For the first time, representative body English UK (EUK) has ventured into direct student contact after 11 of its members took part in BMI’s Expo-Estudiante in Bogota following the EUK workshop in Cartagena in Colombia this month.
While EUK doesn’t have a history of student involvement, at the organisation’s annual conference incoming CEO Eddie Byers said finding new ways of working with students would be a key priority for the organisation from now on.
EUK has praised BMI’s organisation of the fair, which attracted thousands of students many of whom arrived with a strong idea of what study programmes they wanted.
“In the future we are keen to extend the Colombia model and align our existing programme with other student facing initiatives in order to maximise the potential benefits to members centres,” an EUK representative told The PIE News.
“In the future we are keen to extend the Colombia model and align our existing programme with other student facing initiatives”
Attending member schools were equally impressed with the volume of students and said some students were even queuing around the block to get into the venue.
“It was one of the busiest events in my 20 years of the education industry and from first glance the quality of the students seemed very high,” Director of Regent University’s Institute of Languages & Culture Steve Phillips told The PIE News.
EUK also organised a traditional agent-facing fair in Cartagena prior to Expo-Estudiante. Organisers said it was very successful for the 34 EUK members and 42 agencies in attendance.
“It was a lovely, relaxed fair,” said Roz Rozidor, EUK’s International Manager. “Everyone was in a serious, working mood and there were some very productive meetings, but they also had a great time in the evenings and it was really good fun for everyone,” she added.
The next EUK workshop for the region will be held in Santiago in late April 2015 while the Expo-Estudiante Latin American student recruitment fairs for Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela take place twice a year attracting over 40,000 visitors annually.
