The keynote session was led by Professor Sarah Williams, Pro Vice-Chancellor External Collaborations at Buckinghamshire New University. With extensive experience in leadership, education strategy, and public relations, Professor Williams delivered practical insights and facilitated open discussion.

The event focused on the challenges and opportunities facing academic leaders today. Attendees explored how leadership in education is shifting to meet the demands of a more global, digital, and inclusive environment. Sessions emphasised the importance of adaptability, empathy, and collaboration in driving institutional growth and student success.

A key theme was the need for inclusive leadership. Professor Williams addressed how inclusive practices create more effective learning environments, promote equity, and support both students and staff. Attendees discussed real-world examples of how inclusivity can be implemented in academic institutions at all levels.

An interactive Q&A followed the keynote, giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions, share perspectives, and engage directly with Professor Williams. This open format encouraged meaningful dialogue and helped tailor the session to the audience’s interests and challenges.

Throughout the event, attendees were reminded that leadership is not just about titles or positions, but about action, vision, and the ability to inspire others. The sessions encouraged participants to reflect on their own leadership approach and consider how they could contribute to positive change in their educational or professional contexts.

At the conclusion of the event, all participants received a UK-recognised certificate of participation, jointly issued by iQualifyUK and Buckinghamshire New University. This formal recognition added value to the experience and supported attendees in their personal or professional development journeys.

The event was a strong success, both in turnout and engagement. It provided a space for reflection, learning, and connection, highlighting the ongoing need for effective, inclusive, and forward-thinking leadership in education.

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Led by Dr Graham Spickett Jones, Academic Dean at iQualifyUK, and Professor Sarah Williams, Pro Vice-Chancellor External Collaborations at Buckinghamshire New University, the workshop provided participants with an in-depth, practical understanding of how to approach modern marketing with a strategic mindset.

The workshop opened with a focus on the foundations of marketing and its role in today’s business environment. Participants examined how marketing principles can be used to create value, reach the right audiences, and drive sustainable growth. The session also introduced the key components of marketing strategy and the importance of aligning marketing efforts with broader business goals.

Digital marketing was explored as a central focus. The speakers addressed how digital channels have transformed the way organisations communicate with their audiences. Attendees learned how digital platforms can be used not only for promotion but also for building relationships and tracking performance. The session included insights into managing digital presence effectively and selecting the right mix of tools for different contexts.

Strategic planning was another core area covered. Participants looked at how to develop effective marketing plans, set objectives, and choose the right strategies to support brand and business growth. The importance of setting measurable targets and reviewing performance regularly was discussed, with practical frameworks shared to help attendees apply these methods in their own work.

Communication was also a key theme throughout the day. The speakers emphasised the importance of clear, consistent, and audience-focused messaging. Attendees explored how communication influences brand perception and customer engagement. Practical examples were shared to show how communication strategies can be shaped by customer needs, competitive positioning, and brand identity.

Advertising was discussed as part of the broader promotional mix. The session explored the role of advertising in both traditional and digital formats, and how it fits within integrated marketing campaigns. Participants considered how to develop compelling messages and choose the right platforms to reach specific target audiences.

Finally, the concept of the brand model was introduced. This included discussion around brand positioning, identity, and consistency. Attendees examined how a strong brand model helps organisations build trust, stand out in competitive markets, and create long-term value.

Throughout the workshop, there were opportunities for group discussion, networking, and interactive Q&A. Every participant received a UK-recognised certificate jointly issued by iQualifyUK and Buckinghamshire New University.

The workshop successfully delivered practical knowledge and strategic insight, making it a valuable experience for all attendees.

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The Ceremony included the presentation of a special commemorative certificate and/or students’ actual certificate. Drinks and canapes (halal) were served to our esteemed guests and the Ceremony was also followed by an escorted tour of the Houses of Parliament building.

