British Council Qatar held their annual Summer Recruitment Fair on 5th July 2017 at the La Cigale Hotel in Doha.

It offered an opportunity for students, parents and others in the education field to meet representatives of 15 UK institutions in person to find out what the UK has to offer and available funding opportunities. The main target audiences were primarily Thanawiya (high school) graduates interested in higher education in the UK in Fall 2017; professionals seeking to advance their careers; parents and key influencers.

The event was delivered in the afternoon after the exhibition market briefing. It was divided into two parts that were running in parallel. The first part focused on students’ recruitment (15:30 – 21:00) offering on-spot admission in a form of conditional offers to candidates who met the programme entry requirements. We had nearly 500 visitors (13% less than 2016), 45% of which were potential students, who were accompanied by their parents or friends.

The second part (18:30 – 20:15) was a pre-departure briefing focused on giving guidance on how to prepare for your journey to the UK. It started with a welcoming message by Dr Frank Fitzpatrick, British Council Country Director. The session took the form of presentations and talks delivered by a representative from the British Council (Rawan Khir, SIEM Manager), representatives from the Government Scholarships Programme at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Ministry of Administrative Development, and a representative from the UK Visas and Immigration department. UK alumni from the University of Derby, who is also a social influencer, was also present to share their exciting experience with the audience.

We believe this event was successful due to the strong partnership we enjoy with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the good timing of the event just after the announcement of Thanawiya results. Although it was not ideal to have the event just the week after Eid holidays where some people might have been still travelling, it was proven that it was relatively the best time during this summer to conduct such an event.