November 7, 2026 · GlobalStudyConsulting database

The Big Chains Compared: IDP, KC Overseas, New Oriental and the Footprint Race

Thirty chains run five or more offices in the database. Comparing the largest networks by offices, cities and countries, from the chains' own published lists.

Thirty chains run five or more offices in this database, and the top of the table is a study in different kinds of scale. IDP Education leads with 87 offices, built over decades as a multi-country network. KC Overseas Education follows with 67, almost all of them inside India. New Oriental Vision Overseas holds 54, every one in China. The three leaders barely compete with each other: each dominates a home market first.

Read the cities column, not just the offices column. A chain with 30 offices in 30 cities offers a local presence almost anywhere in its home country. A chain with 30 offices in 8 cities offers depth in a few metros instead. GeeBee Education and VIEC Education lean toward the first pattern inside India; Aussizz Group, with 33 offices, leans toward Australian metros plus an Indian corridor.

Scale buys two things a student can actually use: a standard process, so the file opened in Kochi looks like the file opened in Chandigarh, and destination breadth, since large networks maintain direct relationships with more universities. What scale does not buy is attention. The independent office with twelve listings in this database may know one destination deeply. The chain pages here exist so you can see the footprint plainly and decide which trade-off fits your plan.

One caution about these numbers: office counts come from the chains' own published office lists as captured in this database. Networks open and close branches constantly, so treat the table as a snapshot from November 2026, not a league table for all time.

The middle of the table matters too

Below the top three sits a band of networks between 18 and 33 offices that most students will actually meet: AECC and Aussizz Group at 33, VIEC Education at 32, GeeBee Education at 30, Canam Consultants and Aoji Education at 28, StudyIn at 27 and Edwise International at 24. These are large enough to run a standard process and small enough that a city's branch still has a local character. Several are regional champions rather than global ones: Santamonica Study Abroad's 25 offices root it in Kerala, and Leap Scholar's 20 lean on its test preparation arm.

The practical question is never which chain is biggest. It is which chain is biggest for your destination from your city. A network with 60 offices nationally and none in your state is, for you, a remote service. The chain pages here list every office by country and city precisely so that question can be answered in seconds.

Data: the GlobalStudyConsulting database of 1,506 consultancy offices in 384 cities, collected from consultancies' own websites and verified November 7, 2026. Try the Agency Fit Finder or browse consultancies by city.