“It has been a unique and unforgettable occasion that our students and I will remember for a long time, as a suitable reward for all the hard work and achievement,” said Mr. Ian Fraser, Principal of iQualify UK to the invited students,” I congratulate the successful students once again, and we intend to organise such prestigious events in future again to commemorate the efforts and success of our students.”

The post iQualify UK Graduation Ceremony May 2019 – Houses of Parliament appeared first on iQualify UK.

The ceremony was held in the House of Parliament in London at 12:30 pm which was attended by the respective students along with their accompanying guests and iQualify UK’s management and faculty.

The Ceremony continued with the students being awarded the certificates of achievement for successfully completing their qualification with iQualify UK, namely Level 7 Diploma in Business Management.

The Principal of iQualify UK, Mr. Ian Fraser addressed the graduates and welcomed them on celebrating this tremendous success. He praised the accomplishments of all the students and wished them all the best for their future endeavours.

‘’I feel extremely proud and honoured to see another batch of students having successfully completed their qualification with us” said Mr. Ian Fraser, “we wish these students all the best and hope to see them apply all that they have learnt in their respective careers. iQualify UK aims to provide the highest of learning and hopes to serve more and more students in the future.”

The ceremony was followed with refreshments for the students and all the attendees. At the end of the ceremony, the tour of the House of Parliament was also given to the willing guests.

Following are a few pictures of the Graduation Ceremony 2020:

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National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) is the academic arm of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). Its vision is to establish itself as an apex learning institution that will institute and lead a broader national discourse around the purpose, perspectives and policy in Higher Education and help develop high quality human capital to achieve excellence in academic setting.

Since iQualify UK specialises in delivering recognised British qualifications through online and blended learning method, Ejaz Chowdary, Chief Technology Officer at iQualify UK and Sumbal Manzoor, Head of Studies at iQualify UK work with NAHE to develop a foundational level course for online teaching to facilitate the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the enhancement of online teaching pedagogies, engagement in online learning environment, educational technology, and online evaluation strategies.

Ejaz Chowdary

Chief Technology Officer at iQualify UK

Sumbal manzoor

Head of Studies at iQualify UK

This 20-hour online course offered over the course of one month has been delivered to faculty members from all over Pakistan over the duration of 5 hours per week for four weeks starting on the 20^th March, 2021. The modules of this course include:

• Module I: Enhancing Instructional Design with Educational Technology
• Module II: Developing Material for Online Teaching
• Module III: Student Engagement for Online Teaching
• Module IV: Assessment for Online Teaching

In a live session, Rector NAHE, Professor Dr. Shaheen Sardar Ali gave the orientation about the course to the participants and also touched upon the importance of online teaching for the HEIs in Pakistan.

“Online teaching is a highly valuable skillset with its importance only growing due the unprecedented challenges posed by the lockdown due to the pandemic globally,” said Ian Fraser, the Principal of iQualify UK, about this collaborative project, “We at iQualify UK are proud to contribute our knowledge and expertise with NAHE in Pakistan for the training and development of the Pakistani academia through innovative pedagogical methods of online and blended learning, paving way to future collaboration among British and Pakistani informational exchange and professional resource development.”

The Head of Studies at iQualify UK, Sumbal Manzoor added, “It is encouraging to see all of the dynamic work NAHE is doing for the capacity building of higher education professionals. It has been a generative opportunity for iQualify UK to collaborate with the NAHE team to develop and instruct this course, helping the Pakistani HEI community adapt to this unprecedented and accelerated move to teaching in an online environment.”

Learn more about the course here: https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/services/faculty/NAHE/CDP/Pages/Online-Teaching-Level-1.aspx

The post iQualify UK joins hands with NAHE – HEC in Pakistan for Online Teaching Capacity Development Programme appeared first on iQualify UK.

We are immensely proud to have been associated with her reign by winning the Queens Award for Enterprise in her last year, and will endeavour to continue to be worthy of her memory and to follow her example in our activities. We shall not look upon her like again in our lifetimes.

