Wednesday 25 November 2015:

UK NARIC 2015 - Conference first reports

UK NARIC 2015 updates

23 & 24 November 2015:

We will be posting updates and news from UK NARIC 2015 throughout the two days of Conference.

Bookmark this page and check back again for the latest news.

Updates and comment also on Twitter - follow us - @uk_naric - our Conference hashtag is #UKNARIC2015

Successful first day at UKNARIC2015 conference

The biggest ever audience at a UK NARIC annual conference was welcomed by CEO Dr Cloud Bai-Yun yesterday. Cloud greeted delegates from 19 countries and set the tone for Conference by highlighting how UK NARIC’s global reach in its activities and projects benefits our member organisations by informing our knowledge base and our training and support programmes.

That theme was picked up by UK NARIC deputy managing director Paul Norris who detailed the range of our project work in 2015 and the service enhancements we have delivered to our subscriber members this year.

Amy Baker of ThePIENews opened Conference and explored recruitment trends and the importance of ensuring that induction and orientation programmes for international students are inclusive.

Brian Johnson of BIS emphasised the global opportunities that still exist for UK education, despite the challenging landscape.

Some bites from the workshop sessions:

Universities could be collaborating to offer assistance to conflict and crisis zones - in the absence of a strong lead from government, a number of universities working in concert could take the initiative and have sufficient capacity to make an impact - there are long term gains to be made as those universities will have a head start in partnership building in the post-conflict phase - Dr John Law, British Council

The Scottish 4-year undergrad degree is marketed by the Scots universities as a more flexible choice than the 3-year BA - although not as flexible as the US liberal arts degree programmes - so, a kind of ‘mid-way’ choice, with some potential for majors/minors. - Derek Macleod, University of Edinburgh and SUIG

In graduate recruitment, companies are doing more to communicate their company culture - this culture is often the distinguishing feature of otherwise similar companies in a sector, competing for graduate talent. It is important for retention that there is a good fit between the graduate’s priorities and values and the employer’s culture, so frankness is a keynote in today’s grad recruitment programmes - Simon Reichwald, MyKIndaFuture

Derek Macleod on the Scots 4-year undergrad degree

English language levels explored, at the Cambridge English workshop