Thursday 28 June, 9.30am - 12.30pm
Sessions BC are 3 hour sessions. B and C are 1 hour 15. They run at the same time. So you have to choose between a 3 hour session or 2 x 1 hour 15 sessions on Thursday morning.
BC1: Stop Press
(we are running 2 Stop Press at the same time - they have the same content)
Category: Immigration
Based on our Stop Press course, this session is designed to provide participants with updated information on international and EU student issues and changes in the law over the last 12 months. As in previous years, the breadth and depth of immigration changes are likely to provide most of the agenda.
This session is for experienced advisers who already have a good understanding of existing provisions affecting international students. Participants who attended a Stop Press training event earlier in the year are advised not to attend this session as it may cover the same material.
Presenter: Advice and Training Officer, UKCISA
BC2: Stop Press
Category: Immigration
Based on our Stop Press course, this session is designed to provide participants with updated information on international and EU student issues and changes in the law over the last 12 months. As in previous years, the breadth and depth of immigration changes are likely to provide most of the agenda.
This session is for experienced advisers who already have a good understanding of existing provisions affecting international students. Participants who attended a Stop Press training event earlier in the year are advised not to attend this session as it will may cover the same material.
Presenter: Advice And Training Officer, UKCISA
BC3: EU law and Brexit – considerations for EEA students and their family members
Category: Immigration
This session covers EU law relating to students who are EEA nationals or EEA family members in the UK and will consider the various impacts of Brexit on these two groups.
Presenter: Deepa Chadha, Advice & Training Officer, UKCISA
Deepa Chadha is an Advice and Training Officer at UKCISA
BC4: Back to the source: the Immigration Rules for dependants of students
Category: Immigration
Learn to navigate your way around the Immigration Rules for the partners and children of students. Who can come? What requirements do they need to meet? What are they allowed to do?
This is an interactive session that aims to help delegates find their own way around the Immigration Rules on all these points.
Presenter: Kate Handforth, Advice & Training Officer, UKCISA
BC5: Bafa Bafa: a cross-cultural simulation experience
Category: Staff support
Bafa Bafa was originally designed as a training exercise to enhance people's sensitivity whilst visiting ‘overseas' locations.
The session comprises: introduction, formation of two cultures, the experience of visiting another culture and debriefing opportunity to reflect upon the implication.
This workshop has run over many years at UKCISA conferences and provides an opportunity for delegates to gain an insight into how cultural groups form and what it means to belong (or not).
Presenters: Colin Lago, retired, former Director of Counselling Service, University of Sheffield; Alison Barty, Senior Student Counsellor, SOAS, University of London
Colin Lago is the former Director of the University of Sheffield Counselling Service and co-author/producer of UKCISA’s ‘working with international students’ training manual and ‘bridging our worlds’ DVD (with Alison Barty.) Passionately interested in the arenas of culture, identity, and transitions, Colin continues to explore these subjects through writing and experience. Since retirement he has worked as an independent counsellor and strives to stay fit enough to run and bike in the Peak District and dance Lindy Hop!
Alison Barty is Senior Student Counsellor at SOAS, University of London where she was previously Head of Student Advice and Wellbeing. She has worked with international students for many years and is a regular trainer with UKCISA on courses on Basic Advisory Skills and on Frontline Skills in Responding to Mental Health Issues for International Students. She is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist with a particular interest in intercultural meeting. Outside the university she is a yoga practitioner and teacher with a growing interest in mindfulness.
BC6: Breaking the ice and energising in cross-cultural training: share our trusted favourites, try something new!
Category: General interest
If you're involved in running cross-cultural workshops how do you break the ice with a group of participants who don't know each other? How do you keep energy levels up when you had to book the only room left in the university, a dark basement room with no windows? Come and share your trusted favourites with us! Novice and old-hand trainers all welcome!
By the end of the session delegates will have:
1. shared some of your go-to activities either in theory or in practice (if you are willing to go live!)
2. discussed the strengths/downsides of different types of icebreakers and energisers
3. explored general good practice and the things to avoid when using icebreakers and energisers
4. explored sources for further ideas
5. had some fun (hopefully!)
Presenters: Jo Bloxham, Partner, Thinkingpeople; Kathryn Eade, Partner, Thinkingpeople
Jo and Kathryn created thinkingpeople to support individuals and organisations to build their cross-cultural competence. thinkingpeople work with a wide range of clients from refugee and asylum-seeker charities to major sporting and media organisations. More frequently, however, thinkingpeople can be found in the HE sector working with students and staff on generic and culture-specific training.
Before starting up thinkingpeople
Jo was a secondary school teacher in Leeds. She then volunteered with VSO, working for two years in teacher training in Hubei and Hunan, China. She went on to do an MA in Social Anthropology at SOAS and then to work on an international volunteer exchange programme for 18-25 year olds. Here, she managed a diverse group of staff/volunteers from the UK, Asia and Africa. These experiences taught Jo an enormous amount about cross-cultural working and she is now driven to supporting others in their learning journey.
Kathryn is motivated by seeing people thrive and knowing that she has played a part in their journey to success. Following a degree in Geography, and a Masters in International Development she worked at VSO establishing International Development projects in countries as diverse as Zambia, Guyana, Russia and China. Through this work she became aware of the skills and support people need to be successful when working in and with another culture, and developed and delivered training programmes to achieve this. Kathryn’s most recent cross-cultural experience has been in Montreal where she has spent the last two and a half years offering coaching and workshops for expat partners to make the most of their overseas experience.
