Our Work in the Community

To all Aberystwyth University International Students 2011 – 12

A message from Plascrug CP School, Aberystwyth

Plascrug Primary School is a large cosmopolitan, multi-cultural school in Aberystwyth. Every year we admit a vast amount of children who do not speak English as their first language. At Plascrug we provide additional support for children from ethnic minority countries who accompanied their parents to the Local University, Bronglais Hospital and family run restaurants/businesses in town. These children come from a wide range of backgrounds, and approximately 25 different countries can be represented at one time in the school year. 

We are keen to develop links with students who can offer help to provide additional support to these pupils in their language development, during specific lessons throughout the school day. Currently we have pupils who have no understanding of English and speak only Cantonese, Mandarin and Portuguese, as well pupils from other countries who have a limited understanding of English.

If you are interested in offering voluntary support to such pupils, or to find out more information, please get in touch with Mrs Menna Sweeney, Deputy Headteacher at the school by e mail - prif@plascrug.ceredigion.sch.uk

Thank you in anticipation of your support.

UKHE Charity Terms of Reference

UKHE Charity Response in relation to Public Benefit

The main aim of the UKHE Charity is to actively support the educational development of children and young people overseas, in areas of poverty, deprivation and low socio-economic status.

The UKHE Charity aims to:

(i)            enhance the educational opportunities available locally to children and young people

(ii)           enhance their opportunities to access both primary and secondary education locally

(iii)          enhance the delivery of education in charitable schools, education organisations and in education projects

The UKHE Charity will deliver this aim by:

(i)            undertaking major corporate fund-raising activities in theUK

(ii)           targeting a wide range of stakeholders in theUKhigher education sector, and encouraging these stakeholders to contribute significant funding and resources to the UKHE Charity

(iii)          using the funds generated within theUK, to support educational development overseas

The UKHE Charity offers the following terms of reference:

Beneficiaries

(i)            The ‘people’ beneficiaries are primary beneficiaries and are the children and young people in poor and poverty areas, who will have enhanced access to educational opportunities, at primary and secondary level, delivered locally by local charitable education organisations

(ii)           The ‘organisation’ beneficiaries are the charitable educational organisations, based locally in areas of poverty, committed to the delivery of primary and/or secondary education to local children and young people.

It is anticipated that charitable educational organisations overseas will be encouraged to identify their own needs, in terms of funding and resources, and to apply to the UKHE Charity for support.

The Trustees will be responsible for proposing specific criteria for selecting beneficiary organisations, and for delivering funds and resources to overseas educational organisations, in response to their identified needs. The criteria for selecting beneficiary organisations, and applications for funding and resourcing, will be circulated for initial consultation on the ‘closed mail-base’ of individual supporters of the UKHE Charity. The criteria will then be published on the UKHE Charity web-site.

Stakeholders (UK higher education stakeholders)

Stakeholders are defined as either UK-based, or UK-owned, organisations involved in UK higher education, in either the public or private sector. Such organisations will be targeted by the UKHE Charity, in terms of participating in large-scale, UK-wide fundraising activities, and in terms of generating significant funding and resourcing to support overseas educational development (see Beneficiaries, above).

Stakeholder organisations might include UK universities, but are not exclusive to universities. Other organisations in the public and private sectors are also involved, to varying degrees, with the recruitment of international students, and would have a vested interest in promoting a ‘giving back’ function to in-country educational development.

Selection of targeted stakeholders will be based on a perception of the scale in which they actively recruit international students. i.e. the scale by which stakeholders actively attract valuable resources, such as tuition fees and intellectual property, out of developing countries, will indicate the level at which they will be asked to contribute to the UKHE Charity’s ‘giving back’ mechanism. As an example, a large scale recruiter, such as a Russell Group university, would be encouraged to make significant contribution to the UKHE Charity, to offset some of the perceived negative characteristics associated with international student recruitment. Stakeholders’ contributions will be ‘spent’ to support local educational organisations in recruitment countries, in order to ‘replenish’ what is taken away from recruitment countries. 

Recruitment Countries

The ‘size’ of a recruitment country, and the UK stakeholder organisations which actively recruit international students from such countries, are easily identified and ranked by current access to statistical data. These data are collected and audited by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on an annual basis, and may be accessed by generating customised reports, using the EdUK Partnership on-line data-mining tool.

Access to these data is freely available throughout the UKHE sector, and is used to inform a great deal of the marketing research developed within the sector. It is particularly important to the UKHE Charity, as it enables us to assess the number of international students recruited to the UK each year, which countries they were recruited from, and which UK organisations were responsible for recruiting them. The UKHE Charity intends to target the big UK recruiting organisations (stakeholders) and encourage them to make a voluntary contribution to the countries they recruit the most students from.

