Full Fabric and Flywire: The Native Integration That Turns Payments Into an Enrolment Tool

Fragmented systems mean students get redirected to external portals. Manual reconciliation means finance teams spend hours matching payments to applications. Unclear processes mean admissions teams are flooded with "did you receive my payment?" emails. And all of this friction happens at the exact moment when students are making their final decision.

Full Fabric and Flywire have built a native integration that fixes this. Students complete payments without ever leaving the admissions platform. Staff get instant visibility across departments. And the entire process becomes a conversion tool instead of a barrier.

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The Challenge: Payments Feel Separate from Everything Else

Here's what usually happens: a student completes their application in one system, then gets an email with bank details or a link to an external payment portal. They're not sure if it's legitimate. They're not sure if their payment went through. They email to check. Then they email again.

Meanwhile, the finance team is waiting for bank transfers to clear (sometimes 48 hours or more). The admissions team can't confirm anything until finance does. Everyone's inbox is chaos.

Research from Flywire across six top European business schools shows just how widespread the problem is:

• Only 46% of students feel confident making online payments to universities.
• 53% contact the school when payment instructions aren't clear.
• 44% of students now place deposits at multiple institutions because they're hedging their bets.

When students talk about their payment experience, they're really talking about trust. Do they trust this process? Do they trust this institution? And when the payment stage feels disconnected or complicated, that trust erodes.

Worse, if a student can't quickly complete a deposit payment (which is often tied to visa processing timelines), they'll choose the competitor who made it easier.

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The Solution: Keep Everything in One Place

The Full Fabric and Flywire integration does something simple but powerful: it keeps students inside one system from start to finish.

Full Fabric handles everything admissions-related. Applications, documents, evaluation workflows, communication, admitted student portals. It's built specifically for higher education, not retrofitted from a sales CRM.

Flywire handles payments globally. It supports 140+ currencies and regional payment methods like WeChat Pay, Alipay, Pix, and local bank transfers. Students see prices in their own currency, pay the way they prefer, and get real-time tracking.

The native integration means these two systems work as one. Students apply, upload documents, and pay their application fee or deposit without ever leaving Full Fabric. No separate logins. No external redirects. No wondering if the payment reached the right place.

Key drivers behind the integration include:

• It builds trust. When students complete payments inside the admissions platform, it feels secure and official. Flywire's research shows that 96% of students who use their platform remember the experience and associate it with safety and transparency.
• It's easy to set up. There's no custom development or lengthy IT project. You connect your Flywire account to Full Fabric, and everything syncs automatically. IT handles the initial setup, but admissions teams manage everything day to day.
• Everyone sees the same information. Admissions, finance, and recruitment all work from shared dashboards. No more "did finance confirm that payment yet?" emails. No more manual reconciliation. Just real-time visibility across departments.

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The Results: Speed, Efficiency, and Better Conversion

Since implementing Full Fabric and Flywire together, institutions have seen measurable improvements across operations and student experience:

• Payment verification happens instantly. Tasks that previously took hours or days now complete in minutes. Admissions teams can send offers faster because they're not waiting for finance to manually confirm application fees.
• More students complete their applications. When the payment step is straightforward, fewer people drop off at critical stages. Stronger pipelines, higher submission rates, better funnel health.
• Enrolment ratios increase. When students can pay their deposit easily and get instant confirmation, they're more likely to commit. The smooth experience reinforces their decision instead of creating doubt.
• Payment inquiries drop dramatically. Automatic confirmations and real-time tracking mean students can check their payment status themselves. Admissions teams stop answering repetitive questions and can focus on meaningful engagement.
• Teams gain operational autonomy. Admissions staff can adjust payment plans, update requirements, and respond to student needs without filing IT tickets or waiting for developers.
• Cross-department coordination improves. Shared dashboards eliminate the constant email threads between admissions, finance, and recruitment. Everyone works from the same real-time data.

IÉSEG School of Management experienced this transformation firsthand. Before Full Fabric and Flywire, their admissions process required multiple email threads per application. French banking delays meant the team couldn't confirm payments for up to 48 hours, creating constant back-and-forth with anxious applicants.

