Dusseldorf Acclaimed education start-up Gostudent has come under fire. The German Teachers’ Association and several current and former tutors of the platform accused Europe’s most valuable digital tutoring provider to the Handelsblatt.
Association President Heinz-Peter Meidinger said: “We fear that Gostudent will focus so heavily on expansion that the interests of the students and the quality of the tutoring will be neglected.” a Handelsblatt evaluation showed.
The corona pandemic has permanently changed the educational landscape in Europe. Schools were closed for months. Classic tutoring for older students was severely restricted due to contact restrictions. In this phase, Gostudent was able to score as a provider.
The platform places tutors with students of all years and subjects. Appointments are organized via the platform. The lessons take place via the video service Zoom. The company is already active with more than 15,000 tutors in 22 countries. CEO Ohswald aims to create the world’s largest education company and expand to six more countries, including the United States, this year alone.
Significant increase in the number of negative reviews
The rapid growth is evidently reflected in the quality of the offer. For a long time, Gostudent was mainly praised on online rating portals such as Kununu, Trustpilot or Trustami.
The Handelsblatt has been evaluating Gostudent’s German-language ratings on the platforms since February 2019. This shows that the proportion of negative ratings has risen sharply on all three platforms since March 2021. According to Kununu, 30 percent of employees would now advise against working at Gostudent.
In previous years it was only eleven percent. The development is similar for Trustpilot and Trustami: 20 percent of the ratings have been negative on both platforms since March – previously the value was only six and nine percent.
Gostudent spokeswoman Lena van Hooven said the start-up takes the feedback seriously. “In 2021, we grew 7.5 times as a company,” says van Hooven. Accordingly, the total number of responses has increased.
Tutor: Google can be used to trick recruitment tests
Not only teachers and customers on the Internet expressed criticism, active and former tutors of the platform also cited problems. The two active Gostudent tutors Julia and Hendrik, who do not want to be named by their last names, told the Handelsblatt that they could not currently recommend the platform to schoolchildren.
Prospective tutors would have to go through a multi-stage admissions process. But that could be tricked, said Hendrik. For example, he looked for answers to the exam questions on Google at the same time. And he knows of other tutors on the platform who also used Google during the knowledge test.
Gostudent promises a strict admissions process. In May 2021, Ohswald said in an interview that only five to seven percent of applicants would be selected as tutors. In January 2022, the website states that two out of ten, i.e. 20 percent of applicants, would be accepted into the platform. “Gostudent is desperately looking for new tutors,” says tutor Hendrik.
Company spokeswoman van Hooven spoke of a strict selection of applicants, but also announced: “Our systems are constantly being improved in order to reduce attempts at cheating even more.”
It’s not uncommon for a startup to see growing criticism, especially when it’s expanding as fast as Gostudent. Other start-ups such as the smartphone bank N26, the delivery service Gorillas or the personnel software provider Personio also came under criticism during rapid growth phases.
Commission from Gostudent higher than from platforms like Uber, Airbnb and Lieferando
However, there is another criticism from tutors: the platform takes too high a commission. Several tutors calculated that only around half of the fees that their students would have to pay would be paid out as remuneration.
The former tutor and business administration student Fabian Sauer says: “From a purely economic point of view, Gostudent acts according to the manual. However, the company should focus more on the needs of its students and tutors instead of being so focused on growth.” Above all, he would like Gostudent to reduce commissions and thus relieve customers.
The spokeswoman for Gostudent, on the other hand, says: “In Germany, the average price for a learning unit at Gostudent is 23 euros.” Tutors receive an average payment of 15 euros per unit. That would correspond to a commission of around 35 percent. Other platforms such as Uber, Lieferando or Airbnb have come under criticism for high commissions. But their commission is 15 to 30 percent below the level of Gostudent. The tutoring platform justifies the amount of its commission with administrative and organizational tasks as well as personnel costs.
Basically, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, Fabian Sauer, Julia and Hendrik are convinced of the idea of the Gostudent founder Felix Ohswald: tutoring at affordable prices, flexible and at home. “Gostudent is at a crossroads right now and has to decide where the company wants to be in our society. It must not lose sight of us tutors and customers,” said Fabian Sauer. Otherwise Gostudent is in danger of failing due to the rapid growth.
More: Tutoring company Gostudent: Europe’s most valuable education start-up valued at three billion euros.