UK NARIC's conference this year saw over 350 people attend over the two days.
The first day focused on our members in the education sector, and the second on our members from the commercial sector, as well as those from Professional Bodies and Careers Advisory Services.
Day one was predominantly focused on our education members; the day was opened by Professor Sir Peter Scott, Vice Chancellor, Kingston University. His session examined the challenges faced by institutions trying to internationalise, or globalise, their offering. The morning continued with an overview of Tier 4 of the Points Based System for immigration from David Ramsbotham, UKBA.
The newly appointed Chief Executive of the QAA, Anthony McClaran, then took the opportunity to set out the objectives for the Agency over the next few months. The final session of the morning looked at what is happening in education internationally in the UK, China and Canada.
The afternoon sessions consisted of seven different seminars, the most popular being a question and answer session for Tier 4 of the PBS. The points raised in the session are now available to download. The other afternoon sessions were:
- Degrees of Deception; combating education fraud - Becca Smith, UK NARIC
- The Bologna Process - An Overview - Katja Durkin and Louise Benwell, UK NARIC
- Using Europass - Chris Bye, UK NEC
- UK NARIC Projects - Chris Lyons, UK NARIC
- Focus on immigration - Tier 4 - David Ramsbotham, UK BA
- Focus on IELTS - Carly Mouldings, IELTS
- FE and the International Market - Peter Brown, Chichester College
The second day was attended by around 120 members, the majority of which were from the commercial sector. The conference was opened by Jim Birch from the Engineering Council; he raised the issue of professional recognition versus academic recognition and challenged UK NARIC to devise a way in which the additional value of professional qualifications could be recognised.
The morning continued with Katherine Latta from the UK's National Contact Point for Professional Qualifications (UK NCP) informing delegates about the work of the newly formed unit within ECCTIS Ltd. The main purpose of the unit is to help professionals coming from main land Europe who want to practise in the UK. The morning session was completed by Gary Argent from the AGR. He considered the challenges facing graduate recruiters in the UK.
The pre-lunch session comprised of a session considering Tier 2 of the PBS, presented by Peter Jukes of UK BA, and Mark Franks presenting the work of the Migration Advisory Committee.
The afternoon session consisted of a variety of different seminars; The most popular being the question and answer session on Tier 2 of the PBS. Again the points raised will be available soon. The other sessions running in the afternoon included repeats of the Degrees of Deception, Using Europass and Focus on IELTS session, but also included:
- Education Systems and their Influence on Styles of Learning - Tim Buttress, UK NARIC
- Focus on immigration - Tier 2 - Ian Robinson, UK BA
- Qualifying as a Chartered Accountant - Shaun Robertson, ICAEW
The presentations for Day 1 and Day 2 are now available to download.
If you would like more information on any of the presentations please contact communications@naric.org.uk .
