Seminar programme

All seminars will take place in the Hilton Meeting Rooms (West Wing) and Windsor Suite (East Wing) at the Hilton London Metropole on the afternoon of Day One (Monday 6 September) between 14:00 - 18:15.

Legal update on UK immigration policy for education providers and students

Speaker: Nichola Carter, Partner, Penningtons Solicitors LLP

Since tier 4 of the points based system was introduced, the UK Border Agency has published a continuous stream of information for education providers, agents and students to follow. In this session we will review the UK's current immigration system for students, those who recruit them and those who teach them. Specific topics will include:

- best practice on recruiting students under tier 4
- attendance and reporting: how to be a compliant sponsor      
- avoiding a refusal
- categories of tier 4 sponsor licences
- trouble-shooting

Speaker bio:
Nichola Carter is a partner in Penningtons Solicitors LLP's highly rated immigration team. A leading expert on sponsorship matters, Nichola is renowned for protecting her education sector clients against the myriad of risks inherent in the Points Based System. Nichola and her team represented English UK in its successful challenge against the increase in English language courses from A2 to B2 and provide advice and training to sponsors on all aspects of the immigration system. Nichola teaches immigration law to other practitioners and is recommended by both The Legal 500, where she is described as being 'at the forefront of immigration practitioners', and Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession, where she is noted as being 'highly committed' and 'technically strong'. Penningtons provides education sector clients with a full range of business services including employment law, dispute resolutions, corporate, commercial and property services.

English UK Partner Agency Scheme

Speakers: Annie Wright, Deputy Chief Executive (Business Services) and Jodie Gray, International Marketing Manager, English UK

The English UK Partner Agency Scheme (PAS) is a new initiative introduced by English UK to recognise study abroad agencies and educational consultancies that are successfully promoting the UK as an English language teaching destination. Attendance at this seminar is a requirement for all agents who wish to join the scheme. The seminar will explain the benefits of the scheme, how to join the scheme and will include presentations on English UK and Accreditation UK.

Speaker Bios:
Annie Wright is Deputy Chief Executive (Business Services) of English UK. She is responsible for the area of business enterprise, a field which includes marketing and promotions, event management and business development. Prior to being appointed to the position of Deputy Chief Executive (Business Services) in April 2007, she worked as Fairs & Events Manager of English UK managing StudyWorld. She works closely with the StudyWorld team on the strategic development of the event and works alongside the marketing team on all marketing and promotional activities. Annie has worked with English UK and previously with the Association of Recognised English Language Services (ARELS) since 1999.

Jodie Gray is the International Marketing Manager at English UK and is responsible for all marketing and promotional activities. Jodie graduated with a degree in Chinese and Hindi from Cambridge University. She went on to work in the ELT sector, first as a teacher at Beihang University, Beijing and then in the administration team of a large language school in Cambridge. She has also worked as a site manager for a music and corporate events company. Jodie is currently completing her Chartered Institute of Marketing Professional Diploma.

From Agents to Application: the pre-arrival international student experience

Speaker: William Archer, Director, International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate)

i-graduate runs the world's largest study of international students in the world: The International Student Barometer. The study runs across a number of sectors - including universities, language schools and FE colleges. The feedback collected from students helps individual institutions in improving the experience for their students and helps the sector as a whole in "raising the bar" for international students, through the sharing of best practice.

Drawing on results from the most up-to-date Barometer study (and other i-graduate research), William Archer will provide insights into how students make their decisions and how the pre-arrival experience determines the decisions they make. Institutions can use this information to improve the experience for prospective students, converting more applications to enrolments. The seminar will also include a Q&A session.

Speaker bio:
i-graduate founder Will Archer directs the world’s largest study of international students. Tracking student opinion and reporting in confidence to universities across the globe, his team benchmarks student and stakeholder perceptions using proprietary survey instruments.  

Will worked previously for 15 years as an adviser to multinational corporations and governments on international recruitment, researching and recruiting talent across Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. In 2005 he founded i-graduate, with the goal of improving the education experience for students and educators worldwide.

