Eaquals held their online AGM on Thursday 15^th April. Among the updates which were announced were the release of the new Eaquals Academic Management Competences Framework which is available for download from the Eaquals website. In addition, Eaquals announced the new third inspection scheme for online providers which is now ready and completes the three schemes under the Eaquals Accreditation umbrella – Accreditation Scheme for Language Centres, Accreditation Scheme for Higher Education Institutions and the Accreditation Scheme for Online Providers.

Members welcomed incoming Eaquals Chair, Thom Kiddle, to the Board and thanked outgoing Chair, Justin Quinn, for his guidance, leadership and dedication to the association particularly over the last 12 months.

Following on from the AGM, Eaquals celebrated the success of Eaquals Online 2021 which ran over two days on 16^th & 17^th of April.

The event was officially opened by Eaquals Executive Director, Lou McLaughlin, and Eaquals Chair, Thom Kiddle, who both reflected on the ongoing challenges for the international education sector as a result of the pandemic.

The programme for Eaquals Online focused on providing input, support, training, discussion options and case studies around 4 strands that are of most relevance: Pastoral Care Online, Adapting Management for 2021 Needs, The Classroom in 2021, and Voices & Insights. The sessions were linked together so that each provided an overview of the theory and worked through this to the more practical and experiential reports.  

Eaquals Online showcased the knowledge and expertise from within the Eaquals network. The majority of speakers were Eaquals members who were keen to share their experience and work together to delivery quality teaching and support learning – underpinning the Eaquals ethos. All of the sessions over both days provided valuable information, shared personal experiences and ultimately led to an open discussion of the difficulties being faced by the language teaching community at the moment.

The final strand on “Voices & Insights” included a panel session with students from within the Eaquals membership. This unique session provided an insight into the impact of the pandemic from the students viewpoint and in their own words. Participants found this a particularly useful session and had the opportunity to put their thoughts to the students too.

Reflecting on the event, Lou McLaughlin, Executive Director of Eaquals said:

“The feedback on the event has been extremely positive and were pleased to be able to provide both members and non-members with high quality training throughout Eaquals Online at a time when it is most needed. We were delighted to also start the celebrations for our 30^th Anniversary taking place this year – a recording of which can be found online here”.

The next Eaquals annual international conference will be held in Belfast, 21-23 October 2021.

Click here for the conference programme.