Thursday 28 June, 11.15am - 12.30pm
B and C are 1 hour 15. Sessions BC are 3 hour sessions. They run at the same time. So you have to choose between a 3 hour session or 2x 1 hour 15 sessions on Thursday morning.
C1: Advising on Entry Clearance refusals
Category: Immigration
At QMUL more than 85% of the applicants who sought advice following an Entry Clearance refusal in the summer went on to enrol on their course in September.
How can we help applicants who have received an EC refusal, particularly with time pressures and a high demand on our service? What is the best way for advisers to support applicants in challenging EC refusals? What other options are there? What can we do (if anything!) if an incorrect refusal is upheld?
The session will consider these questions through case studies and will discuss some practical tips.
Presenter: Rachel Hacking, International Student Adviser, Queen Mary University of London
Rachel currently works as an International Student Adviser at Queen Mary University of London and has previously advised international students at the University of East London and the University of Hertfordshire. She has advised many students on their options following a refusal and has had some successes. Before becoming an Adviser, Rachel taught English in the UK and abroad.
C2: Preparing international students for work placement and The essential guide to LinkedIn
Category: Student experience
This is a joint session featuring presentations by the University of Sheffield and University of the West of England. It will cover work placement toolkits and workshops and how international students can use LinkedIn to kick-start their graduate careers.
Preparing international students for work placement
The School of Education at the University of Sheffield runs an undergraduate course in Education Culture and Childhood that is proving increasingly attractive to international students, especially from China.
The course includes a compulsory second-year work placement in local pre- and primary schools and other educational institutions. The work placement environment is a challenging one both for the students themselves and placement providers.
This academic year the School of Education has collaborated with the University’s International Student Support team in a pilot project seeking to improve outcomes, primarily through a pre-placement workshop aimed at enhancing the inter-cultural confidence of both students and staff.
The project is also developing a toolkit that can be applied to other work-placement contexts.
The session will be of interest to anyone involved in working to improve the international student experience outside of the formal academic environment.
The essential guide to LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an essential tool for international students looking to kick-start their graduate careers. The platform enables them to make important links with employers overseas, whilst making crucial contacts with employers in the UK.
The award-winning GradLink careers site is about to launch its new "GradLINKedin" course, a unique online module designed specifically to help international students get the most from LinkedIn.
This session goes beyond the rudimentary advice of simply building a profile to get to the nitty-gritty of making effective approaches and creating a genuinely meaningful graduate employer network, so that practitioners can really help international students to utilise LinkedIn to its fullest.
Aspects covered include how international students can:
- reach alumni working in their preferred sector/country
- make appropriate and effective approaches to HR personnel
- write effective introduction messages
- use rapport-building strategies such as ‘follow and request’ and comment-making
Presenters: Dr Tim Cooper, International Student Support Officer, University of Sheffield; David Gee, Global Employability Manager, University of The West of England
Tim Cooper taught History and Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in the early 1990s before returning in 2008 to work in student support. Since 2012 he has been an International Student Support Officer with particular experience in orientation and integration programmes and support of students from China.
David is the Global Employability Manager at UWE Bristol, and creator of GradLink, an award-winning careers site for international students studying in the UK. GradLink has a global network of 500 employers and is used by international students from over 120 UK universities.
David has travelled extensively across Asia, Africa and North America to work with graduate employers and organisations for the development of the GradLink site. This has enabled him to gain a unique understanding of graduate recruitment practices across the world. David is regularly invited to speak to international students at universities across the country. He has also spoken about global graduate employability at key careers events in the UK and overseas.
C3: Raising the profile of Tier 4 attendance monitoring – an opportunity for compliance best practice and improving student retention and success (FULL)
Category: Immigration compliance
How to change perceptions around monitoring of Tier 4 students, what can be done to change this?
This session will explore how ensuring good compliance can be an opportunity by sharing initiatives for student integration with home students, overcoming homesickness, improving student retention and learning about the wider services available.
This session will look at internal schemes that can be implemented for Tier 4 students including buddying, mentoring and bespoke briefings and workshops that will be of high interest to students.
Delegates can hear how the teams at University of Kingston and University of Essex have evolved to take advantage of such opportunities and how they are shaping up compliance for their students.
The session will give delegates:
- an overview of the attendance monitoring processes in place at other institutions with an emphasis on the interventions in place to support student success
- a chance to ask questions about other universities’ approaches to Tier 4 attendance and engagement monitoring
- an opportunity to share good practice from across the sector
Presenters: Sarnjit Dhillon, CAS & Visa Compliance Manager, Kingston University; Paula Rothero, Senior Compliance Manager, University of Essex; Gemma Harris, Compliance Manager, University of Essex
Sarnjit Dhillon works at Kingston University as the CAS and Visa Compliance Manager. She has extensive experience of working within a range of HE and FE services supporting international students primarily but also home students.
Paula Rothero manages the International Services Team at the University of Essex, a team created in 2015 to bring together existing International Students' Advice and Immigration Compliance provision. She had management responsibility for an Advice Service within the university prior to the creation of the new team.
Gemma Harris joined the International Services Team at the University of Essex in September 2015. Gemma was instrumental in implementing a new attendance monitoring system and associated university regulations and processes. The University of Essex was successfully audited by the Home Office in February 2017 and the approach to attendance monitoring was noted as being thorough and effective.
