BSA & BAISIS – Visa and immigration summer term conference

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• Date: May 20, 2025
• Time: 09:30 -16:15
• Cost: BAISIS/BSA member – £235, BAISIS/BSA Member additional attendee – £110, Non-member – £470
• Audience: Boarding staff, Heads of Boarding, Deputy Head (Pastoral)
• Platform: Zoom (online) – conference

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Sponsored by:

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Course Outline:

The BSA and BAISIS summer term visa and immigration conference enables delegates to hear directly from experts on the latest in visas and immigration relevant to the education sector. The summer term update addresses key issues from members at a crucial time of year for international student recruitment and sponsor management.

Here are three reasons why this update is important for schools to attend:

1. This conference comes just a few days before changes to the UK Immigration Rules for the Child Student route and Student Sponsor guidance come into force on May 29, 2025. These changes will improve safeguarding on the Child Student route but schools (and applicants) must be prepared. These upcoming changes will be reviewed throughout our conference sessions.
2. We’ll be joined by Home Office Operations and Policy representatives which presents a key opportunity for delegates to hear directly from the Home Office on these huge changes
3. To ensure members get the most out of the conference, we’re inviting delegates to ask questions of the Home Office. Please submit these in advance via bsa@boarding.org.uk.

Training topics will include:

• Key sector issues relating to visas and immigration
• Maintaining sponsor license compliance
• Sponsor duties including managing the SMS, CAS allocations, your BCA and monitoring, reporting and record-keeping.

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PROGRAMME

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Programme:

09:30 – 09:45

Welcome and update: immigration state of the nation

A review of where we are now as a sector and what’s to come.

• Speaker: Kate Hollyer, Executive Director (Legal), BSA Group

09:45 – 10:30

International student risks – fraud and scams

This session will hear how different fraud and scam methods can impact international students, and how different cultural responses can impact the likelihood to report and ask for help.

• Speaker: Damien Cranny, Fraud Protect Office, Dorset Police

10:30 – 10:45

Break

10:45 – 11:30

Educational guardianship: what’s on the horizon

This session will look at the latest developments in guardianship and will anticipate what the future will bring. It will include an outline of recent schemes developed by the BSA to support both schools and individual guardians. The panel of currently practicing guardians will then consider recent changes they have observed and consider what is on the horizon for the sector.

• Chair: David Walker, Executive Director Boarding and Director BSA/TIOB, BSA Group

Panel:

• • Susan Fang, Founder, UK Guardianship
  • Jonathan Sherry, Managing Director, Guardians International

11:30 – 11:45

Break

11:45 – 12:30

UK immigration digitisation update

This session will look at the UK’s transition to a digital immigration system: new processes to stay live to, implementation progress, common concerns we are hearing for schools and students and solutions.

• Chair: Leigh Steer, Immigration Executive, BSA Group

Speakers: 

• • Kate Hollyer, Executive Director (Legal), BSA Group
  • Andrew Steven, Director, I-GTM

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 14:30

Home Office: Policy and Operations update

Hear from representatives of the Home Office Study Operations and Student Policy departments about the Child Student / Student visa routes and future developments, plus pose your questions to the team – an unmissable session!

• Chair: Kate Hollyer, Executive Director (Legal), BSA Group

Panel:

• • Martyn Foulds, Engagement Team (Study) Team Leader, Study Operations, UK Visas and Immigration, Home Office
  • Rachel Stark, Student Migration Policy Manager, UK Visas and Immigration, Home Office

14:30 – 14:45

Break

14:45 – 15:45

Legal update: UKVI compliance and Educational Oversight

An overview of compliance trends and areas of focus from leading immigration expert

• Chair: Beth Hudson, Director, BAISIS
• Speaker: Hazar El-Chamaa, Immigration Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP and Chair, ILPA

15:45 – 16:15

In conversation with immigration experts

Put your questions to the legal panel and hear a round-up of the day.

• Chair: Beth Hudson, Director, BAISIS

Panel:

• • Kate Hollyer, Director (Legal), BSA Group
  • Hazar El-Chamaa, Immigration Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP and Chair, ILPA

16:15

Conference close

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Speakers:

Kate Hollyer MTIOB, Executive Director (Legal), BSA Group & Director (Solicitor), BSA Legal

Kate is Legal and Public Affairs Director of BSA Group and Director of BSA Legal Services Ltd. As a qualified solicitor with more than 10 years’ experience advising clients on UK immigration law, Kate assists members with all immigration and safeguarding legal matters. Prior to joining BSA in 2022 Kate was Partner and Head of Department at a leading full-service UK law firm. Having resided in state, preparatory and senior school boarding houses since 2014 with her Housemaster husband, Kate has a unique perspective of boarding life.

