Find inspiration and better partnerships at StudyWorld

26th September 2019

StudyWorld isn’t just a series of appointments: our package is designed to support your professional learning and inspire you as well as building better business contacts.

It’s not just what we do that’s inspiring, either – it’s what you do.

Jill Cutting, managing director of International Student Club, told us: “I’ve resisted coming to StudyWorld for many years and now I’m a complete convert. My memory was that it was exhausting. Actually, it is exhausting, but in a good way. I’ve been quite inspired talking to agents and other schools as well, and comparing notes.”

Meetings, seminars and specialist presentations

Stacey McGee, sales manager of LILA*, loved the mix on offer, which included an opening afternoon of seminars along with a programme of specialist presentations running on the meeting floor during the rest of the event.

She said: “It’s my first time at StudyWorld. It’s been really good, and good to have meetings and seminars running alongside each other. I did go to the Lead5050 panel, but I haven’t had a chance to go to others – it’s been too busy.”

Steve Phillips, chair of English UK and managing director transnational education at British Study Centres, said he was “energised even at the end of day three… we had a really enlightening keynote address and a great impassioned speech from Yinbo Yu on the first evening, which set up the 50th StudyWorld nicely. He is a great example of an industry success story.”

Welcoming global talents with open arms

Yinbo, who came from China to study in the UK at the age of 18, is the NUS’s former international student officer who inspired many at our welcome reception.

“That is the magic of international education – bringing people together, with different backgrounds and stories, and from every corner of the world. And if there was ever a time where we need to shout about the positivity of international education, about the economic, social and cultural benefits student mobility brings – the time is now,” he said.

He added: “And I have to say a massive thank you to everyone here. Without your hard work and commitment, we wouldn’t be able to welcome these global talents with open arms. Without the last 50 years of StudyWorld, we wouldn’t be able to engage with them in their extraordinary journeys to study abroad here in the UK.

Because I know, that a student who travels across countries and continents to access education, is not just carrying their own dreams – but often than most, it’s the dreams of the people around them.”

International education creates lifelong friends

The following day, StudyWorld heard from another former international student, Lord Karan Bilimoria, whose achievements since coming to university in the UK include founding Cobra Beer, becoming president of student organisation UKCISA and being awarded a peerage.

He said: “My mother, who is 83 years old, lives in northern India and keeps in touch with people she met at the University of Birmingham. They are lifelong friends.

“We should be proud of what we have and shouldn’t be disheartened. I now believe immigration rules will be more friendly and we will have more international students in UK universities than every other country. That’s the hardest soft power, the jewel in the crown.”