Welcome to the AEGIS STANDARD

It was great to see so many of you at the AEGIS Conference on 4th May, our first in-person event since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Conference not only gave us an opportunity to reflect on the challenges that guardians and schools have endured during the last few years, but also, importantly, to celebrate the way that we have all worked together, pivoted, and developed our practice to meet the many demands of this ever-evolving sector. Through the trials of the pandemic, and the raft of new government guidance published in recent terms, safeguarding has been clearly identified as the overriding priority in looking after international students, and importantly, as being everyone’s responsibility.

NMS 2022 is now in full operation, and schools have been navigating through the newly formed standards. A further review of the NMS is expected, as touched upon by Michael Bell during his presentation to the AEGIS Conference, and we will need to wait to see what might come next.

What we do know is that key guidance such as KCSIE and the NMS is written to be vague by design. It is the setting or organisation that should reflect to ensure that they are being compliant. Within AEGIS we are acutely aware of the important and unique role we play. Our independence allows us to take a unique position between all parties; supporting schools and guardians alike as they work together to support international students.

We thank all our members and partners for working with us this year, and we look forward to supporting you all in the terms to come.