With the end of 2018 approaching, we thought we’d take a look back at the activities that took place in our 50th anniversary year. Thanks to all our members who continue to engage with us, support us and have taken part in our celebrations.
Competition
We launched our anniversary year with a calendar competition for students and members to showcase what studying in the UK meant. We had 150 submissions by students and members with 13 of the best featured in a calendar.
Events
In addition to the 48 training courses we ran across the UK for more than 1,000 delegates, and 18 in-house courses, we have worked on a number of events for our members and contacts in the sector:
November 2017 – April 2018: Members’ seminars. We held members seminars in Glasgow, Manchester and London covering best practice for international students and were joined by 225 delegates. We’re running events again next year so take a look at the draft line up and book your place.
June: 50th anniversary conference. Our anniversary conference in Edinburgh brought 470 delegates together to learn and share best practice relating to all aspects of international student experience. With 30 members being part of our first ever UKCISA choir! Watch their performance.
One delegate said:
“It was a privilege to be involved in such a fantastic event …This is going to be a hard act to follow for sure but really fitted perfectly for the 50th anniversary. Best Conference Ever!”
November: Parliamentary Reception. Our President, Lord Karan Bilimoria and our Chair, Prof Koen Lamberts, together with Paul Blomfield MP and Dame Janet Beer, President of Universities UK welcomed nearly 200 members, their international students and key contacts from Parliament and the sector to a celebratory reception which many will remember for years to come. More than 80 higher and further education institutions were represented with students from 25 countries joining us to celebrate international education.
November: UUK conference. We collaborated with UUK on their ‘Enhancing the International Student Experience’ event. Nearly 100 delegates attended from universities around the UK. We announced our 2018 Paul Webley Award for Innovation in Education:
Projects
18 pilot projects and research completed in 2017-18, with nine more announced for 2018-19. This year’s cover a range of topics, from food induction toolkits to research about international students and personal tutors.
Members should have now received hard copies of the report. For extra copies please contact publications@ukcisa.org.uk. View the report online at ukcisa.org.uk/grants
Communications to members and students
- We sent 68 enews to students and members
- We ran a benchmarking survey to explore international student provision in the sector with
120 responses from members across the UK. View the findings at ukcisa.org.uk/benchmarking
- We sent 374 tweets with 453,600 impressions (‘impressions’ mean the “number of times tweets were delivered to Twitter streams”.)
Website
- We had 2.7m pageviews by 885,700 users. 54% of visitors are from outside the UK
- Members area of ukcisa.org.uk had 26,091 logins by 2,341 people
- 95 resources were downloaded 42,000 times. This includes our many best practice grants reports with 17,600 downloads this year. Thanks all for your work!
- Forum homepage had 11,093 views by members
Manual (members only)
- 1,184 members have logged in to our Manual for immigration, fees and student support information 22,520 times
Thanks all for an excellent anniversary year, and we’ll see you in 2019 for a host of members’ events, including our seminars in London, Manchester and Glasgow and our conference at Keele University on 3-5 July 2019!