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I was pleased, if rather overawed, to be told when I registered that the red/orange dot on my name badge meant that Princess Anne wanted to speak to me! It was of course all very slickly organised as you would expect of the Palace. We were offered drinks and canapes and chatted to one another while we waited. We tried to recognise the various paintings around us, as the Gallery is full of full of millions of pounds worth of master pieces by Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Holbein and Canaletto. I rather enjoyed the sparkling elderflower drink as the room was incredibly hot. Why didn’t Queen Victoria install air conditioning when she had the Palace expanded in the 1850s!

It was really interesting to talk to the other Award winners, as they each had an inspiring story to tell about their businesses and why they won, although I think we were all slightly nervous about meeting a Royal. Military Aides circulated ahead of the Princess explaining that we should call her Her Royal Highness and make a short head bow (if we wanted to) on first meeting her, and thereafter Ma’am (pronounced as in ‘jam’) and we could shake hands if she offered hers. They then arranged us into groups of three or four people ahead of her, so she could seamlessly move from one group to the next.

I bowed, shook hands and spoke to the Princess who asked about iQualify UK, the impact of Covid on us and then wished us well. Altogether a very pleasant, if relatively brief, chat with a very impressive person. I was fortunate to be selected for the honour, as only some were, although everybody did have the opportunity to speak to one of the members of the Royal Family who were present.

We had to hand in our mobile phones before we were allowed into the reception room, but there was an official photographer who took the photos inside the Palace. Of course we, the attendees, took photos of one another on the way in and out as well as we were walking where the public are not normally allowed to walk!

While I had the honour of attending, I was very conscious and grateful for the hard work and effort by my colleagues at iQualify UK, and of our students, who together won the Award, and made it possible for me to attend what, for me, will undoubtedly be an unforgettable once in a lifetime occasion. Thank you.

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iQualify UK has been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade for delivering affordable, high-quality business qualifications to students and professionals in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and more. Well-known for delivering ‘modern British education’ internationally, iQualify UK gives applicants the opportunity to study for Diplomas in Business Management at Levels 4, 5, and 6, and postgraduate Level 7 – the latter of which gains them ‘advanced’ entry onto an MBA course at a university in Britain or abroad. The appeal of this approach is that it enables learners to shorten the length of their study abroad and significantly cut the cost of higher education.  iQualify UK is also accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) to assess individuals for Chartered Manager or Chartered Fellow status, an appealing qualification for professionals keen to enhance their business status and boost their career. 

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise is the most prestigious business award in the UK. The awards celebrate the success of exciting and innovative businesses which are leading the way with pioneering products or services, delivering impressive social mobility programmes or showing their commitment to excellent sustainable development practices. 

Driven by its mission to create equity in education, help students to overcome disadvantage and find success, iQualify UK delivers its postgraduate Diploma through blended learning – a combination of classroom teaching, online learning and independent study – to make education affordable.  This form of learning allows the student more control over the time, pace and style of their learning and gives everyone the chance to learn in the way that best supports their learning style.  

Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted, iQualify UK will re-instate its successful face-to-face teaching and learning provision – flying in lecturers from British Universities to teach students a unit in 3-day blocks and giving students six-to-eight weeks to complete each assignment, before it flies the lecturers back in again to teach the next unit. Successful students can then attend iQualify UK’s graduation ceremonies at the Houses of Parliament in London. 

Commenting on iQualify UK’s education provision, Ian Fraser, Principal and Director said, “Apart from generating export sales, our business model enables us to spread British education throughout the world, and boost international student applications to universities in Britain and elsewhere.”  

Founded in 2013, iQualify UK’s team in the UK, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, has a broad range of experience in teaching provision, operations, marketing, sales, IT and online delivery for colleges and educational bodies. The International Centre of Excellence (ICE Pakistan) is the Pakistan chapter of iQualify UK focusing on providing undergraduate pathways and skill-based qualifications to train the youth of Pakistan for the global work environment. 

iQualify UK is one of just 226 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise.  

