing services for institutions in the United States to build an end-to-end student recruitment offering.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the declining college-aged student population and impact of the pandemic have contributed to an evolving enrollment crisis in the US, with total undergraduate enrollment decreasing by 6.6 percent since fall 2019. 

This trend is expected to continue well past 2029, with many institutions potentially required to shift their recruitment focus, leaning more heavily on international student recruitment to sustain enrollment numbers.

As part of their long-term growth strategy, Keystone aims to significantly expand its international student marketing and recruitment services to help bridge this gap in the US and other markets internationally, with Keystone Sports forming a central part of this expansion. 

Media Inquiries to:
Ashlee-Maree Courtney-Eman
ashlee@keystoneacademic.com
+47 475 13 692
www.keg.com

About Keystone Education Group

Keystone is trusted by more than 110 million unique prospective students every year to help students and learners make one of the most important decisions of their lifetimes, namely, which higher education degree program or course to attend.

In turn, Keystone helps over 5 500 education institutions reach, recruit, and enroll prospective students in more than 190 countries, across 460 student websites, including Masterstudies.com, Bachelorstudies.com, Educations.com, Studentum.se, and FindAMasters. Keystone also operates a range of other global student recruitment services, including UniQuest, Blueberry.nu, and Keystone Sports.

Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Keystone is backed by Viking Venture and Verdane, two leading Nordic venture firms. With offices across the Nordics, Germany, and the UK, Keystone has an international staff of more than 550 employees.

About Keystone Sports

Keystone Sports is a division of Keystone Education Group, with a mission to connect international student-athletes with colleges in the United States. Keystone Sports is comprised of 63 employees in 7 countries, most of whom are former college student-athletes themselves. They are experts in soccer, tennis, golf, track & field, swimming, basketball, and 15 additional sports. We are Europe’s strongest college sports recruiting solution for student-athletes looking to study in the US.

Since 1998, our agencies, CSUSA (Norway), AGM (Spain), Sport-Scholarships (Germany), Tennis Smart (UK), and uniexperts (Germany), have sent over 9,240 international student-athletes to over 820 Colleges in the US and Canada, securing over 582 million USD worth of scholarships.