A New Chapter: Introducing the 'International Student Support & Experience' Team
We are excited to announce a new name, and a renewed focus for our team.
Formerly known as 'Student Immigration & Compliance Team', we are now the 'International Student Support & Experience Team'.
Same Commitment
While our name has changed, our commitment remains the same. We will continue to provide specialist visa advice to University of Warwick offer holders, current students and recent graduates.
We also retain overall responsibility for UKVI Compliance, ensuring the University meets all Home Office requirements for sponsoring international students under the Student Route.
Expanded Focus
In addition to our visa advice and compliance work, we are expanding our focus to better understand and support the evolving needs and experiences of our international students.
Through the newly established International Student Experience Advisory Group, we will work with our stakeholders to champion the evolution of an exceptional international student welcome, experience and transition programme at all levels to enhance their experience, a pledge made in the International Strategy.
Examples
The International PGT Student Experience Project is an example of how we worked horizontally with key departments and service providers to bring about tangible improvements to international PGT student experience.
As part of the International Student Experience Enhance Project (focusing on pre-arrival and onboarding), tailored pre-arrival comms led to a 5% increase in student satisfaction rate, from 89% to 94% (Welcome Survey).
We run the International Student Roundtable events to identify gaps and trends and use them as part of a broader evidence base for actions.
As part of this transition:
- We will begin to phase out the use of the name 'Student Immigration & Compliance Team', though we appreciate this will be a gradual process.
- The student-facing service has been formally renamed to the Student Visa Advice Service, as reflected on our recently refreshed webpage and the new banners in the Student Opportunity Hub (Senate House), where we provide this frontline service.
- We have refined the 'International Student Support' webpages so that they act as an Information Hub for international students both before and during studies.
- Depending on the context, where an emphasis on visa support or UKVI compliance is required, we will continue to use 'Student Visa Advice Team', 'Visa Compliance Team' or 'Visa Advice and Compliance Team'.
We look forward to continuing our work with students and colleagues across the University, under a name that better reflects our broader mission and values, within the central Student Experience Division.
If you have any questions, would like to get in touch to discuss how we can support you or how we can work together, feel free to contact Echo Zhou, Deputy Director in Student Experience who is leading on this new area of work (rong.zhou@warwick.ac.uk).
