Wednesday 25 November 2015:
A hugely successful UK NARIC 2015 conference drew to a close yesterday in London, with delegates praising a rich and varied programme of speakers and topics.
Well over 400 people attended the conference over 2 days. Over 50 workshop sessions were delivered.
Recent changes in the vocational training landscape, including significant changes in support for apprenticeship schemes, were covered by Ian Kinder of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills in the day 2 plenary. John McNamara, the Dublin-based economist, shared some of his recent research findings in Trans-National Education. Matthew Rhodes of British Future roved over the current political debate about immigration and how that might impact on those of us working in international education and migration.
Some bites from the workshops:
Tuesday workshop sessions included Fiona Andrews of the University of the West of Scotland guiding delegates step-by-step through a Tier 4 audit process - from the university's/college's perspective. A comprehensive update on Tier 4 policy was delivered by UKVI's Bharat Pamnani.
Judith Hegedus of College Board delivered a detailed and comprehensive briefing to a large audience on the AP (Advanced Placement) qualification which is being increasingly encountered by university admissions officers.
IELTS delivered workshops on understanding the IELTS scoring system and fitting IELTS English language proficiency evidence into your visa compliance frameworks.
Market intelligence and analysis was provided by Janet Ilieva and John McNamara, looking at emerging markets; and Madeleine Evans of THE who gave some insight into the quantitative and qualitative data being gathered by THE about prospective international students and their decision-making processes.
Some of the new and exciting digital marketing techniques available to universities and colleges were shown to delegates by Holly Rich of Net Natives and Neil Pearson of Hotcourses in well-attended and lively workshops. This is a growing area of interest which UK NARIC will be increasingly spotlighting in future.