The British Council organised the first-ever South Asia Agents and Counsellors’ Symposium from 6-8 July 2021. Agents and Counsellors from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka joined the Symposium virtually from the comfort of their home.
The Symposium provided an exclusive opportunity to UK HEIs to directly engage with Agents and Counsellors from across South Asia through professional development workshops, plenary sessions by experts, and networking opportunities. The Symposium received 1,670 registrations from Agents and Counsellors from across South Asia with total 4,620 footfall over the 3-day event. Each session received an average of 280 participants.
13 UK HEIs joined the South Asia Agents and Counsellors Symposium. The UK Universities provided twelve hour-long sessions on various topics of professional development for the agents and counsellors. These Professional Development workshops featured twenty guest speakers from the participating UK universities. The themes of these workshops were around: Counselling students during Covid-19, Scholarships, Aptitude Tests, Personal Statements, Letter of Recommendation, Counselling for PG students, English language requirements at UK HEIs, Studying in Scotland etc. Each day of the event concluded with exclusive networking sessions between the agents and counsellors and UK higher education institutions.
Besides engaging the UK higher education institutions, the symposium brought together key stakeholders in the UK, to provide consolidated and holistic messaging and communications around the latest policies and regulations in the UK. Five exclusive plenary sessions were led by UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI), UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), British Universities' International Liaison Association (BUILA), and the British Council. These sessions provided the audience with updated information on applying, studying, travelling, and living in the UK.
The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the event, including visitor and exhibitor feedback along with other useful information. We hope this report will enable you to evaluate and take decisions about being part of marketing, brand profile raising