English UK and Study UK this week joined other leading international education groups opposed to the Government's proposals on student visas in a national press conference.

Tony Millns, chief executive of English UK, took part in a press conference on 26 January regarding the government's plans to review Tier 4 of the Points Based System and raise English langauge requirements.

The British Council Brazil is sponsoring a special discount for English UK members who wish to attend ExpoBelta 2011. Belta brings together the most important Brazilian agencies that work in the areas of courses, internships and exchanges abroad and its members currently represent over 90% of the international education market in Brazil.

The economic performance of developed countries has proven better than expected in recent months but Aidan Manktelow, Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit's risk briefing service, points to emerging markets as the drivers of global growth in the longer term. 

English UK announced today that bookings will open for this year's ELT Management Conference at 3pm on Monday, 24 January. There is expected to be keen interest from members in this year's event, which will be held on 4 and 5 March and hosted at The Studio (www.studiovenues.co.uk) in Manchester.

IEFT is the largest international education exhibition in Turkey. Each tour attracts over 150 international education organisations and more than 20,000 motivated potential students and their families. At IEFT Spring 2011, English UK members can benefit from special discounted participation rates and a 20% discount on advertising rates.

The British Council invites you to the launch of the English Language Market Report: Spain which will be held at: 18.30 on 26 January at the British Council in Spring Gardens, London. The report marks the first in a series of market intelligence reports on English language student markets around the world. 

English UK members and their staff are urged to take advantage of special rates and specialist services with corporate member Endsleigh Insurance.

7-11 March 2011, Hungary
English UK is supporting a UK Trade & Investment Mission to Hungary in March 2011, to promote short English language courses in the UK.

From today, 10 January 2011, English language students wishing to attend exclusively English language courses will be able to apply for a student visitor visa allowing them to stay for up to 11 months - the Extended Student Visitor Visa. A Frequently Asked Questions document has been put together and can be downloaded here.

The latest edition of the British Council seminar programmme will be held on 18 January at Spring Gardens in London. The evening session will be led by David Baker and Keith Harding and will focus on building common ground between ESP and ESOL in the UK.

Learning Without Frontiers would like to invite English UK members interested in the business and learning potential of smartphones and tablets (i.e. iPad) to a fringe event of the LWF Conference next Tuesday in London.

The event, "Disruptive innovation, what impact will handheld learning have on language education and publishing?" will take place at the Cass Business School, City University London, 106 Bunhill Row London EC1Y 8TZ on 11 January 2011.