Why we created Oxford Comma Advisory: my personal story
From being an international student myself to building an education advisory that treats admissions as coaching — the story behind Oxford Comma Advisory.
By Lana Shaugney
I have been working in international education for around fifteen years. But my story did not start with a university job or with founding an education agency. It started with me being an international student.
I came to the United Kingdom to study, from Moscow. So I remember very well how difficult it can be to make sense of a new education system, to choose a university, to prepare documents, to adjust to another country, and to start speaking English without the constant fear of making a mistake.
I tell more about my own path as an international student in this video on YouTube
From international student to working inside universities. After graduating, I continued working in international education. I worked at the University of Warwick and at Ulster University. My role covered international students from a whole region, including Europe and Central Asia.
I helped students understand admissions, choose programmes and meet university requirements. Later I worked in a business school, and that experience strongly shaped my view of what modern education should look like. A business school turned out to be more dynamic, more open to change and more focused on real student outcomes. I saw how much knowledge matters — but also connections, confidence, initiative and the ability to apply what you have learned.
Studying abroad and working in international education is also how I met the people with whom Oxford Comma Advisory later came to life. Without that team, building the agency would not have been possible.
Why we decided to build an education advisory. Over the years I saw many different approaches to education consulting. I understood that there were many things I wanted to do differently. There are a lot of ethical questions in this field. For example: is the consultant recommending a university because it is genuinely the right fit for the student, or because it is more convenient for the agency to send an application there?
But the most important thing for us was something else. We wanted to create an education advisory where the student does not simply hand over their documents to a consultant and wait for a result. It was important to us that the student understands their own decisions, participates in the process and gradually becomes more independent.
We believe the future of education consulting is coaching. Student and consultant should walk the admissions path together. The consultant helps to shape the strategy, explains the system and offers support — but the student learns to make their own decisions and take responsibility for their own educational journey.
What the name Oxford Comma means. Oxford Comma Advisory was named after the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is placed before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items. For example: knowledge, confidence, and opportunity. The comma before the word "and" is the Oxford comma. It makes a sentence more precise and sometimes removes ambiguity.
For us, the Oxford comma became a symbol of literacy, clarity of thought and attention to detail. It is a reminder of the ability to write well, to express ideas clearly and to build a strong academic story. That is exactly what we try to teach our students.
Not just admissions, but guidance and mentorship. Through our Application Support programme
we help the student through the whole path: choosing a country and a university, preparing documents, writing the personal statement, going through interviews and preparing for the move.
We also try to match each student with a mentor who is one or two steps ahead of them. An undergraduate applicant, for instance, may be supported by a student who is already studying at a university abroad. Where possible, we take language and cultural context into account, because language barriers often add extra stress. That way the student gets not only a consultant's advice, but also a conversation with someone who recently went through a similar journey. In the future, our students can themselves become mentors and help the next people in the community.
Oxford Comma Compass. For each student, we build a clear admissions roadmap inside our own system, Oxford Comma Compass. It is an education portal where the student can see every stage of the work, upload documents, track completed tasks and understand what they need to do next. Applying abroad often feels chaotic. Universities differ in requirements, documents, platforms and deadlines. Oxford Comma Compass helps to bring the whole process into one place and move through it step by step.
Helping students build a strong profile. One of the most important programmes at Oxford Comma for me has been Application Profile Building.
This programme starts long before an application is submitted. We help the student understand their academic interests, find the right projects, write an article, complete an online internship, join a research project or launch their own initiative. I act as a mentor in this programme myself. For me it is not just building a portfolio for admissions. It is a chance to help a young person find a topic they genuinely want to work on and learn how to research, write, ask questions and take projects through to a result.
Oxford Comma today. Oxford Comma Advisory is only three years old. We are still a small education startup, and there is a lot of work ahead of us. But I love Oxford Comma and what we are building. It matters to me to see students grow in confidence, learn to express their ideas, get into universities and slowly begin to take charge of their own future.
Studying abroad, for me, was never just about travelling to another country or getting a degree. It is a chance to find your direction, to meet the people who will change your life, and to become the person you once only dreamed of being. That is exactly why we created Oxford Comma Advisory.