"What is most important is that this enables us to focus on what really matters: meaningful communication with candidates and personal support. The human part of admissions, which was squeezed by administrative load, has regained its space."

– Emilie Lagorsse, Head of International Recruitment, Promotion, and Admissions @ IÉSEG School of Management

The impact was immediate. Automation started working within weeks. Now, annual surveys consistently show students describing the process as "simple, quick, and transparent." The experience became faster and more consistent, directly strengthening IÉSEG's image as a welcoming international institution.

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Meeting Students Where They Are

The integration addresses what students actually need, not what institutions assume they need:

1. Everything stays connected. Students don't get bounced to external payment sites or asked to download forms and email them back. They stay in one environment from start to finish.
2. Local payment, global scale. A student in China can pay with WeChat. A student in Brazil can use Pix. A student in Germany can do a bank transfer. Everyone sees prices in their own currency and gets support in their own language and time zone.
3. It feels modern. Flexible payment plans, recurring payments, instant confirmations, transparent tracking. The experience matches what students expect from the consumer apps they use daily.

This matters because research shows that 70% of students expect their university experience to feel as smooth as Amazon or Netflix, and 50% say the digital experience influences which university they choose.

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Payments Stop Being a Problem and Start Being a Tool

When payments work properly, they do more than just collect money. They actively support enrolment:

• Application fees filter out casual browsers while staying accessible to serious applicants. Admissions teams can focus their energy on qualified candidates instead of processing thousands of incomplete applications.
• Deposits create real commitment. When the process is smooth and confirmation is instant, students feel good about their decision. Conversion rates go up.
• Flexible options remove barriers. Students can split payments across multiple sources, involve sponsors or family members, handle scholarship arrangements. What used to require manual workarounds now just works.

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Getting Started Is Simpler Than You'd Think

Most institutions assume that integrating two major systems means months of technical work. It doesn't.

The setup requires minimal IT involvement. Your IT team handles initial approvals and connects the accounts, but after that, admissions manages everything. There's no custom development, no complicated configuration, no lengthy training programme.

You start seeing results within weeks. Automatic reminders go out. Payment confirmations arrive instantly. Status tracking works from day one.

"I shared all my specific requirements with the technical team and they really took everything into consideration. After training, I had a ready-to-use solution. Everything was already set up and worked perfectly."

– Emilie Lagorsse, Head of International Recruitment, Promotion, and Admissions @ IÉSEG School of Management

Full Fabric also connects with the CRMs and tools you're already using. Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Docusign, Google Analytics. The goal isn't to rip everything out and start over. It's to make your existing tech stack work better.

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Why This Matters Right Now

Competition for students is intensifying. Demographic shifts in Europe and North America mean fewer school-leavers. International recruitment isn't optional anymore. It's essential.

But attracting international students takes more than marketing and brand reputation. It requires operational excellence at every touchpoint. And students have more options than ever: 83% apply to three or more institutions, 36% apply to seven or more institutions, and 44% place deposits at multiple schools to keep their options open.

The institutions winning right now are the ones making everything seamless. Clear processes, instant confirmations, transparent communication. The ones losing are still using fragmented systems where payments feel like an afterthought.

The Full Fabric and Flywire integration exists to close that gap. It's not about adding more software. It's about creating an experience that matches what students expect while giving your teams the efficiency they need to focus on the work that actually matters.

"Overall, the experience became faster and more consistent, and that directly strengthens our image as a welcoming international institution."

– Emilie Lagorsse, Head of International Recruitment, Promotion, and Admissions @ IÉSEG School of Management

In a market this competitive, that's not a nice-to-have. It's how you win.

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About Full Fabric

Full Fabric is the commerce platform for higher education, helping institutions manage, market, and sell their courses with purpose-built tools for admissions, enrolment, and student relationship management.

About Flywire

Flywire is a global payments platform that enables secure, transparent international transactions with local payment methods, multi-currency support, and real-time tracking for education institutions worldwide.

About IÉSEG School of Management

IÉSEG School of Management is a leading European business school with campuses in Paris and Lille, attracting international students to Bachelor, Master, MBA, and executive education programmes through a global recruitment network.