Background

In China, education agents and school counsellors play an important role in guiding students through their overseas education decision-making process, including long-term and short-term courses. These agents and counsellors are the front-line representatives for UK education, supporting the recruitment of quality Chinese students and they are closely in touch with market sentiments.

The British Council provides regular professional development training opportunities for education agents and school counsellors in China. The training sessions offer accurate and up to date information and resources to support in-country agents and counsellors in developing their knowledge of UK education and building their capacity to support their students who are interested in studying in the UK.

British Council China Study UK agent and counsellor virtual workshop

The British Council would like to invite 4 speakers from 4 UK higher education institutions to participate in panel discussions at the virtual workshop.

The workshop live broadcasting will take place at:

• 9:30-12:00 (Beijing time), Thursday, 25 November 2021,
• at British Council office in Beijing, China.

British Council, Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy

4/F Landmark Building Tower 1 | 8 North Dongsanhuan Rd | Chaoyang District | Beijing

The workshops are designed to provide professional development training to Chinese education agents and school counsellors and build trust between them and the UK through discussions and Q&A session. All speakers are invited to British Council office in Beijing, China for the live broadcasting. The facilitator from British Council China will lead the discussion and support speakers onsite.

The British Council anticipates 800 Chinese education agents (90%) and school counsellors (10%).

The workshops will be recorded to share with agents and counsellors who are not able to attend the live session via the Study UK agents and counsellors WeChat e-community, which covers over 5,000 agents and counsellors in China.

Programme

Speakers are invited to apply to deliver session as detailed below:

We will go through some of the difficulties international students have with their application to the UK and highlight trends that we discovered, provide tips and answers for common mistakes on the application, and summarise together the key points agents and counsellors can take back to their organisations and students.

Participating institutions should select one topic from below to share what policies or support your institution offers. There are 10 minutes for each speaker to share the selected topic. And each speaker could share additional comments on the other topics within 1 minute. The speakers could include the key points below each topic that agents and counsellors are keen to know.

1. Success begins with the right subject area
   Choosing a course and how to support students to consider a wide variety of courses and match to their interests. Are there any new offerings from universities that respond to changing industry landscape?
   We always encourage student to choose the “best fit” programme for them rather than university rankings or other factors. Some programmes are becoming increasingly competitive as there are too many applicants. What about the ones which are not that competitive but still promising?
2. Employability  
   How do universities support international graduate employability? How do placements work? How do universities see the new graduate route working in reality? What about the courses with placement which support students’ employability? As “compound talents” has been a keyword from employers’ perspective, what advice you would like to share?
3. How universities determine ‘best fit’ for competitive programmes
   What actually happens during an application review, including what admissions selectors are looking for when admitting students onto selective programmes. Data and insights provided from the ‘Admissions Desk’ will help agents and counsellors best support their students who are applying to programmes in competitive subject areas. What stands outs in an application including some of the most common red flags (or mistakes) that Admissions Selectors see and guidance on personal statements for selective programmes?
4. Changing trends in universities approach to international recruitment in China
   What are universities digital / virtual recruitment activity plans – how could agents support? General trends in English language acceptances and ongoing flexibility for Chinese students etc. top tips for application cycle this year and how universities and agents and counsellors can best work together.

Benefits to the speaker and institution:

• an opportunity to showcase your expertise with agents and counsellors in China
• an opportunity to raise your institution’s profile amongst agents and counsellors in China

Criteria for speaker selection

As the aim of this workshop is to build agents and counsellors’ understanding and facilitate connections in Chinese, speakers from UK institutions who can speak Chinese and based in China are preferred.

The final speakers will be voted on by education agents and school counsellors in China. There will be one candidate on each topic on a waiting list.

Please note that participating UK universities’ sharing should be from a general perspective, representing the whole of UK higher education, not only promoting the individual universities’ courses. Speakers are expected to cover the topics generally but can use examples from your own university to illustrate your broader points.