Publications include "The Market for International Research Students" (UUK, 2008), "Graduate Employability: what do employers think and want?" (CIHE, 2008), "Global Horizons and the Role of Employers" (CIHE, 2008) and "Enhancing the International Student Experience" (UUK, 2010).

An alumnus of London Business School and Thames Valley University, Will is a trustee and board member of HECSU and a member of the Council for Industry and Higher Education. He is non-executive chairman of Tokyo-based strategy group GTF.

Use Analytics to your advantage: retrieve and analyze information to plan successful online marketing strategies, allocate your budget efficiently, attract potential customers and boost your online sales

Speaker: Manuel Valles, Area Manager UK & Ireland, Internet Advantage

What is the main advantage of the Internet? Everything can be measured. Internet Advantage presents a very practical seminar about Analytics that will help you to:
 
- Learn from your potential customer’s behaviour and react accordingly
- Identify potentially profitable target markets and choose the right marketing strategies to reach them
- Define your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
- Set up and use e-commerce tools
- Increase your website’s traffic and improve your conversion rates
- Optimise your website by learning how your potential customers browse it
- Increase your sales and measure the Return on Investment of every online marketing action.
 
Take advantage of all the detailed statistics and information available to you to get the most out of the Internet for your business.

Speaker bio:
Manuel Vallés has completed a Law degree and a BA in Business Administration. He started his professional career working for advertising and direct marketing agencies, developing as a copywriter campaigns awarded at Cannes Lions, Echo Awards and New York Festivals. Manuel has been involved in both offline and online advertising projects. He has worked, among others, for international brands such as Chrysler, Vodafone, L’Oréal and Santander Group, and has collaborated as a freelance writer with nearly 20 publications in Spain.

Manuel is based at the Internet Advantage office in Madrid. With 10 years of experience in internet marketing in the education and travel sector, a network of 400 websites, offices in Salamanca, Madrid and Utrecht, and a multilingual team of 45 people, Internet Advantage’s main objective is to improve client visibility on the internet, and in so doing improve the quantity and quality of leads and sales which they attract with their website.

Making the most of advertising - advertising management for schools and agencies

Speaker: Chris Price, International Director, MJD Consultancy

Despite being one of the things we spend a great deal of time doing in our marketing communications operations, the quality and impact of advertising, whether on- or off- line, tends to be limited. This seminar will give delegates an outline of what not to do but also helpful ideas, tips and hints at how to make advertising (promotions) more successful and to get the results you need to justify spending money in this area.

Speaker Bio:
Chris Price has 18 years marketing communication experience in the ELT, FE and HE sectors having worked for several colleges and universities. Now Chris is the International Director at MJD, a specialist marketing communication agency that works elusively with the education sector. Chris is also the lead digital trainer for the British Council and European Association for International Education.

What agents really really want!

Speaker: Richard Day, Director of English, English in Chester

The session is designed as an opportunity for agents and educators to meet each other and exchange ideas on a number of topics related to effective agent/educator communication. We are looking at what makes a good agent-educator partnership. In this interactive session agents and educators will be able to explore together a number of questions posed by group leaders. These questions are aimed at improving the understanding between partners. The discussions could lead to a streamlining of the processes we employ, improved efficiency and the strengthening of the working relationship between buyer and seller.  

The session will conclude with some observations taken from an English UK worldwide survey of agents undertaken at the end of 2009 which included questions on the following topics; the agent-client relationship, communications with partner schools, fairs and workshops, inward missions and agent training.

Speaker Bio:
Richard Day is the Director of English in Chester, a school he has been associated with for 33 years.  He now focuses on marketing and business development for the school.  Richard is currently on the Board of English UK and for the last 20 plus years has held different positions on various English UK and formerly ARELS Boards and Committees.  His chief interest has always been marketing.  For the last few years he has been Chair of the English Language Promotions Group and a keen supporter of the “boutique fairs” run by the group.