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Bethan Hudson MTIOB, Executive Director, Consultancy and Director, BAISIS/HIEDA

Bethan joined the BSA team as Training Manager in September 2017. Bethan has worked in two independent boarding schools in the UK and Switzerland, the latter as Housemistress to 36 pupils. Following her time in Switzerland, she was a Pastoral Manager for an inner-city state academy before working in the charity sector for Debrett’s running the ‘Debrett’s Foundation’ training programme.

In her role, Bethan plans and manages all Day Seminars, Conferences, INSET and Consultancy, as well as being Director of BAISIS. She believes boarding can be a positive force for young people and in order to fully support their needs staff can never learn too much. As such she is passionate about the CPD BSA delivers to our pastoral communities in the UK and worldwide.

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Leigh Steer, Immigration Executive

Leigh joins BSA Group as Immigration Executive for BSA Group Legal Services Ltd. Having previously held the position of Registrar at an independent boarding school, Leigh has a deep understanding of the intricacies of sponsor licence compliance. Through her expertise, Leigh ensures that member schools are supported in all areas of UKVI sponsor licence compliance, including the intricacies of sponsor duties, CAS management and international student visa support.

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Hazar El-Chamaa, Immigration Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP 

Hazar has over eight years’ immigration experience and has been advising education providers on all aspects of compliance, restructuring and business strategies since the inception of Tier 4. Her experience also includes advising on appeals, judicial review applications and challenges to Home Office decisions which affect sponsors. Hazar is a frequent speaker on immigration law and gives training on sponsor compliance and prevention of illegal working. She is an elected executive committee member of ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association) and has been recommended by the Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession. Penningtons is recognised as a key link between the Home Office and educational institutions in the process of implementing and working through PBS reform.

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Damien Cranny, Fraud Protect Office, Dorset Police

Damian serves as the Fraud Protect Officer for Dorset police, specialising in countering social engineering tactics used by organised criminal groups. His work focuses on educating communities about how these criminals bypass critical thinking to commit fraud.

Through his expertise, Damian works with students from primary age to University and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. His collaborative approach involves working closely with key partner agencies including local councils, NHS services, and social services departments to develop comprehensive fraud prevention activities.

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Susan Fang, Founder, UK Guardianship

In 2009, Susan Fang came to London from Taipei with her two daughters, aged 4 and 5. She realised how lucky they were to have their mother with them to enrol them into great schools and that most international families don’t have that luxury. She arrived in the UK at 14 and remembered how difficult it was not knowing much English, being bullied in the playground, and having no one to advocate for her as her parents didn’t speak English. Using her initiative, Susan successfully applied for and took entrance tests to get into North London Collegiate School for sixth form and later at Cambridge University. Following her experience, Susan was inspired and wanted to expand her love and be a mother to the many international students whose parents were so far away. UKG was born!

The purpose of UKG is to be the advocate for international students, which Susan never had, and to open doors for them that they may not have found on their own. We envisage success for our students and love it when they return years later with their married partners and kids, looking to renew our relationship for the next generation of UKG students.

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Managing Director, Guardians International

Jonathan has spent a large part of his career as a professional advisor and senior executive within large global organisations. Having decided to change career path he has taken a leading role in developing Guardians International and working with our students and parents to ensure we are providing industry leading levels of service and best practice. Jonathan has two children, one attends a highly academic grammar school, the other a pastorally focussed prep school. Jonathan has a Joint Honours Bachelors degree in Economics & Politics from a London University, and a Masters in Business Administration from a top global business school. He started his working career as a Royal Naval officer and helicopter pilot.

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Andrew Steven, Director, I-GTM

Andrew Steven is a co-founder of I-GTM. He has had a long career in IT, having worked with web and e-commerce systems since the late 90’s. Andrew is able to communicate challenging technical concepts to both developers and users, allowing him to find creative solutions to the most challenging issues and bring them to life.

The need for I-GTM became apparent through Andrew’s work with both SLT and travel departments in some of the country’s foremost independent boarding schools, and in 2021 he and his colleagues set about creating an application to meet the UKVI, NMS and transfer of duty of care record-gathering requirements.