The education services giant has also decided to make SGN’s founder, Anna May, the executive head of Kaplan international grief programmes, it announced this afternoon (October 2).

The move will allow Kaplan to improve the support it offers to higher education students experiencing grief – especially international students, “who may be grieving thousands of miles from home”, it said.

SGN’s aim is to “soften the impact of bereavement” in university students by offering a raft of support and education such as training, consultancy, workshops and events, it said.

May, who experienced grief herself while she was a student, said: “Our hope is to build better-informed and more compassionate approaches to bereavement, grief, trauma and wellbeing across higher education and improve the support that students receive in vulnerable moments.” 

I know how lonely and overwhelming it can be to grieve at university, and that support often feels out of touch or hard to access
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“I know how lonely and overwhelming it can be to grieve at university, and that support often feels out of touch or hard to access,” she added.

“But through years of developing SGN and all the conversations I’ve had with students and staff, I also believe it’s possible to create a healthier grief culture and build tools for living with loss and supporting one another.” 

The acquisition marks another move to expand globally from Kaplan, which in August announced a five-year partnership between the University of Oregon and its International Pathways arm for international student recruitment.

Just two months before in June, the company revealed that Kaplan International was set to launch a foundation program with the University of Alberta, and the Kaplan Languages Group announced it had bought a language school in Nice.

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