Stop Press: consolidating understanding in an ever-changing immigration landscape
May 07, 2026
Deepa Chadha, our Policy Adviser and Interim Head of Advice, reflects on UKCISA’s flagship Stop Press training, and the importance of the sector navigating increasingly complex changes together.
My first interaction with UKCISA’s Stop Press was as a UKCISA member. For me, it wasn’t just essential training - it was an annual gathering of people like me, those working at the coalface.
The training offered a rare opportunity to consolidate my understanding of the ever‑changing landscape we work in and to engage more deeply with issues I often didn’t have the time to explore in the incredibly busy life of an international student adviser. It was also a meeting point for sector peers who shared the same frustrations and were equally busy trying to interpret policy intentions or understand the impact of changes that had arrived or were on the horizon.
Since joining UKCISA, one thing has stayed with me from my earliest Stop Press experience right through to today: the relationship between those working in institutions and those of us at UKCISA is vital and genuinely symbiotic. Immigration law and policy are becoming increasingly complex and are changing at a pace I have never seen before in my time in the sector. At the same time, operational changes are arriving just as quickly, placing even greater demands on already stretched international student advice and compliance teams at a time when sector resources are thin. We each have important roles to play, and we have to operate almost like an ensemble, with each of us delivering our own unique parts to help ensure the whole piece comes together.
Preparing a course like Stop Press brings its own challenges, but is also a chance to consolidate everything between two distinct points in time. We think carefully about what needs to be covered and how best to explain the impact of changes on the sector. Sometimes changes happen on the very day of Stop Press, and we find ourselves incorporating updates into the presentation in real time.
Because Stop Press works as a series, we consider everything that may have changed in law and policy since the previous delivery. Stop Press now runs twice a year, which reflects the pace of immigration law and policy changes in the sector.
We include relevant legal updates not only to the Student route but to any immigration route that may affect students or their family members. We review case law, discuss its application where relevant, and explore how these updates, alongside changes to relevant law and policy, impact the work you do in advising students and in maintaining Sponsor compliance requirements. We also look at both micro and macro policy shifts, considering what these might mean for the work of our sector.
Ultimately, we bring together everything that may be relevant, test understanding, and build a shared sense of the impact of change across the sector, with the hope that we can navigate through the treacle together.
Book your place to join us at Stop Press on 20 May at 10.00am.