Access to the HESA data will enable the UKHE Charity to monitor the UK’s scale of recruitment in any country in the world, monitor individual stakeholders’ scale of involvement in top recruiting countries, and monitor the ranking (recruitment size) of recruitment countries.  By analysis of the scale of UK recruitment in the future, and the countries directly affected by UK recruitment, the UKHE Charity will be able to expand or contract the number of countries supported, and the number of educational charities within each country to support.

General Principle

In principle, the more such UK stakeholder organisations take out of poor, poverty and socio-economically deprived countries, in terms of intellectual property and tuition fees, the more they should be encouraged to ‘give back’ generously to such countries, by means of supporting in-country educational development.  

Within this context, the UKHE Charity offers UKHE stakeholders a CSR platform, on which to promote their overseas charitable activities, and promote the support and contribution that they make to educational development overseas. On a global scale, it is anticipated that the UK will attract a reputation as a responsible recruitment country, which ‘gives back’ to the countries it recruits from. 

The UKHE Charity aims to attract significant funds from key stakeholders in the UK higher education sector, including UK universities, admissions, non-government agencies, and private education providers, and key education partners such as freight handlers, agents and expo organisers.

The contribution provided by a UK stakeholder, donated to the UKHE Charity to be used to support overseas educational development, may be considered as a ‘voluntary levy’ and will be related to the scale of their recruitment activities. 

Fundraising

The UKHE Charity will target stakeholders (as described above), and involve them in both fundraising activities, and in offering financial and resource donations. The activities will be designed to generate significant funds from within the UK, to be transferred overseas, in order to deliver educational benefits for children and young people in areas of poverty and socio-economic deprivation.

Fundraising and resource-raising activities might include a voluntary contribution from UK delegates attending gala dinners, conferences, education expos and seminars, delivered overseas by the Education UK Partnership; a £1 voluntary levy on each overseas application processed, payable by a university to the UKHE Charity; the publication of a unique ‘coffee table’ book, to be sold as a corporate gift to stakeholders; ‘staff time’ contributed to overseas educational projects, delivered by travelling officers; and use of excess freight allowance, to transport donated educations resources overseas (books, materials etc). 

Objects

• To actively support and to contribute to the education of children and young people world-wide, in areas of poverty, deprivation and low socio-economic status
• To raise significant funds and resources within theUK, by targeting and working with key stakeholders in theUKhigher education sector, includingUKorganisations based overseas
• To offer support and contribution to charitable education organisations overseas, typically based in UKHE international student recruitment countries, to enable such organisations to enhance the opportunities, and the delivery of education, to children and young people locally
• To use the web, PR, press and media to promote the contributions and support made by the UKHE sector, to overseas educational development 
• To position theUK as a charitable country which gives back to its recruitment countries

UKHE Charity Mission Statement

UKHE Charity is a UK charity, formed of professionals with experience of working in the UK higher education sector. Many of us work in international education and travel around the world. We have a common understanding of the benefits of education. UK higher education attracts students from around the world, offering great benefits to international students who are privileged to travel.

In contrast, there are many children and young people around the world who do not have the opportunity to study at all. This concerns us. We understand how precious, necessary and life changing, education is. Education is a human right, but for many it is still a privilege.

UKHE Charity actively supports, and contributes to, the education of children and young people locally, in-country, in areas of poverty, deprivation and low socio-economic status.

We share a commitment to supporting educational charities overseas, to enable them to enhance the educational opportunities available to children and young people locally, and to enable them to enhance the delivery of education, using minimal resources and facilities.

Overseas educational charities are typically based in countries from which the UK attracts international students. UKHE Charity supports and contributes to educational charities in these countries, by providing funding and resources in response to their specific needs and priorities. UKHE Charity contributes to educational charities by leveraging and donating both staff and educational resources. UKHE Charity supports educational charities by raising significant funds within theUKand directing funds overseas, to provide educational benefit to children and young people locally.

UKHE Charity actively attracts significant funds from key stakeholders in the UK higher education sector, including UK universities, admissions, non-government agencies, and private education providers, and key education partners such as freight handlers, agents and expo organisers. Fundraising activities are developed in collaboration with UK based organisations, or UK organisations based overseas. Core fundraising activities are delivered both within the UK and overseas whilst project-based activities are delivered on a UK-wide scale.

UKHE Charity uses the web, PR, press and media to promote our work. UKHE Charity is actively creating a globally-recognized brand for UK higher education and promoting the UK as the only recruitment country in the world that recruits with integrity and ‘gives back’ to the countries it recruits from. UKHE Charity is unique. No other higher education sector in the world is active in this capacity.