UKAT offers conferences, webinars and other events throughout the year, both online and in various locations around the UK. These events provide professional development opportunities for personal tutors and academic advisors who are invested in helping students achieve academic success.
The UKAT Annual Conference is the major event of the year and provides an opportunity to learn in general sessions from experts in the field, gain knowledge and review best practices with colleagues in concurrent sessions, and participate in interactive workshops. The variety of learning formats also may include poster sessions, exhibitor presentations, and formal and informal networking opportunities.
Upcoming Events
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Supporting Multiculturalism in Group Tutorials through Language Portraits: Real Practices from International Collaborations
Thursday 15 January 2026, 14:00 - Thursday 15 January 2026, 15:30
OnlineAlison Raby, University of Lincoln
This webinar will feature real-world examples, challenges, and best practices from a recent British Council collaborative project with international universities in Central Asia.
The aims of this session are:
- to explore how language portraits can be used in group tutorials to promote multiculturalism and multilingualism.
- to consider barriers to multiculturalism and how these might be overcome.
Language portraits can be a useful tool for considering an individual’s identity (Mu et al., 2023) and have been used in classroom settings where students come from multilingual backgrounds (Siegman & Galloway, 2025). In our project, we introduced language portraits to student teachers to enable them to consider their multilingualism as part of their teacher identity. The student teachers were from multilingual backgrounds in Central Asia, collaborating with a UK university.
We then encouraged students to consider the key concepts of language competence for leaders: plurilingual competence, language repertoire, intercultural language skills, linking with the intercultural sensitivity index (lee Olsen & Kroeger, 2001). Students also explored barriers to multiculturalism such as language differences, cultural barriers, ethnocentrism, and I also discuss how these can be overcome.
Following the success of using this activity in the project, the approach has since been used it in the UK in small group sessions, and the webinar explores how it could be used in group tutorials.
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Making Connections That Matter: Personal Tutoring for International Student Success
Thursday 19 February 2026, 13:00 - Thursday 19 February 2026, 14:30
OnlineTao Jiang, University of Leeds
International students often face unique challenges during their transition into UK higher education, including cultural adjustment, feelings of isolation, and navigating unfamiliar academic systems. This session explores how academic personal tutors can play a pivotal role in fostering belonging, participation, and success for these students. Drawing on principles of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and experiential learning, we will discuss strategies for personalised, relational, and continuous tutoring support. Key themes include decolonising tutoring practices, building trust and rapport, and empowering students to adapt and thrive in diverse learning environments, inside and beyond classrooms. Attendees will gain practical insights into supporting international students’ academic, professional and personal development through culturally responsive approaches.
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UKAT Annual Conference 2026
Monday 13 April 2026, 09:00 - Tuesday 14 April 2026, 16:00
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UKSpotlight on Student Futures
Higher education institutions today face tremendous complexity and uncertainty. Within such a time of immense and interconnected challenges locally, nationally and globally, universities have opportunities for systemic transformation addressing current challenges in higher education, such as funding, competition for students, the decline in student engagement on campus, increasing mental health concerns, the rise of artificial intelligence and the role of personal tutoring and academic advising to meet student needs and improve student outcomes in a changing world.
This conference offers a timely opportunity for invaluable dialogue on the role that personal tutoring and academic advising can play in creating possible liberated and empowering futures for students in higher education. The theme of this year’s conference, ‘Spotlight on Student Futures’, reflects our commitment to empowering students to achieve their full potential through dedicated personal tutoring and advising, broadening their horizons, fostering a sense of belonging and feelings of mattering, supporting mental health and wellbeing, and continuation and graduate outcomes.
This conference aims to bring together students, professional services, educators, personal tutors and advisors, researchers and scholars, those in senior strategic leadership positions, and policymakers to explore the challenges HE institutions are grappling with, share insights, exchange visions, and identify action-oriented solutions.
Join us for an inspiring co-learning and thinking sessions that foster engagement and collaboration through thought-provoking:
- Keynotes: Leading higher education experts will share their knowledge and insights into the role of advising and tutoring in shaping Student Futures.
- Presentations: Experts will share in-depth insights and practical strategies based on their extensive experience, with dedicated time for audience thoughts and questions.
- Interactive Workshops: Participatory sessions will encourage participants to explore new approaches, reflect on shared experiences, and develop actionable strategies and solutions collaboratively.
- Discussion Panels: Facilitated by leading scholars, will offer authentic dialogic discussions of key challenges and opportunities in advising and tutoring with interactive Q&A.
- Immersive Interactive Simulation using CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment): Participants will immerse and respond to students’ real-life situations/lived experiences in a safe simulated learning environment.
Events in italic typeface are not provided by UKAT but are 3rd party events which may be of interest to UKAT members