Now in its 56th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards Emblem for the next five years.  

For more information on iQualify UK:
Website: https://iqualifyuk.com
Email: info@iqualifyuk.com
Phone: +44 (0)20 3743 1808
WhatsApp: +44 7415 885454 

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They have changed over the years, but there are currently three rates. These are standard (20%), reduced (5%) and zero (0%). In addition some goods and services are exempt or are outside the system.

Examples of goods and services in the different rate categories

Standard rate = drinks, biscuits, chocolate, electrical goods, delivery charges, food consumed on the premises, etc.

Reduced rate = children’s car seats, utilities (domestic electricity, gas, fuel), smoking cessation products etc.

Zero rate = bike helmets, books, canned and frozen food, children’s clothes, food (eggs, fish, fruit, meat, poultry, tea, coffee, salt, sandwiches), prescription medicines, public transport fares, newspapers, magazines etc.

Exempt = antiques, burials, cultural events, education, financial services, health services (doctors, dentists, opticians), membership subscriptions, gambling, sports activities

Outside = goods and services sold outside the EU, goods and services supplied by an unregistered supplier, statutory charges (eg MOT, congestion charge), tolls (public owned bridges, roads, tunnels), charity donations etc.

The full list is available at www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services.

Businesses pay the amount of VAT collected on sales (output tax) less the amount of VAT charged to them (input tax) on all taxable supplies bought in. If the amount of input tax is greater that the output tax then the business claims a refund of the difference from HMRC. The business pays the tax due (assuming it is not claiming a refund) through submitting a VAT Return.

VAT Returns

A business usually submits a VAT Return to HMRC every 3 months. This period of time is known as the ‘accounting period.’

The Return records things for the accounting period such as:

• the total sales and purchases
• the amount of VAT owed
• the amount of VAT that can be reclaimed
• what the VAT refund from HMRC is

A business must submit a Return even if it has no tax to pay or reclaim. The return is sent electronically to HMRC.

Small businesses may alternatively use a flat rate scheme which allows them to calculate VAT payable as a percentage of sales. There is therefore no need to calculate input and output VAT or even to identify the VAT element in individual transactions. The threshold to join the scheme is £150,000 and the threshold to leave the scheme is more than £230,000 (as of April 2015). This simple scheme is designed to cut down on the paperwork for small businesses.

A tax on the final consumer

VAT is a tax which is paid by the final consumer. An individual buying a TV for £360 will pay £300 for the TV and 20% of that (£60) as VAT. Prices must be always quoted to the public as including VAT (with the VAT element shown on the receipt). However, the tax is paid through the production and distribution process. Thus:

(1) Supplier of materials
Sells materials for £100 plus £20 VAT = £120

(2) Manufacturer
Builds TV (i.e. adds value) and sells for £220 plus £44 VAT = £264

(3) Shop
Adds on margin and sells for £300 plus £60 VAT = £360

HMRC therefore receives £20 from the supplier, £24 from the manufacturer (£44 less £20) and £16 from the shop (£60 less £44), a total of £60.

The VAT exclusive price can be calculated by dividing the amount by 1.20 or 1.05 (depending on whether the rate is 20% or 5% respectively) so, for example, £240 divided by 1.20 means that the item costs £200 and the VAT is £40.

Evasion

The UK government loses revenue through evasion and fraud. Evasion, which is illegal, is when businesses pay less than they should through understating sales or overstating payments, or by not charging when they should do through, for example, cash-in-hand jobs.

VAT account

A VAT registered business should keep a Value Added Tax Account as part of the bookkeeping system in the general ledger. This records:

Debits (input tax)

• VAT on purchases
• VAT on fixed assets (except cars)
• VAT on expenses
• VAT on sales returns

Credits (output tax)

• VAT on sales and/or services
• VAT on purchases returns
• VAT on the sale of fixed assets

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