From IBA Admission Prep to Global Study Abroad: Mentors’ Story

Every student’s journey looks a little different: a school student polishing spoken English, an undergraduate chasing an IBA BBA seat, a young professional applying for a Canadian university with a scholarship in hand. Mentors’ has spent nearly thirty years building a single organization that can walk with a student through every one of those stages.

It didn’t start that way. In 1996, Mentors’ was a single-purpose admission preparation centre near Dhaka University’s IBA, founded by two MBA students, Syed Khairul Hassan and Nasim Ahmed, who wanted to give aspiring candidates a real shot at Bangladesh’s toughest business school entrance exams. The approach was deliberately narrow: strengthen English, Mathematics, and Analytical Ability rather than teach to the test.

That narrow focus turned out to be the foundation for something much bigger. As students asked for more, Mentors’ kept adding: private university admission prep in 1998, IELTS in 1999, GRE in 2003. Later came dedicated English-language modules Foundation Grammar and Writing, Spoken English and Phonetics, After SSC English, plus a language club built around real conversation practice, not just textbook drills.

The natural next step was Mentors’ Study Abroad, launched to guide students through counselling, university and course selection, scholarship applications, visa paperwork, and accommodation. Today it holds partnerships with 200+ colleges and universities across Australia, Canada, the UK, the US, New Zealand, Sweden, and Malaysia, meaning a student’s relationship with Mentors’ can now run from their first grammar class straight through to move-in day abroad.