Recognition of AEGIS & AEGIS Accredited Guardians Grows

AEGIS has grown hugely over the last few years and we now have over 90 accredited guardians and 150 member schools.  This is largely a reflection of the growing awareness throughout the sector of the need to support our international students more effectively. 

If the pandemic highlighted the vital need for solid guardianship, new statutory guidance has only reinforced this. For the first time, the National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools now have a standard dedicated explicitly to Educational Guardianship (22).  This increased focus on guardianship is a great development for international student welfare, and is one that AEGIS has worked long and hard to see implemented, in a sector which still lacks legal regulation to protect this vulnerable cohort.  AEGIS is a registered charity, entirely independent, and the only such voice of its kind in the industry.

With the publication of the new National Minimum Standards for Boarding, DfE has now recognised AEGIS as an official resource for guardianship, as well as confirming that our accreditation meets the requirements of Standard 22.3.  As a result, the number of guardians seeking AEGIS accreditation is growing daily, as is the number of schools seeking our support in meeting the new requirements.  The AEGIS team has been supporting its member schools through this change, providing crucial support both one-to-one, and through initiatives such as free training and Q & A sessions as well as regularly updated legal documentation to support their policies and agreements. 

AEGIS’s independent role makes us ideally placed to help all parties meet the new requirements in guardianship, and importantly, we are able to help schools, guardians and agents work more closely together to safeguard students more effectively.  As part of this, bringing educational agents more closely ‘into the loop’, is vital, and it is important to  make sure these professionals are well-informed.  Agents are instrumental during that critical early phase of student recruitment, and they can play a key part in ensuring that from the outset, parents have a good understanding of the importance of guardianship, good communication and safeguarding. To encourage this, AEGIS held a very popular free safeguarding training sessions for educational agents and consultants last term, and we plan to make this a regular session, in order to reach the widest audience possible.

Our first face-to-face conference will be held in London on Thursday 4th May. The event is aimed at bringing schools, guardians and agents together to better support international students. Details available here: https://aegisuk.net/conference2023/