Date: 21 May 2026
Time: 10 am – 3:30 pm
Location: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
This is an in-person event, with the keynote address available to join online. If you would like to join us online, this session will be from 10:30-11:30am BST only.
Rationale
Today, international education and development sectors are constantly impacted by complex migration dynamics and geopolitical tensions. Professionals, researchers, and students frequently relocate from their home countries, making significant contributions (host and home countries) to knowledge exchange and international cooperation through their physical, intellectual, and institutional efforts. Yet, careers in these fields are known to be very precarious, with visa challenges and shifting policies on migration and international engagement.
The UKFIET ECR/Ps conference aims to bring together early-career researchers and professionals to explore how migration (recent policies) intersects with career trajectories in international education and development. We aim to create a space to discuss these issues. This will involve people from academia, policy, and practice, connecting the lived experiences of mobility with institutional and national strategies, and exploring long-term solutions.
UKFIET is collaborating with the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, to host this event. This is an in-person event, with the keynote address available to join online.
Objectives
- To discuss how migration policies influence professional and academic mobility.
- To highlight different career pathways in the international education and development sectors.
- To hear directly from policy-makers about the recent UK and other global migration policies and their impact on students and professionals.
- To strengthen networks between ECR/Ps, senior members, and policymakers.
Target Audience
We hope that early-career researchers, postgraduate students, international officers, development practitioners, policy professionals, and academics working in international education and development will attend.
Format
- Keynote Session
Professor Maia Chankseliani, University of Oxford – Academic Futures in Comparative and International Education: Mobility and the Work of Staying in the Field
Migration and Careers in International Education Contexts
- Information Session
Focus: Career-related advice and information on exploring a career in international education and development, from the perspective and experience of career/student services.
Beka Kimberley, Careers Consultant, University of Cambridge.
- Panel Discussion
The panel session will focus on perspectives from different groups, including students, postdocs, professionals, and academics, on possibilities and challenges in careers in international education and development in the current migration context in the UK and beyond.
Speakers:
- Hala Khankan, Refugee Rights Activist and Food Security and Livelihood Expert
- Sally Rosscornes, Education Specialist for the Gender at the Centre Initiative, IIEP-UNESCO
- William Smith, Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development & Director of Internationalisation, University of Edinburgh
- Dawit Tibebu Tiruneh, Assistant Research Professor, REAL Centre, University of Cambridge
- Reflective Session
This final participatory session of the day allows participants to share their thoughts and reflections on previous sessions and their lived experiences related to the day’s focus. This will be led by Professor Ricardo Sabates Aysa, University of Cambridge, who will guide us in reflecting on and sharing our respective experiences.