C4: Building on success- a whistle-stop tour through immigration options for new graduates
Category: Immigration
A whistle-stop tour of the immigration options for international graduates seeking to stay in the UK.
The aim is to give advisors an overview of the range of opportunities that graduates can take advantage of. This will, of course, cover Tier 2 of the PBS but will also look at the following:
Tier 1 (Entrepreneur),
Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent),
Tier 1 (Investor)
Tier 4 (graduate extension)
Tier 5
It will include changes to the Immigration Rules affecting Tier 4 students switching into Tier 2.
Many graduates find it difficult to persuade employers to consider them due to the need for sponsorship. This is potentially unlawful race discrimination.
This presentation will highlight the various advantages that new Tier 4 graduates have over other sponsored workers, and which make the process of sponsoring a Tier 4 graduate less daunting than it might be otherwise.
Presenter: Lydia Watkinson, Associate Solicitor, Paragon Law
Lydia is an Associate Solicitor at Paragon Law. She specializes in business immigration and applications under the points based system as well as sponsorship and compliance for Tier 2 sponsors.
C5: Sharing best practice 2018 - International at Further Education Institutions
Category: FE interest
This session takes the form of a workshop, for FE Colleagues to share and discuss useful areas of best practice in International covering the following relevant areas:
- Tier 4 in the FE Sector
- Tier 4 Compliance
-
Visa Refusals and measures on curbing them
- Administrative Reviews
-
Working with Recruitment Agents
-
Short Term Study Visas
The session will be presented by Mervyn Adams from City of Glasgow College and Laura Rose-Troup from Newcastle College, who will share their own experiences working in International.
Presenters: Mervyn Adams, International Compliance Manager, City of Glasgow College; Laura Rose - Troup, Head of International Development, Newcastle College; Emma Meredith, International Director, Association of Colleges
Laura Rose-Troup is the Head of International Development at Newcastle College.
Mervyn Adams is the International Compliance Manager at City of Glasgow College.
Emma Meredith is International Director at the Association of Colleges and she will be introducing and chairing the session.
C6: A blueprint for providing engaging student trips and Internationals go green
Category: Student experience
This is a joint session by Don’t be a Tourist and Bangor University. It will explore ways to create engaging trips for international students as well as promoting environmental issues.
Don’t be a Tourist:
This session will feature a step-by-step guide to help international office, welfare and students’ union staff provide fun, engaging weekend excursions for their students -without the hassle.
This session will share tried and tested 'copy and paste' methods for planning, promoting and running safe, successful day trips. Delegates will benefit from take away templates include a simple costing spreadsheet, example risk assessment, leader checklist, promotional poster and more.
It will also include useful tips and tactics (e.g. choosing trip destinations, selecting a coach supplier, encouraging early bookings) and plenty of opportunities to share best practice and ask questions.
Bangor University:
Bangor International Support put together a new project for the 2017/18 academic year, called - Internationals GoGreen.
The project consists of a series of trips and events aimed at raising awareness of environmental issues, sustainability and wellbeing among international students.
The project's aims were to help local communities and promote ways of ensuring a greener present and future, whilst contributing to Bangor University's aim of becoming 'The Sustainable University'.
Presenters: Nevil Owen, Owner/MD, Don't Be A Tourist; Alan Edwards, Head of International Student Services, Bangor University; Marcel Clusa, Clerical Officer, International Student Support Services, Bangor University
Frustrated by the lack of resources available to provide fun, engaging trips for his students, Nevil Owen set up Don’t be a Tourist to do just that. Previously he was a lecturer in English Language Teaching in Leeds, and had taken on the role of social programme coordinator. Limited time, funding and profiled hours made the weekend trips students wanted difficult to provide.
Alan Edwards is the Head of International Student Services at Bangor University, a role he has occupied for 10 years. An important focus of the role is to enhance the international student experience and promote integration. He has worked in the field of Student Services since 1995.
Marcel Clusa has been working in International Student Support at Bangor University since 2016 and based on his background in Biology and Marine Sciences has put together a new project called Internationals Go Green to promote integration and sustainable practices among international students.
C7: GDPR - What the education sector needs to know
Category: General
University cyber security breaches have doubled to 1,152 in the past two years, and as such the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is having a significant impact across the sector. Universities need a detailed understanding as to why information is held , how it is collected, when it will be disposed of and who can access it. As universities evolve understanding data and the lifecycle of how and why information is collected, stored and destroyed is increasingly vital. This session will cover:
- Issues with the GDPR in an education context
- Explaining the similarities between the 2018 Data Protection Bill and the existing UK Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), and describing some of the new and different requirements
- How to extend the data protection by design approach to existing systems
- How to manage data breaches.
Presenter: Hilary Aldred, Partner, Penningtons Manches LLP
Hilary is a Partner who co-heads Penningtons Manches LLP’s education sector. Her experience spans nearly 20 years and she is based in Penningtons Cambridge Office.
Hilary's clients include Universities, FE Colleges and Independent schools, to whom she provides a full range of employment and education legal advice including:
- disputes
- GDPR
- student complaints
- governance and discipline matters,
- employment of academic staff
- employment litigation
